After the Renaissance and the following centuries, the period of modern industry - and its critics against the environment - began. From the dancing “Daffodils” described by Wordsworth (in the poem “I wondered lonely as a cloud”, 1807) we come to the “Coketown” described by Charles Dickens in his novel “Hard Times” (1854).
In the coke town, smoking chimneys killed everyone and everything. Philosophical critics emerge, like the idea of integration between men and the world in which they live.
In the beginning, however, critics were weak and obtained ex negativo from Schelling, Marx and Luckacs. In particular, in the social critics made by Marx and Luckacs, we can find a clear call to end human exploitation, alienation and mortification.
Reflecting on their ideas, we understand that we must respect our only life source, the environment.
Merleau Ponty, French philosopher, views the world as a surrounding landscape, which changes and transforms every time a new life comes to light, every time a living being does something. This underlines how much we depend on the context in which we live and the importance of protecting it. Everyone has the power to make the difference.
