ABSTRACT
Green philosophy, as opposed to environmentalism, in its myriad forms always espouses holism, a method and outlook that examine the connections between things. Vitalism, the concept that living things are animated by a spark or force absent from the non-living is also sometimes embraced. Reductionist systems of thought that explore life by dividing it into tiny component parts are often criticized (Capra 1983; Merchant 1980). Deep ecology or ‘eco-philosophy’ is an ethical system (see Chapter Five) that places value upon other species and on nature, yet ethics of deep ecology have an epistemological basis in the science of ecology, which seeks to discover the links between species and investigate the interdependence of life.
