The current ecological crisis is not a single environmental disturbance, but a crisis of the modern civilization of promise, growth, and control. This crisis cannot be solved by mere technical fixes, but requires a new understanding of reality, a new basic economic category, and a new democratic idea of society. The book's answer to this is ecological realism, communal renewal, and a democratic transition toward ecological civilization.

I am an emeritus educational researcher, doctor of psychology. My research is related to the fourfold division of the European tradition: Schole, Polis, Oikos, Agora and its manifestation in the organization of education in Europe. I have been particularly interested in the mimesis vs. metis division, which is now manifested in the division of education into general and vocational education. From this perspective, I assess the limitations of the European Enlightenment in relation to nature, both internal and external, and especially their interrelationship.