SOCIAL ECOLOGY, DEEP ECOLOGY, AND LIBERALISM

Murray Bookchin's influential writings on social ecology attempt to unite the traditional leftist critique of liberal democratic society with contemporary environmental concerns. His work is undermined, however, in part by the dubious comparisons he makes between market systems and ecosystems, and in particular hy his failure to understand that these systems operate in a like fashion according to impersonal principles of self-organization. In the case of the market, while this impersonal process facilitates cooperation and exchange, it also rewards the instrumental nature of the relationship between human and ecological communities. Deep ecologists are therefore right to criticize the unwillingness of participants in market societies to appreciate the intrinsic value of nature. The challenges they pose to the human community - to become less anthropocentric and to approach property rights with a sense of stewardship - may be taken up by an ''evolutionary liberalism,'' which would strive to achieve harmony between humans and the natural world under the guidance of rules ordered by self-organizing principles.