Shallow and deep environmental science

A growing field of interest in Environmentalism is Deep Ecology, or the New Philosophy of Nature. Deep Ecology rejects the principles of the present reductionist, dualistic social paradigm, in favour of one based on biospheric egalitarianism and holism. It therefore shares certain values with other radical forms of environmentalism from which it is hoped a new, truly‐holistic science may emerge. This article therefore examines the principles and origins of Deep Ecology in an effort to ascertain whether it offers the basis of a new epistemology. The conclusion is that whilst Deep Ecology rejects antropocentrism and the idea of dominance over nature via science and technology, it also contains elements of “feeling versus thought,” and the substitution of intuition for rationality and scientific investigation, which have in the past led to authoritarianism. Deep Ecology therefore represents an important input into a new, radical Environmental Science, but it cannot, as presently constituted, form the total basis for it.