Sozology and Ecophilosophy: Sciences of the 20th Century :: Sozology Ecophilosophy Essays

Sozology and Ecophilosophy: Sciences of the 20th Century ABSTRACT: This paper contains a synthesized profile of sozology and ecophilosophy, sciences of the end of the 20th century. Sozology is defined as the science of the systematic protection of the biosphere from the destructive effects on it from the anthroposphere. On the other hand, ecophilosophy is understood as the science whose object of study is the essence and nature of the socio-natural environment, its quantitative and qualitative properties and the causal dependence between the anthroposphere and biosphere. I hope that both these sciences will enter permanently into the world’s educational systems in the 21st century. Introduction The present article aims to present a synthesis of the characteristic features of epistemological sozology (1) and ecophilosophy (2) as sciences of the end of the twentieth century. The profile of sozology will take into account above all an analysis of the concepts involved in this science, a construction of its definition, a description of its object of study and an indication of the characteristic features of sozological scientific research — especially interdisciplinariness and systematicity. On the other hand in the profile of ecophilosophy it is necessary to take into account its various conceptions, define the object of study and outline the content-related problems. 1.1 The understanding of sozology The term "sozology" comes form the Greek word ????? which means "to protect", "to rescue". Walery Goetel (1) introduced this term to Polish scientific terminology in 1965. According to him this term means the protection of the natural human environment. Thirty years have passed since then. The term "sozology" was enriched with a new content which thereby broadened its scope. An expression of this is the rich literature on the subject and this term is used more and more frequently to define sciences concerning environment protection. In the word "sozology" two aspects are taken into consideration: the content and the scope. (2) In the connotational aspect the methodological and thematic elements of this name are indicated, but in the aspect concerning its scope the designations marking its range are pointed to. From the methodological standpoint of the content of the name "sozology" people speak above all about methods serving to research the object of this science. Here the empirical, humanist, philosophical and systemic methods are distinguished. From the thematic standpoint of the term "sozology" the questions and problems within the range of scientific sozological research are stressed. As an example problems and questions are mentioned here like: