Abstract
This article discusses whether ecology represents an alternative type of natural science, that is normatively committed. Central questions are:
-how man and human action are integrated into the subject matter of ecology;
-whether evaluative concepts like ‘health’ are incorporated into the conceptual structure of ecology; and
-whether ecology transcends the image of natural knowledge as control of nature.
It is concluded that all hypotheses of ecology being inherently judgmental in character must be rejected.
Like all the healing arts, ecology is through and through judgmental in character. It cannot be value-neutral.... What violates the natural harmony must be condemned; what enhances it be endorsed.... Ecology is the closest our science has yet come to an integrative wisdom. It, not physics, deserves to become the basic science of the future.
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Cramer, J., van den Daele, W. Is ecology an ‘alternative’ natural science?. Synthese 65, 347–375 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00869275
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00869275