Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic

Biophilia, like other patterns of complex behavior, is likely to be mediated by rules of prepared and counter prepared learning—the tendency to learn or to resist learning certain responses as opposed to others. The biophilia hypothesis goes on to hold that the multiple strands of emotional response are woven into symbols composing a large part of culture. It suggests that when human beings remove themselves from the natural environment, the biophilic learning rules are not replaced by modern versions equally well adapted to artifacts. The significance of biophilia in human biology is potentially profound, even if it exists solely as weak learning rules. Humanity needs a vision of an expanding and unending future. This spiritual craving cannot be satisfied by the colonization of space. The manifold ways by which human beings are tied to the remainder of life are very poorly understood, crying for new scientific inquiry and a boldness of aesthetic interpretation.