环境社会学:生态哲学对社会学的挑战与启示

历史上 ,社会学家曾借用生态学的概念和理论进行过一些重要的社会学研究。 2 0世纪七十年代以来 ,随着世界范围内大规模环境保护运动的兴起 ,产生了生态哲学与环境社会学。生态哲学指出 ,要从根本上解决环境问题 ,人类必须对社会与自然之间的关系进行深刻的反思 ,对社会组织方式进行深层的改造。这对社会学提出了挑战 ,但也可以是促使社会学进行理论创新的一个契机。社会学应克服其早期历史中形成的一些理论设定的限制 ,把握这一契机 ,积极地应对生态哲学的挑战。

Environmental sociology: challenge to and inspiration for sociology from ecological philosophy

Historically, sociologists have borrowed many concepts and theories from ecology and used them in some important sociological research. With the rise of an environmental movement on a global scale since the 1970s, ecological philosophy and environmental sociology came into being. Ecological philosophers pointed out that in order to solve the environmental problems at their roots, human beings must reflect deeply on the relationship between human society and nature, and fundamentally reform the way society was organized. This posed a challenge to sociology, but also provided an opportunity for innovations in sociological theory. Sociologists ought to break the constraints of some of the theoretical premises formed in its early history and meet the challenge from ecological philosophy by making good use of this opportunity.