The main contention of this thesis is to explain and exemplify the concept of eco-

philosophy from the perspective of environmental ethics. Eco-philosophy is a kind of

philosophy which is primarily concerned with ecology in general. In eco-philosophy,

the human approach to nature would be non-anthropocentric. Whether non-

anthropocentrism is at all be possible or not is a matter of debatable, but despite this

debate, eco-philosophy attempts to change the attitude of man towards nature. With the

advent of science and technology, men’s attitude towards nature becomes

anthropocentric in the sense that humans are the sole representatives of God and

humans are the measures of everything. Men, under the auspices of anthropocentrism,

are entitled to do anything because what they are doing are doing on the basis of the

will of God. The anthropocentric attitude of men towards nature or ecology has created

an environmental crisis. As a result of that, eco-philosophy, in the name of

environmental ethics has been developed. It states that men’s attitude towards nature is

friendly and harmonious and it develops a feeling in the mind of humans that nature or

ecology should be taken care of simply for their own survival. This sort of feeling

eventually helps men to change their attitude towards nature. This change of human

attitude towards nature is a radical shift from anthropocentrism towards non-

anthropocentrism, a doctrinal shift made possible through developing eco-philosophy.

In this regard, this thesis has been developed into Five Chapters and a Bibliography.

The First Chapter of the thesis is entitled General Introduction where a development

of environmental ethics and other related issues will be discussed. It also tries to show

how environmental or ecological issues matter to ethics and philosophy. In the Second

Chapter of the thesis, an attempt will be made to review the literature with regard to

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Aldo Leopold’s celebrated article, ‘Land Ethic’ and it is entitled Review of Literature

(Land Ethic) . We think that Leopold’s ‘Land Ethic’ appeared as a landmark of

environmental ethics because it sets up the foundation of Eco-philosophy at large. In

the article, Leopold attempts to enlarge the boundaries of natural communities by giving

equal value to all. Before Leopold, biocentrism had been developed through which

equal value to all biotic communities is recognized. At that time, nobody was thinking

about the intrinsic value of land and other abiotic natural objects. Leopold, developing

the article ‘Land Ethic’ actually introduces a new concept of non-anthropocentrism or

eco-philosophy through which the intrinsic value of land community is demanded. Here

he talks in favor of the predator-prey relationship. As suggested by the image of a food

chain, most predators turn out to be prey for another species. Predators serve as one

ecological factor that keeps a population in check. When a prey’s population increases,

predators find food plentiful. The abundance of prey leads to an increase in the predator

population, which in turn leads to a decrease in the prey population. Thus, the

population size of predators and prey can be pictured as a set of symmetrical S-curves,

mathematically, known as the Lotka-Volterra equations.

In addition to introducing non-anthropocentrism, Leopold’s contribution further

strengthened eco-centric environmental ethics by developing the science of ecology as

a mark of eco-philosophy. He also offered us a radical re-thinking of ethics in the light

of new science. His ‘Land Ethic’ appeared first as the systematic presentation of an eco-

centric ethics which parallels the change in thinking about predators. Thus, Leopold’s

Land Ethic would be treated as the inaugural point of Eco-philosophy. Eco-philosophy

deals with ecological issues from ethical perspectives. There develops various theories

under the auspices of Eco-philosophy, such as, Gaia hypothesis, Social Ecology known

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as Eco-feminism, Deep Ecology etc. All these are directed towards non-anthropocentric

in nature.

In the Third Chapter of the thesis we propose to analyze and explicate the limit of

environmental ethics and it is entitled Eco-philosophy and Deep Ecology. Deep

ecology movement banks on self-realization. It sets the limit of environmental ethics

and in turn establishes the pure form of non-anthropocentrism. It also banks on

metaphysical environmental holism where everything has been settled on the basis of

inner cultivation of the self.

The Fourth Chapter of this thesis entitled Eco-feminism deals with Social Ecology

known as Eco-feminism. Eco-feminism brings together the twin concepts of ecology

and feminism. Feminism deals with issues related to women’s rights and liberties, and

speaks out against the exploitation and subjugation of women by men. Ecology deals

with matters related to the environment. The concept of Eco-feminism says that any

exploitation of nature or environment is a par with the exploitation of women. There is

parity between nature and women. To degrade nature is to degrade women and vice-

versa. It is known as social ecology. It is again a form of Eco-philosophy where matters

are associated with humans and nature.

In the Fifth Chapter entitled Concluding Remarks, an attempt will be made with

critical outlook to assess the limitation and possible destination of environmental ethics

from the perspective of Eco-philosophy.

The thesis ends with a Selected Bibliography.

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