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This detailed overview of deep ecology establishes the fundamental connection between ecology and spirituality, explores the common ground between deep ecology and trans-personal ecology, and advocates the latter as a guide for how humans should dwell on earth.
In Toward a Transpersonal Ecology, Warwick Fox offers the most comprehensive and penetrating exploration of deep ecology yet written—one that reaches beyond environmental ethics into the deepest questions of human identity, meaning, and belonging on Earth.
Bringing together ecology, philosophy, and transpersonal psychology, Fox traces the rise of the environmental movement from its early critiques of anthropocentrism to the emergence of deep ecology as a radical challenge to human-centered worldviews. He examines why deep ecology proved so influential, where its conceptual limits lie, and why the label itself ultimately falls short. From this critical foundation, Fox articulates a distinctive and compelling alternative: transpersonal ecology, an approach grounded in expanded forms of identification that dissolve the perceived boundary between self and world.
Clear, scholarly, and remarkably wide-ranging, this book establishes the profound connection between ecological awareness and spiritual awareness, arguing that how we understand ourselves psychologically shapes how we dwell ethically on the Earth. With its careful analysis, historical depth, and original philosophical vision, Toward a Transpersonal Ecology serves both as an authoritative overview of deep ecology and as a guide toward a more inclusive, experiential, and transformative ecological philosophy.
"This is the best book on deep ecology that I've come across in years. Anyone interested in the relationship of human beings to the environment ought to read this book." — Paul R. Ehrlich, co-author of The Population Explosion
"Toward a Transpersonal Ecology is essential reading for teachers, scholars, and all people concerned with the fate of the earth. It is an excellent book that will be used as a benchmark for all discussions of environmental philosophy in the 1990s." — Bill Devall, co-author of Deep Ecology
"Ecology and spirituality are fundamentally connected, because deep ecological awareness, ultimately, is spiritual awareness. The common ground between deep ecology and transpersonal psychology arising from this connection is explored in scholarly fashion and with great clarity in this important book. Warwick Fox offers us not only some very original and provocative ideas, but also an almost encyclopedic overview of the entire field. Toward a Transpersonal Ecology is essential reading for everyone seriously interested in the philosophical foundations of the emerging new paradigm." — Fritjof Capra, author of the The Tao of Physics, and founder of The Elmwood Institute
"Toward a Transpersonal Ecology is a pioneering work that brings together two of the most important disciplines of our time, transpersonal psychology and ecology. Warwick Fox's wide reading, thoughtfulness, and subtle distinctions will give readers much to think about." — Roger Walsh, author of Staying Alive: The Psychology of Human Survival
"As a leading deep ecology scholar, Warwick Fox provides the most comprehensive and detailed examination of the development of philosophical deep ecology yet in print." — George Sessions, co-author of Deep Ecology
"The best and most comprehensive overview of deep ecology yet written. I urge environmental philosophers and everyone else with a concern for the relation of humans to the Earth to seek it out." — Alastair Gunn, Environmental Ethics
Warwick Fox is Australian Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One. Context: Environmentalism, Ecophilosophy, and Anthropocentrism
1. Moving Away from Human Centeredness: From Silent Spring to Deep Ecology
The Emergence of the Environmental Movement and EcophilosophyPart Two. The Influence of Deep Ecology
A Closer Look at the Issue of Anthropocentrism
Enter the Shallow/Deep Ecology Typology
2. Deep Ecology: A Focus within Ecophilosophy—and Beyond
The Influence of Deep Ecology upon Academic Ecophilosophy3. Why So Influential?
The Influence beyond Academic Ecophilosophy
The Historical AnswerPart Three. The Label Deep Ecology: Its Meanings and Shortcomings
The Advocacy Answer and a Look behind the Scenes
The Substantive Answer
4.Arne Naess and the Meanings of Deep Ecology
Arne Naess5. The Problem with the Label Deep Ecology
Naess's Formal Sense of Deep Ecology
Naess's Philosophical Sense of Deep Ecology
The Perceived ProblemPart Four. Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: Drawing Out What is Tenable and Distinctive about the Deep Ecology Approach to Ecophilosophy
The Failure of Deep Ecologists to Forestall the Perceived Problem
The "Fundamental" Problem
Farewell to Deep Ecology
6. The Most Widely Recognized Approaches to Ecophilosophy
Instrumental Value Theory7. Transpersonal Ecology as a Distinctive Approach to Ecophilosophy
Intrinsic Value Theory
Objections to Intrinsic Value Theory Approaches
Transpersonal Ecology and Transpersonal Psychology8. Transpersonal Ecology and the Varieties of Identification
Psychologizing Ecophilosophy
The Distinctiveness of the Transpersonal Ecology Approach to Ecophilosophy
Proof, Moral Injunctions, and Experiential Invitations
Three Bases of IdentificationAppendix A: A Guide to the Primary Sources on Deep Ecology Published during the 1980s
Identification, Delusion, and Enlightenment
Appendix B: The Emergence of Transpersonal Psychology
Notes
Further Reading
Index