Ecological humanities

Abstract

The article defines and identifies features of the ecological humanities, understood as a symptom of the emergence of a new scientific paradigm. It focuses on ecoposthumanities—a tendency that has been developing since the late nineties within the framework of posthumanist criticism of anthropocentrism, Eurocentrism, and Western science. The article highlights the role of traditional ecological knowledge, as well as the development of biohumanities (an inclusive type of knowledge that connects human, social sciences, and life sciences) as important aspects of ecoposthumanities. The ecological humanities offer a utopian vision of meta-communities of humans and non-humans based on symbiotic relations, co-evolution, and co-dependency, and anticipate future knowledge building in terms of extended mind, distributed cognition, biocommunication, and empathy.

Keywords

• ecological humanities
• non-anthropocentrism
• interdisciplinary research
• traditional ecological knowledge
• symbiotic relations
• future of knowledge