Living Philosophy: Eco-Philosophy as a Tree of Life

Modern society, says the author, is a "schizophrenic civilization" which has trivialized our lives and seduced us with trinkets. He seeks to stop the rot, laying out a detailed argument for a new "ecological consciousness" concerned as much for our inner as our outer environment. Attacking modern analytical philosophy, the author claims it is not so much liberation of the mind as "confinement in the circus of technical virtuosity". Our political systems, he says, rob us of our highest attributes and reduce us to despair. Our architecture violates us, and the vacuum in our values breeds indulgence and indifference. The author foresees the tasks as nothing less than a recycling of our minds. For "without wisdom, we shall be like Don Quixote fighting with the windmills".