Product Description

A revised and enlarged edition (first published by Rider in 1992) of this important book by one of the most influential figures of the international Green movement. The Way first provides a radical critique of the 'world-view' of Modernism with which we have all been imbued, and whose role the author sees as being primarily to rationalize and legitimize economic development or 'progress'. It is faithfully reflected in modern science, including theoretical biology (Darwin's natural selection being but the biological version of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'), today's reductionist and mechanistic 'New Ecology', and - possibly even more so - the social sciences, particularly modern economics. The Way then presents the underlying principles of an ecological world-view which, for the author, must reflect the original 'chthonic' or earth-oriented religion of traditional societies. In terms of the latter, human welfare can only be assured by following the Way (the R'ta of Vedic India and the Tao of ancient China). It is by following the Way that the critical order of the 'Cosmos', of the natural world and of the human societies that it encompasses (all of which are organized on the same plan and governed by the same laws) can be maintained. Discontinuities such as epidemics, droughts and floods are correctly seen as evidence that the society affected has diverted from the Way and that the critical order of the 'Cosmos' has been disrupted. The answer is to return to the Way, rather than divert still further from it by applying mega-technological expedients that can only further disrupt the order of the natural world. The Ecological World-View, based on this principle, and proposed in The Way, is all-embracing and totally coherent. It is also consistent with a sustainable social behaviour pattern that satisfies real (biological, social, ecological and spiritual) needs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328310 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 550 pages

About the Author
Edward Goldsmith was an influential ecologist and philosopher, well known for his rejection of industrial society and economic development. He was the founder of the UK People Party (precursor to the Green Party), and the founder and editor for many years of The Ecologist magazine. He died in August 2009.

Customer Reviews

A key philosophical treatise for the 21st Century
In 'The Way: an ecological world view' one of the most informed and intellectually formidable minds of the environmental movement turns conventional thought on its head and demonstrates point by point how most of the fundamental mores and principles taken for granted by our modern society are fundamentally flawed and, as such, are leading us in the opposite direction of the healthy and happy life they promise. In contrast to this Edward Goldsmith calls for a revival of a way common to many societies prior to the industrial revolution and the influence of its reductionist world view.

The way of these traditional societies could not be more at variance with the way of the modern, and yet could not be more in tune with our biological, social and psychological needs. Goldsmith contrasts this vernacular way with the world view of the current technocratic, industrial mission.

The thesis that Goldsmith weaves claims that as a result of rejecting and pulling itself away from the path of the biosphere our modern industrial way of life has effectively become diseased in almost every aspect of its operation, and consequently cannot possibly sustain its own vital, living processes. The result of this straying from the Way is breakdown, disorder and chaos worsening from one crisis to another until final, inevitable collapse. This is so as the processes of industrial society are consistently at odds with the primary processes of the real world that have sustained complex life on the planet for several hundred million years without aid.

The Way explains how this works, and how the same principles are in operation at every level of organisation whether it be in the life of the cell, the individual, the family, the local community, society at large or the biosphere as a whole. It explains why the current dominant world view attempts to foist upon people the pathological belief that natural, living processes are redundant and must be surrogated by the great artificial enterprise of the fake, imitated and engineered. It rapidly becomes clear how this is threatening our own survival and the biosphere itself within what is a mere blink of an eye of evolutionary time.

Although modern in its technical elucidation and method, The Way's carefully reasoned message is a call for a revival of most of what is rejected by our modern way of life. The Way is a call to instinct, intuition and aesthetics as much as to knowledge gathered by careful study and analysis. It is a call for the mythopoetic as much as for reason and sensory experience. Religion, art and myth figure prominently as means of interweaving our lives with the natural way. Emotion, faith, aliveness and natural creativity are all called upon as vital for the survival of the ancient, intelligent living processes that maintain our planet, our societies and our very selves. It calls upon the basic common sense that if one realises one has made a serious mistake by turning the wrong way then it's not too late to turn back and recover the well trodden way once again. There is really no shame in rethinking the most fundamental assumptions of one's life, since now it has become a matter of general urgency.

Yet such ways by their very nature cannot be imposed simplistically from on-high without ruining them. By and large these complex living processes require nurturing cooperatively from below, and this may prove to be the most uncomfortable challenge of all to our massively over-powered and rigidly controlled institutional structures.

'The Way: an ecological world view' may yet become one of the key works that transformed our way of thinking and practice in the 21st century. Read on...

A timely guide to the fundamental path future human civilisation must take to survive the next 200 years
In my view Edward Goldsmith's The Way will become considered to be a work as significant and important to human progress and development as Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. In the last two weeks the world has witnessed the curtain being drawn on runaway capitalism and the fundamentals that Smith stood for. Whichever view people have of climate change, the inescapable fact is that we live on a planet with finite resources and we have to change our approach to living as we do. Humans have to learn to live in an integrated way with the Earth, not as observers, taking whatever resources we want, without giving back, but as participants, living in a complementary and mutually beneficial relationship with the bioshpere, with what James Lovelock calls Gaia. The Way provides the detailed rationale to show the shortcomings of the basis of science and economics that has lead the world to this unprecedented financial crisis. With the banks nationalised, human greed and selfishness might be curtailed and a more harmonised approach emerge based on values rather than just money. I heard an interview with Stephen Hawkings where he explained the peril we all face and that the future of humankind will be in space, in exploring and expanding into the universe, but to get there we need to survive the next 200 years, as population and energy demand increases and the effects of climate change become ever more telling; The Way provides the fundamental principles by which the UK should lead the world in the 21st Century. I strongly urge people to read it.