Spiritual‐material identification in the deep ecology movement

Abstract

In an attempt to reverse the ecological damages of anthropocentric and materialistic cultures, deep ecology attempts, through a rhetoric of identification, to revise the dominant values of its audiences, advancing the ideas that non‐human life has intrinsic value and that the welfare of human beings is tied to the well‐being of the environment. Applying David Payne's concept of spiritual‐material identification, I argue that deep ecology's efforts fail because the movement forces a false division between spiritual and material understandings of various aspects of environmental debates. In advancing this claim, I examine basic philosophical texts of the movement for their spiritual and material themes. At stake in deep ecology's rhetorical efforts is not only the potentially beneficial revision of cultural values concerning nature, but also the intellectual and spiritual development of deep ecology activists who adhere to the movement's literature and philosophies.