International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2018

Traditional Chinese Confucianism and Taoism and current environmental education (Abstract)

Mei-Hsiang Lin

In an era in which a conflicting relationship exists between humans and nature, ways of solving environmental problems need to be introduced into people’s thinking about what to do, what lifestyle we should accept, and what kind of people we should become to support our environmental protection work using better justifications. Traditional Chinese Confucianism and Taoism can exert a profound ideological, philosophical, and spiritual influence on how people judge the meaning and value of their lives. Regarding how humans face the natural environment and how they perceive the meaning and value of human lives, Chinese Confucianists and Taoists who possess profound wisdom and great benevolence have provided unique philosophical views. The philosophical views and thinking of Chinese Confucianism and Taoism provide links to the environmental crises that humans encounter today.