DISCLOSIVE DISCOURSE, ECOLOGY, AND TECHNOLOGY

Currently, much hope for the protection of nature is pinned on the sci ence of ecology. Without suggesting that we should pay less serious at tention to science, I argue for a more pluralistic approach to the env ironmental and technological problems facing our time. I maintain that when ecology changes attitudes and ways of life, it does so by import ing a language of engagement with nature rather than by remaining conf ined to a strictly scientific account. This language of engagement, wh ich shows how nature and natural things can be engaged by humans in a multiplicity of ways, I call disclosive discourse. Disclosive discours e, however, is not used exclusively by ecologists and other scientists . To the contrary, the great literary writers exemplify in their writi ngs the ways this discourse can present nature and natural things in t heir most profound and powerful appeal. Moreover, disclosive discourse is not limited to words: artworks, too, are disclosive. By characteri zing the deeper problem with which we are faced differently, as fundam entally technological rather than environmental, a more diversified pl urality of alternatives to technology, not limited to those having to do with primarily nature, can be brought into relief and encouraged.