TOWARD A PLANNING FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: THE NON-DUALISTIC APPROACH OF TRADITION by DILIP

The concept of nature as "totally other" -the man-nature dualism -is a basic presupposition of the Modern worldview. It is an obstacle to planning for environmental sustainability. In the framework of this worldview solutions to the environmental crisis are monistic strategies that at best bridge man and nature. These strategies, in addressing only the outer reality of the environmental crisis, which is the dichotomy between rational/sensory man and nature, undermine diversity through uniformity thereby fuelling the crisis of identity. The crisis of identity reinforces the man-nature dichotomy by dissociating man from the context of the ill-effects of his own action. Therefore a strategy framed in the modern worldview that purports to be a curative solution of the environmental crisis is not necessarily a preventive one, which it must be if it is to acheive environmental sustainability. The Traditional worldview provides a holistic conceptual framework to know and act toward preventing the environmental crisis. It addresses both, the outer reality and the inner reality of the environmental crisis, which is the dichotomy between rational/sensory man and intellectual man or the Self -another way of defining the crisis of identity. The dichotomy between man and nature, in this view, is not "bridged" by treating subject-object relationships, but "dissolved" by knowing their unifying principle, which is the Self. This requires the recognition of the intellectual domain in addition to the sensory and rational domains of knowledge. The Recognition and adoption of the knowledge structure offered by the traditional worldview today potentially provides, not only a more encompassing conceptual framework for dealing with the environmental crisis, but also tools for enabling a sustainable society. Thesis Supervisor: Lloyd Rodwin Title: Ford International Professor Emeritus