Beyond Modernity: The Philosophical Implications and Insights of Xi Jinping's Thought on Ecological Civilization

Modernity, as a product of Western industrial civilization, has constructed a new worldview, methodology, value system, and ethics centered on enlightenment rationality. While this paradigm has driven material prosperity in capitalist societies, it has also precipitated a shift in the understanding of nature, from the teleological views of ancient Greece to the mechanistic and evolutionary theories of modernity, ultimately reducing nature to a mere tool serving human needs. This shift has led to a global ecological crisis. In the modern era, China, under the influence of Western civilization, was compelled to enter the process of modernization, seizing developmental opportunities but inevitably confronting the ecological dilemmas inherent in modernity. Marx conducted a thorough critique of modernity from both philosophical and capitalist-logical perspectives, and, rooted in practice, initiated a profound transformation in the human-nature relationship. Building upon Marx's view of nature, Xi Jinping's Thought on Ecological Civilization has innovatively developed ontological, epistemological, axiological, ethical, and methodological frameworks for understanding nature. This intellectual system not only transcends Western modern natural philosophy, but also establishes a complete action plan for the construction of ecological civilization in the new era through a comprehensive practical approach that integrates “thought-economy-law-culture-international cooperation”.