A Study Of Influence Of Human Self-recognition And Behavior On Environment

Based on the relationship between self and ecology, this study makes an in-depth theoretical research and investigation on how human self-recognition and behaviors influence ecological environment, in search of a new way for the ecological crisis and making suggestions for environment-friendly society from the perspective of human behavior management. The methodology combines theoretical study and empirical study, with theoretical study as the main method and empirical study as the exploratory research method. The study reviews some research findings in both humanity and social science and natural science and proceeds from the fields of ecology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and economics.The key ideas in this dissertation can be concluded as six points. First, ecological crisis is the result of ecological imbalance, which is caused mainly by human behavior in modern industrial society. Second, human beings play a double role in ecological system, the consumer dependent on natural resources and the controller of the ecological system. The conflicts between the two roles and the involved problems have an internal relationship with ecological crisis. Third, the relationship between man and nature can be sensed from the self-recognition of mankind. The self-recognition development goes through three stages—ego, social self and ecological self, through which different attitudes towards nature, and different influences of self behavior to environment are formed. At ego stage, ego confronts with nature; at social self stage, self destructs nature; at ecological self stage, self protects nature. Fourth, social self takes worldly possessions like belongings, status and positions etc. as the sign of self development. The pursuit of such possessions drives social self into blindness and overconsumption that cause great ecological stress and environmental destruction. Fifth, ecological self goes beyond the view of subject-object dichotomy in modern western philosophy and the oppositional relations between man and nature. It is a combination of the two, presenting the unification of subjectification of object and objectification of subject. It is an extension of self into ecology, an identification of nature and a move toward nature, with a tripartite structure—ecological identification, ecological experience and ecological practice. Sixth, environment friendly behavior is the proactive practice of ecological self. People whose self are mostly concerned with nature behave to be more responsible for the environment. Regression analysis shows that ecological self can predict whether the behavior is environment-friendly or not. Therefore, calling for ecological self and proenvironmental behavior is the channel to solve ecological crisis from the perspective of human behavior.