THE FORMATION OF AN INTEGRAL SYSTEM OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN RUSSIA ON THE BASIS OF PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, AND SCIENCE

Yury D. Mikhelev

Society of Nature Conservation, Central Council
103012, Moscow, proyezd Kuibysheva, 3
RUSSIA

FAX: (095) 975-21-90

In recent times the necessity of examining a set of questions connected with ecology has been gaining more urgent significance. The understanding of the term "ecology" has become significantly broader, and includes not only aspects of the interaction between humanity and the environment, but also the formation of a cultural and psychological atmosphere as an integral part of the existence of an individual.

Currently in Russia, a significant reevaluation is taking place of many historical principles of ethnos, coming from the following cardinal directions: economic, psychological, sociocultural, and scientific. However, this overlooks the factor of certain psychophysical, geographical and strictly historico-cultural characteristics in the formation of the Russian person. Therefore, it appears that the elimination of such discrepancies is possible only by the introduction of massive environmental education for the entire society.

The basic preconditions for the creation of such a system include:

  1. An extremely low level of culture;
  2. Overpopulation of certain regions, and, conversely, the practical uninhabitability of enormous spaces;
  3. Thoughtless perfection and development of scientific-technical methods of "mastering" nature;
  4. The development of the consciousness of humanity on the basis of a common-planetary approach;
Environmental education must include an entire set of questions of diverse trends, such as:
  1. Philosophy and the history of culture, distinguished by ancient philosophy; western European, as a topic of scientific formulation, and, especially, German classical philosophy, Russian religious philosophy, and the basics of the methodology of education.
  2. Economics, examining the basic trends in economic thought from A. Smith to M. Friedman.
  3. Contemporary development of science and technology, its perspectives, questions of the use of resource-saving technologies and the development of new sources of energy;
It is advisable in introducing such a system into instruction to utilize unifying themes which combine the main elements of separate subsystems in the approach to deciding concrete tasks.

Translated by Kate Watters

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