Skip to main content

Ecological Interconnectedness: Entwined Selves, Transcendent and Immanent

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Roots, Routes and a New Awakening

Abstract

Ecological interconnectedness studies are a portal into dual and non-dual frameworks for bioculturally embedded human identity. This field is part of the transdisciplinary, holistic epistemology shift across academia. The discourse is catalysed by concern over injustice, conflict, climate change, ecosystem collapse and extinction. It coincides with an increasingly modernised, interconnected—and vulnerable, “old world order” of pan-global industrial capitalism. Environmental philosophy of the 1990s laid the foundation of deep ecology, ecofeminist and social ecology that inform western eco-justice activism, and the ecocritical theory to which this essay belongs. The discourse of ecocritical literary theory is a fertile ground for intersecting paradigms within contemporary western and medieval Indian philosophy on the liminal boundaries of self and world, and how these permeable systems motivate action through flexible parameters of human and non-human agency.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Abhinavagupta. 11th C. An Introduction to Tantric Philosophy: Paramārthasāra of Abhinavagupta with the commentary of Yogarāja. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballew, M.T., M.H. Goldberg, S.A. Rosenthal, A. Gustafson, and A. Leiserowitz. 2019. Systems Thinking as a Pathway to Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes Through an Ecological Worldview. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116: 8214–8219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhagavad-Gītā with the Commentary of Śaṅkarācārya. 2006. India: Advaita Ashrama.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capra, Fritjof. 1982. The Turning Point: Science, Spirituality and the Rising Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapple, Christopher Key. 2005. Yoga and Ecology. In Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, ed. Bron Taylor. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, M., and A. Rutter. (2013). Interconnectedness: The Root of Sustainability.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyczkowski, Mark (ed.). 2007. The Aphorisms of Śiva: The Śiva Sūtra with Bhāskara’s Commentary, the Vārttika. Varanasi: Indica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evitts, S., B. Seale, and D. Skybrook. 2010. Developing an Interconnected Worldview: A Guiding Process for Learning. Masters Thesis. Blekinge Institute of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feuerstein, Georg. 1997. The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra. London: Shambhala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, Alan B. 1939 [2018]. Production, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Wiley Online Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, Donna Jeanne. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmand, S., Jason E. Lewis, Craig S. Feibel, Christopher J. Lepre, Sandrine Prat, Arnaud Lenoble, Xavier Boës, Rhonda L. Quinn, Michel Brenet, Adrian Arroyo, Nicholas Taylor, Sophie Clément, Guillaume Daver, Jean-Philip Brugal, Louise Leakey, Richard A. Mortlock, James D. Wright, Sammy Lokorodi, Christopher Kirwa, Dennis V. Kent, Hélène Roche. 2015. 3.3-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 521: 310–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ketola, Tarja. 2004. Eco-Psychological Profiling: An Oil Company Example. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 11: 150–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakshmanjoo, Swami. 2003. Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme. Delhi: Universal Shaiva Fellowship.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakshmanjoo, Swami. 2010a. Abhinavagupta’s Paramarthasara: Essence of the Highest Reality. Culver City, CA: Universal Shaiva Fellowship.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakshmanjoo, Swami (ed.). 2010b. Śiva Sūtras: The Supreme Awakening with Commentary by Kshemaraja. India: Munshiram Manoharlal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakshmanjoo, Swami (ed.). 2013. Bhagavad Gita in the Light of Kashmir Shaivism: Revealed by Swami Laksmanjoo. Delhi: Ishwar Ashram Trust.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laszlo, Ervin. 2003. The Connectivity Hypothesis: Foundations of an Integral Science of Quantum, Cosmos, Life, and Consciousness. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, Jason E., and S. Harmand. 2016. An Earlier Origin for Stone Tool Making: Implications for Cognitive Evolution and the Transition to Homo. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society Biological Sciences, 371: 20150233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 1991. The Ecological Self. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 2003. For Love of Matter: A Contemporary Panpsychism. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 2005. Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture. Sydney: UNSW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 2007. An Invitation to Ontopoetics: The Poetic Structure of Being.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 2009. Introduction: Invitation to Ontopoetics. PAN Philosophy Activism Nature 6: 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, Freya. 2018 [1994]. Relating to Nature: Deep Ecology or Ecofeminism? In Feminist Ecologies: Changing Environments in the Anthropocene. Cham: Springer International Publishing, Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, Carolyn. 1989. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, Carolyn. 2005. Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, Kamalakar. 2011. Kashmir Śaivism: The Central Philosophy of Tantrism. Varanasi: Indica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montuori, Alfonso. 2006. The Quest for a New Education: From Oppositional Identities to Creative Inquiry. ReVision 28: 4–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montuori, Alfonso, and Gabrielle Donnelly. 2016. The Creativity of Culture and the Culture of Creativity Research: The Promise of Integrative Transdisciplinarity. In The Palgrave Handbook of Creativity and Culture Research. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Næss, Arne, and David Rothenberg. 1989. Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Plumwood, Val. 1993. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roszak, Theodore, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner. 1995. Ecopsychology—Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Śarvānanda, Swāmī. 2009. Kenopaniṣad. Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheldrake, Rupert. 1994. The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiva, V., and M. Mies. 1993 [1988]. Ecofeminism. North Geelong: Spinifex Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stokes, Michael C. 1971. One and Many in Presocratic Philosophy. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timalsina, Sthaneshwar. 2007. The Body of the Goddess: Eco Awareness and Embodiment in Hindu Myth and Romance. In The Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess: Goddess Traditions of Asia, ed. Deepak Shimkhada and Phyllis K. Herman. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timalsina, Sthaneshwar. 2013. Self, Causation, and Agency in the Advaita of Śaṅkara. In Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Timalsina, Sthaneshwar. 2017. Tantric Visual Culture: A Cognitive Approach. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Utpaladeva. c.900–975C. The Īśwarapratibhijñākārikā of Utpaladeva with the Author’s Vṛtti: Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. India: Motilal Banardisas.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah Louise Gates .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Gates, S.L. (2021). Ecological Interconnectedness: Entwined Selves, Transcendent and Immanent. In: Giri, A.K. (eds) Roots, Routes and a New Awakening. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7122-0_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics