Analyzing Consumption By Ecological Philosophy

With the development of society and economy the objects of consumption are moreand more abundant, and the forms of consumption become fancier and fancier.Consumption changes with the change of the relationship between man and nature. At thetime of original civilization human’s consumption was only to meet survival needs. Duringthe era of agricultural civilization consumption developed into the pursuit of the richmaterial demand. In the period of industrial civilization, consumption, gradually evolvedinto the expanding desire, and the relationship between man and nature was no longerharmonious. Consumption is a process, the essence of which is the flow of energy. Theprocess of energy flow is unidirectional and non-cyclic, for the incompletely consumedenergy in the consumer process can not be recycled. Human’s high consumption and highproductive social activity consume the natural energy, which has caused improperinterference in the natural ecological environment system. During different civilizations,human beings have different ecological niches. It is the consumption activities that haveextended our ecological niche. The existence and development of nature is regular, and theavailable energy for human consumption is limited. Therefore, human’s consumptionactivities must comply with the laws of nature and be limited within what the natural canwithstand, but the modern consumption has overstepped not only the natural limit buthuman’s basic survival needs as well.Ecological analysis of consumption in society can show the existing problems fromthe main consumer, consumption mode and consumption level. When the consumingsubject dissimilates in the process of consumption, symbol consumption has deconstructedthe ecosystem of human society, which makes people constantly pursue the symbolicvalue of goods in the inducement of media means, and eventually the main consumer haslost self-value in desire. Consumer awareness is from the main consumer’s cognition andjudgment on the consumption behavior. Non-ecological consumption consciousness will simplify multidimensional ecological consumption of human nature to the singledimension for material occupation. The non-ecological consumption formed in thisawareness is not only a waste of resources, but also will affect the progress anddevelopment of human society. The exorbitant level of consumption will widen the gapbetween rich and poor and intensify the environmental problems.Ecological consumption as the main way to solve ecological deterioration of theenvironment of China, from the ethical dimensions, the essence of ethics of ecologicalconsumption embodies the fairness for consumer rights and the quantity of consumerresource usage. Considering the ecological consumption from the science and technologydimensions, ecological consumption requires consumers to have judgment consciousnessof good and evil, which can regulate consumer behavior and promote the technologydevelopment. What’s more, the results of science and technology after the ecologicalconsumption can also promote the construction of social ecological civilization. From theperspective of nature, ecological consumption is beneficial to nature, environmentalprotection and ecological balance.