The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin
The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin
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The Philosophy of Social Ecology
Essays on Dialectical Naturalism

Author: Murray Bookchin

Narrator: James R. Cheatham

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/10/2022


Synopsis

What is nature? What is humanity's place in nature? And what is the relationship of society to the natural world? In an era of ecological breakdown, answering these questions has become of momentous importance for our everyday lives and for the future that we and other life-forms face. In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin confronts these questions head on: invoking the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever expanding freedom.

Refreshingly polemical and deeply philosophical, these essays take issue with technocratic and mechanistic ways of understanding and relating to, and within, nature. More importantly, they develop a solid, historically and politically based ethical foundation for social ecology, the field that Bookchin himself created and that offers us hope in the midst of our climate catastrophe.

About Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin (1929-2006) was an active voice in ecology, anarchist, and communalist movements for more than fifty years. His groundbreaking essay, "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought", was one of the first to assert that capitalism's grow-or-die ethos was on a dangerous collision course with the natural world that would include the devastation of the planet by global warming. Bookchin is the author of The Ecology of Freedom, among two dozen other books.


Reviews

The Philosophy of Social Ecology was a dense but valuable read. Bookchin’s central premise is that our social and ecological ills that we face as humans, whether that be climate change, a loss of personal connection with your neighbor, rising mental illness, or corrupt politics, all stem from one co......more

To paraphrase Chomsky, when someone says “dialectics” I have no idea what they’re talking about. This was a slog of mostly unanalyzable statements and isn’t very didactic in offer improvements for how we can better interface with ecology. And then there’s all the Hegelian nonsense, like LET THE MAN......more

Goodreads review by Luke

A unique perspective on humanity’s place within the natural world and creating a philosophical foundation for an ethics based on ecology. It felt like Bookchin is the latest iteration of leftist ideologies built off of Hegel’s dialectics but did a lot to address the shortcomings of Marx while also d......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

Why Hegel??? On gods I don't understand the fascination with philosophy that so few can understand. He does say in the footnotes at the end he's not a Hegelian, as he doesn't buy into the Geist part, but is a dialectician. I suppose there is something to how opposites shape each other, but reading t......more

Goodreads review by Will

Bookchin has found a way to mesh ecological ethics into a purely Western tradition. The modern American environmental/ecological movement has applied chunks of Eastern and Quasi-Eastern spirituality into the philosophy where it doesn't fit. He claims that it is due to intellectual laziness. I would......more