Philosophy Of The Human-Environment Relationship

Humans are constantly interacting with their surrounding environment. But are we autonomous of our environment or are we really part of it?

This idea closely resembles Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss's belief, that the self can be realised by looking into our relationship with nature and finding our whole. It is then somewhat of a paradox to consider ourselves as a separate individual yet at the same time part of a collective society. Society being an extension of our mind and body.

So how can we expect the individual to cooperate with the community while we continue to see ourselves as an independent source of action? We can easily see that life is a system of ecological cooperation, and we must be encouraged to include ourselves in that cooperation. Our speratism is much like branches that are independent but remain an extension of the tree. In understanding the human-environment relationship we realise the relationship is mutal. The balance of nature in alignment with a flourishing society must be consistent with the networks of mutally independent orgransims.

Comprehending this pattern is much like piecing together an infinately complex jigsaw puzzle, but by attempting to observe environment interactions, we start to see patterns and dynamics which have no separate parts. Take responsibility. For every problem is ultimately the collective fractal of human society, and it is one which is simply a macrocosm of the individual.