Ecological Sensibility and Pedagogy

Abstract

Rodman, who introduced the concept of “ecological sensibility”, says that the term refers to the cultivation of a “complex pattern of perceptions, attitudes, and judgements which, if fully developed, would constitute a disposition to appropriate conduct (including ecologically apropriate conduct) that would make talk of rights and duties unnecessary under normal conditions” (quoted in Fox, 1990, 35). While retaining Rodman’s thesis that an ecological sensibility would usher in natural and spontaneous ecological behaviour (that would make any talk of rights and duties unnecessary), this chapter attempts to develop a broader framework for charting out some Buddhist perspectives on ecological sensibility. It is also more concerned with the development of pedagogy for generating an ecological sensibility.