An Ecological View of Nature

This chapter argues that individuals are inherently interrelated with others: they are essentially dependent on others; the boundaries are porous among them; and their relations with others are constitutive of their identity. The book calls this interbeing and proposes dropping the idea of individuals and replacing it with that of modes. Conceiving of modes as interbeing and as hubs in nested networks leads to radically rethinking the notion of the environment, which becomes, instead of a mere setting, a field of mutual interactive flow: a true ecosystem. The chapter argues that interbeing, modes in networks, and environment as ecosystem are the components of the ecological view of Nature. Though these terms suggest order and harmony, an ecological view of Nature need not entail this. In fact, vulnerability to disintegration is an ineradicable feature of modes of Nature. An analysis of the role of entropy in natural systems and how modes must get their energy from other modes reveals that modes will inevitably be locked in struggles with other modes. That struggle and death are necessary parts of Nature needs to be factored into any account of it. The chapter ends with a discussion of a forest, which, rather than being a collection of individual trees each seeking to maximize its own flourishing, is an ecological system in which all its various elements are nodes and have regularized links and relationships with one another.