Research On Joel Kovel’s Ecological Socialism Thought

Joel Kovel(hereinafter referred to as Kovel)is one of the important representatives of ecological socialism thought in North America.His ecological thought is embodied in the book The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? In this book,on the basis of the profound criticism of capitalism and traditional socialism,Kovel constructs the future ecological society from the theoretical and practical dimensions.The study of Kovel’s ecological socialism thought will help us to further deepen our understanding of ecological society,and help us to view the theoretical contribution and experience and lessons of Kovel’s ecological thought in a more comprehensive and objective way,so as to provide useful reference factors for the construction of socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics.Based on this,this paper mainly studies Kovel’s ecological socialism thought from the following five chapters:The first chapter combs the background of Kovel’s ecological socialism thought.Kovel lived in an era of rapid development of capitalist industry.Various aspects of capitalism caused global ecological crisis,which further led to social ecological movement,and ecological crisis and social ecological movement further intensified social crisis.Of course,after the middle of the 20 th century,Kovel was deeply influenced by his predecessors in the process of summarizing their ideological materials,especially Marx’s understanding of ecology,the principle of entropy increases in natural philosophy and the thought of women’s liberation of ecofeminism.In the dialogue with these people,Kovel saw the nature of capital.At the same time,Kovel himself also actively participated in the anti-nuclear movement and became concerned about ecological issues in the process of joining the environmental politics.The second chapter mainly explains Kovel’s interpretation of the existing society.In Kovel’s opinion,capitalist society and traditional socialism contain many unreasonable factors,which we should deeply criticize.First of all,Kovel made a profound interpretation of the social reality of capitalism.The globalization and accumulation of capital have caused serious impacts on ecology.Secondly,the ecocentrism view of deep ecology,the unstable factor of ecofeminism and the hierarchy system of social ecology all have their own disadvantages,which cannot complete the task of opposing capitalism together with socialism.Finally,the Soviet model of socialism showed three disadvantages: unbalanced economic development,slow political democratization,and ecological failure to adhere to the practice of environmental protection.Kovel believes that there are various problems in the existing society,which have caused serious threats to the ecological environment,and to eliminate this threat,we must first criticize it.The third chapter constructs Kovel’s conception of ecological socialism theoretically.First of all,Kovel believes that the most important thing in the construction of ecological socialism is to reflect on the ecological practice of traditional socialism,to inspire the masses to form a correct "ecological consciousness" and to inspire the masses to participate in the practice of building an ecological society.Secondly,Kovel analyzed the transition from "red and green separation" to "red and green integration",and further said that "red and green integration" has become a possibility,giving rise to the formation of an ecological socialist party,and then leading the people to build an ecological socialist society.Finally,Kovel pointed out that the production subject of ecological socialism is the free association of labor force,the implementation of the ecologically centered production model,and the construction of ecological communities in the process.Therefore,compared with traditional socialism,ecological socialist society has distinct characteristics,that is,ecological society pays more attention to the union between ecological subjects,emphasizes the combination of ecology and politics,and pays more attention to the social benefits of ecological economy.Chapter four mainly Outlines the practical path of ecological socialism thought.Starting from the main body of ecological socialism,Kovel believes that ecological society is under the leadership of the ecological socialist party,through the industrial proletariat,relying on the marginal groups of society,to realize the transformation to ecological socialism.In this process,Kovel uses dialectics and holism to construct future ecological society,aiming at achieving the overall harmony of ecological society.In addition,in the process of building an ecological society,we will move towards a "common people community" through the ecological movement and respect the usufruct of the global land,so as to build a sustainable society closely related to ecology.The fifth chapter mainly reflects Kovel’s ecological socialism thought.Kovel’s ecological socialism thought deepens the understanding of Marxist ecological thought,criticizes the phenomenon of "alienated consumption" of capitalism,and focuses on the analysis of ecological problems from the perspective of globalization.However,this theory has only realized its goal to a limited extent.Its limitation lies in Kovel’s idealized conception of ecological socialism,excessive pursuit of ecological centralization and lack of practical feasibility.Therefore,we should hold an objective attitude to look at Kovel’s ecological socialism thought,dialectically apply Kovel’s ecological thought to the theory and practice of building a socialist ecological civilization with Chinese characteristics.