Social Philosophy and Ecological Scarcity (Routledge Library Editions: Ecology) - Softcover

Lee, Keekok

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367353423 ISBN 13: 9780367353421

Publisher: Routledge, 2021

Synopsis

Originally published in 1989 Social Philosophy and Ecological Scarcity presents a systematic study of the implications of ecological scarcity for social philosophy. The book argues for a new social philosophy based on a conception of the ‘good society’ and the ‘good life’ which makes fewer, rather than more demands on scarce ecological resources. The book shows that the two major competing social philosophies in modern philosophical thought – the bourgeois liberal and the state socialist – are both forms of capitalism. Despite their obvious differences, they both pursue the logic of capitalism, of ever-increasing accumulation, growth and consumption. This pursuit is carried out by means of modern science and its technology, which assume that Nature’s resources are inexhaustible and can be exploited to meet infinite human wants or needs, ignoring ecological scarcity. The recognition of ecological scarcity would lead to a social philosophy, based on a frugal mode of socialism which has more affinities with the social visions of Fourier and Morris than with that of Marx. Their theories, far from being too ‘utopian’, are shown as more ‘realistic’ and less ‘fantastic’ than either bourgeois capitalism or state capitalism based on the Marxist model.

About this title

About the Author

Keekok Lee

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367353423
• ISBN 13: 9780367353421
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 442