Rolf Edberg En studie av ett miljöfilosofiskt författarskap

In this essay I have tried to present the ideas and thoughts of the Swedish author Rolf Edberg (1912-1997), journalist, ambassador and county governor. By many regarded as an environment philosopher and the introducer of deep ecology into Sweden. The essay emphasizes Edberg as a modern renaissance man of important knowledge with a rhetorical force to present and generalize the problems the planet Earth is meeting. The paper compares him with Henry Thoreau but also finds a close but perhaps unintended relationship with the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel although Edberg himself claimed to be a Darwinist at heart. The essay stresses on four characteristic features in his authorship namely 1) a holistic view of nature and man, rejecting dualism for monism; 2) a cosmic relationship within the whole universe and also between organic and inorganic matter; 3) the planet Earth is in a crisis due to an uneven and unjust distribution of the resources of the Earth, the nuclear weapon threat and the overpopulation; 4) the evolution and not the religion has the answer to our existential questions. Självständigt arbete på avancerad nivå (magisterexamen) 10 poäng / 15 hp Självständigt arbete på avancerad nivå (magisterexamen) 10 poäng / 15 hp In this essay I have tried to present the ideas and thoughts of the Swedish author Rolf Edberg (1912-1997), journalist, ambassador and county governor. By many regarded as an environment philosopher and the introducer of deep ecology into Sweden. The essay emphasizes Edberg as a modern renaissance man of important knowledge with a rhetorical force to present and generalize the problems the planet Earth is meeting. The paper compares him with Henry Thoreau but also finds a close but perhaps unintended relationship with the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel although Edberg himself claimed to be a Darwinist at heart. The essay stresses on four characteristic features in his authorship namely 1) a holistic view of nature and man, rejecting dualism for monism; 2) a cosmic relationship within the whole universe and also between organic and inorganic matter; 3) the planet Earth is in a crisis due to an uneven and unjust distribution of the resources of the Earth, the nuclear weapon threat and the overpopulation; 4) the evolution and not the religion has the answer to our existential questions.