论“人是自然界不安分的开拓者”——与“看护自然论”商榷

自20世纪全球生态环境危机爆发以来,人与自然的关系成为学术界讨论的热门话题,"征服自然论"成为众矢之的,"敬畏自然论""顺应自然论"一时流行。为保护人类的生存环境,学术界近来也有不少人倡导"看护自然",强调人对自然界的看护责任。从环境伦理的视角看,这些看法固然合情合理,但是从生态哲学的视角看,这些看法本身面临着一系列的理论困境与现实挑战,因为从根本上说,人在本性上就是自然界不安分的开拓者,人类不可能安心于敬畏自然、顺应自然或者是看护自然。从人类面临的生存困境来说,征服自然既是人类应对环境危机与挑战的需要,也是人类发展的动力。征服自然与敬畏自然、顺应自然、守护自然,从来就是一种辩证的关系,不是一种简单的黑白分明的对立关系,它顺应着人类不同的生存需求,人类的文明一直是在复杂处境中蹒跚进步的。

On“Man Is the Restless Pioneer of Nature”--A Discussion on Theory of Caring for Nature

Since the outbreak of the global eco-environmental crises in the last century,the relationship between man and nature has become a hot topic in the academic circle."Conquering nature"has become the target of criticism,and the ideas of revering nature and conforming to nature have been popular.To protect human’s living environment,many people in the academic circle advocate"caring for nature",emphasizing human’s responsibility of taking care of nature.From the perspective of environmental ethics,these are all reasonable.From the perspective of ecological philosophy,however,these viewpoints are faced with a series of theoretical dilemmas and practical challenges.Fundamentally speaking,man is the restless pioneer of nature by nature.It is impossible for human beings to be in awe of nature,conform to or care for nature.Seen from the plight of human survival,conquering nature is the driving force for human development as well as the need of human’s responding to environmental crises and challenges.The relationships among conquering nature,revering nature,conforming to nature and caring for nature are dialectical,not antithetical.In fact,the relationships conform to human’s different survival needs and human civilization has been advancing in a complex situation.