Meanings
- uncountableAn ecological and environmental philosophy that advocates the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs.
Shallow ecology is anthropocentric, or human-centered. It views humans as above our outside of nature, as the source of all value, and ascribes only instrumental, or “use,” value to nature. Deep ecology does not separate humans—or anything else—from the natural environment.
1996, Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 72 more examples
In the early 1970s, after three decades teaching philosophy at the University of Oslo, Mr. Naess (pronounced Ness), an enthusiastic mountain climber and an admirer of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” threw himself into environmental work and developed a theory that he called deep ecology.
[2009 January 15, William Grimes, “Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, Dies at 96”, in The New York Times, →ISSNIn the 1980s, some eco-philosophers interpreted the influential German philosopher Martin Heidegger as a forerunner of the deep ecology movement, because he condemned techno-industrial modernity's assault on nature and called instead on humans to “let things be” (Zimmermann 1983; Foltz 1995).
2016, Joni Adamson, William A. Gleason, David Pellow, editors, Keywords for Environmental Studies, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 65
Origin
Coined by Arne Næss.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish syväekologia
- syväekologiaan ecological and environmental philosophy
Cite this entry
deep ecology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deep%20ecology
“deep ecology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deep%20ecology. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “deep ecology,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deep%20ecology.
Source: deep ecology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.