Axioms of Ecological Humanities
There are two axioms of ecological humanities:
- The axiom of submission to ecosystem laws
- The axiom of ecological kinship, which situates humanity as participant in a larger living system
Put another way, the connections between and among living things are the basis for how ecosystems are understood to work, and thus constitute laws of existence and guidelines for behaviour (Rose 2004)
The first of these axioms has a tradition in social sciences (see Marx, 1968: 3). From the second axiom the notions of “ecological embodiment/embededness” and “habitat” have emerged from Political Theory with a fundamental connectivity to rights, democracy and ecologism (Eckersley 1996: 222, 225; Eckersley 1998).
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