Structuring an ecosophical concept on the basis of Buddhist and Taoist ideas

The aim of the article is to analyse the notion of an ecosophical concept and to find out what Buddhist and Taoist ideas can become the basis of an ecosophical concept. Firstly, the author of the article compares the concepts of ecosophy of two outstanding philosophers, Arne Naess and Felix Guattari. Both the philosophers are known as the major philosophers who, among other issues, worked on the problems of ecosophy. According to Guattari, ecosophy can be of three types: mental, social and environmental. It means that to provide future life we must protect not only our environment, but our mentality, our psyche and cultural artifacts. Naess believes ecosophy to be a personal worldview, a personal code of values. If Guattari's key idea is to change the types of subjectivity, Naess's key idea is to affirm the intrinsic value of every life form. Though, as well as Guattari, Naess confirms the necessity of economic, political and social reforms, Naess pays more attention to moral issues connected with ecosophy. Guattari in his turn pays more attention to social and political issues. The author of the article points out that the term "ecosophy" should not be used instead of "ecological philosophy", with the first term meaning a personal worldview and the second one meaning the theoretical study of philosophical issues of ecology. The author of the article introduces the term "ecosophical concept". An ecosophical concept being part of a personal worldview determines the interaction of a person with the non-human natural world. The concept contains different values which evolve in the process of empirical and theoretical cognition. Thus, an ecosophical concept is a kind of a personal knowledge structure which does not have the status of a scientific theory, but governs the process of the formation of values related to the human interaction with the non-human natural world. The author of the article argues that the key idea for an ecosophical concept should be one of interrelation and interdependence of all life forms on Earth. This idea is embedded in Buddhism and Taoism. This fact explains why one should take Buddhist and Taoist ideas into account when structuring an ecosophical concept. Even in Russia where Christianity strongly influences culture and spiritual life of the country people should not miss the opportunity to enrich their worldview and build harmonious relations with the non-human natural world on the basis of Buddhism and Taoism. Future analysis of different spiritual teachings is necessary to structure adequate ecosophical concepts.

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