Just going back to the word itself- it’s a beautiful word- love of wisdom. It’s also interesting how ‘philosophy’ can be different depending on the culture we in, and by this I don’t mean the ‘philosophical mood or debates’ but instead the questions that each culture invites us to ask about ourselves and the culture we are in. And indeed I think ‘transformation’ is an interesting/meaningful one nowadays, as you point out.
This is a great manifesto of sorts, and it clearly outlines the value of your perspective to those of us struggling in the modern world. I’m left curious though regarding the key insight by which you feel this philosophical approach transforms modern consciousness. How our ideas regarding health, self, ecosystem, and nature that fracture ourselves, or restore our wholeness. I feel that by clarifying the intersection between the ways we understand health in the mind, in the body, in social relations, in our ecosystems, and in technological systems, we can get a more unified outlook on health. I know you dive into this a lot in your philosophy of “ekophilosophical health”, though moving beyond the philosophical and into the physiological and the cognitive can be a challenging intellectual gap. I feel that the individualized niche concept — stretching from the cognitive niche, through the social and ecological dimensions into the environmental and technological space — can really help clarify and ground us in our bio-psycho-social and spiritual contexts.
Nice, what a lot of potential there is here! I feel an urge to enlarge, enrich, deepen and sharpen up. "[P]hilosophy – if oriented towards …" feels like you're talking about a philosophical stance, rather than philosophy per se. And what a positive stance! Just to point out that philosophy can lead to other destinations — e.g. as Berkeley wrote (see https://opentextbc.ca/modernphilosophy/chapter/george-berkeley-1685-1753/#introduction-section-one ). I'd like to see a growing reference text detailing the highly plausible claims that the ekophilosophical stance leads to the listed benefits. Not only that, I'd like to test these claims out in real life (and see others doing so) by living up to those ideals — and how other philosophical stances lead to the kinds of mess we find ourselves in.
How much of this depends, also, on the psychological make-up and history of different individuals? If it works for you, does this mean it works for others? What draws me to the view that there is something here that works for me is my identification with this personal snippet: "This typically requires a lot of resilience, because a lot of the time, I am not complying to the norm and it’s in my personality that I typically really like to fit in". For me, a lifelong tension between wanting to fit in, to comply, and often suppressing the deep-down sense that this is not really me.
How can, or could, an ekophilsophical stance not only help us to find the principles and practices that bring us the splendid benefits you list, but also help us to help each other to find what *really* works, despite our unconscious attempts to self-sabotage? There's something deeply relational here for me, not only relating ourselves to the world, but ourselves to each other. I'd like to explore that.
Just going back to the word itself- it’s a beautiful word- love of wisdom. It’s also interesting how ‘philosophy’ can be different depending on the culture we in, and by this I don’t mean the ‘philosophical mood or debates’ but instead the questions that each culture invites us to ask about ourselves and the culture we are in. And indeed I think ‘transformation’ is an interesting/meaningful one nowadays, as you point out.
Absolutely - something I am very curious about - to learn about what different cultures invite us to ask.
This is a great manifesto of sorts, and it clearly outlines the value of your perspective to those of us struggling in the modern world. I’m left curious though regarding the key insight by which you feel this philosophical approach transforms modern consciousness. How our ideas regarding health, self, ecosystem, and nature that fracture ourselves, or restore our wholeness. I feel that by clarifying the intersection between the ways we understand health in the mind, in the body, in social relations, in our ecosystems, and in technological systems, we can get a more unified outlook on health. I know you dive into this a lot in your philosophy of “ekophilosophical health”, though moving beyond the philosophical and into the physiological and the cognitive can be a challenging intellectual gap. I feel that the individualized niche concept — stretching from the cognitive niche, through the social and ecological dimensions into the environmental and technological space — can really help clarify and ground us in our bio-psycho-social and spiritual contexts.
Thanks for this Jordan 🙏I agree - and on how challenging this is it.
Nice, what a lot of potential there is here! I feel an urge to enlarge, enrich, deepen and sharpen up. "[P]hilosophy – if oriented towards …" feels like you're talking about a philosophical stance, rather than philosophy per se. And what a positive stance! Just to point out that philosophy can lead to other destinations — e.g. as Berkeley wrote (see https://opentextbc.ca/modernphilosophy/chapter/george-berkeley-1685-1753/#introduction-section-one ). I'd like to see a growing reference text detailing the highly plausible claims that the ekophilosophical stance leads to the listed benefits. Not only that, I'd like to test these claims out in real life (and see others doing so) by living up to those ideals — and how other philosophical stances lead to the kinds of mess we find ourselves in.
How much of this depends, also, on the psychological make-up and history of different individuals? If it works for you, does this mean it works for others? What draws me to the view that there is something here that works for me is my identification with this personal snippet: "This typically requires a lot of resilience, because a lot of the time, I am not complying to the norm and it’s in my personality that I typically really like to fit in". For me, a lifelong tension between wanting to fit in, to comply, and often suppressing the deep-down sense that this is not really me.
How can, or could, an ekophilsophical stance not only help us to find the principles and practices that bring us the splendid benefits you list, but also help us to help each other to find what *really* works, despite our unconscious attempts to self-sabotage? There's something deeply relational here for me, not only relating ourselves to the world, but ourselves to each other. I'd like to explore that.