Philosophical issues in environmental management: natureculture dialectic and sustainability

Abstract

The environment has become one of the major issues of our time. Environmental management has become a discipline with different approaches to protect the environment against the effects of human exploitation. The basis of managerial approaches to environmental issues is to be found in the nature-culture dialectic as expressed in the modern humanistic ideology of mastery in a technical and economic sense. Such a dialectical approach is hierarchical and will prioritise either nature or culture. A nondialectical approach, such as can be found in Reformational philosophy, gives more possibilities to encompass the future of humankind and nature in one perspective.