科學生態學發展歷史中的多元思維樣式

The Thought Styles in the History of Scientific Ecology

本文嘗試先從歷史發展的角度指出，科學生態學在成為自主學科那時起，便同時接納了自然史與精確科學兩種相異的自然觀與研究方法。其次，本文將以「生態系統」理論的發展為例，分析群落生態學（community ecology）與系統生態學（systems ecology）中的預設。群落生態學含有自然史的色彩。系統生態學雖承繼整體（holistic）哲學，但是引入控制論的反饋迴路（feedback loops）等概念。第三，本文將略述科學生態學理論、生態哲學與環境運動之間的關係。簡單來說，強調整體的生態學容易與古老神秘主義產生聯想，與環境運動關係較為密切。群落生態學，特別是走向數學模擬族群競爭的生態學，則與環境運動似乎較無關聯。最後，本文呼籲在生態問題層出不窮的今天，應強調生態學知識的溝通，肯認「公共生態學」的重要性，並嘗試與政府推動的環境教育結合。

The purpose of this paper is to show that there are different “thought styles” in modern scientific ecology. We will begin by providing historical evidences that scientific ecology contains viewpoints and research methods both from natural history and exact sciences. Secondly, this paper is to analyze the development of two major ecological theories, i.e. community ecology and systems ecology. The former based on the studies of natural history. The latter inherited a holistic philosophical thinking on one hand, and built new theories with the concepts from cybernetics, such as “feedback loops”, on the other hand. Thirdly, we may consider the possible relationships among ecological theories, ecological philosophy and environmental movements. Finally, in response to increasing disparities over political, social, and environmental concerns, we might pay more attention to the “public ecology”, which exists at the interface of science and policy.