The social context and ethical implications of ecology

Our ecological understanding of nature is socially construed. Our descriptions of nature are full of models and metaphors. When we use a metaphor we import connotations, eg we betray our social loyalties when we adopt the language of managing nature. But metaphors can be exported from ecology carrying new moral connotations, eg the term biodiversity has swung many behind nature conservation. Scientists need the help of other disciplines to check out their use of metaphors. At the symposium, insights from the disciplines of history, philosophy, jurisprudence, politics, theology, landscape aesthetics, and wilderness thought were presented. Equally important in checking the social implications of ecology are the views of local people and papers were presented from Chile, Italy and Romania. There is a growing interest in the dialogue between the science of ecology and students of ethics and social change. Above all, field scientists are ideally placed to move beyond an intellectual knowledge of nature to an encounter with Nature of which we are part. But as a small part we also encounter Nature as an Other, to whom we should relate as person to person.