Biophilia- Outside Reading 2


The concept that humans have a biological need to connect with nature had been called biophilia. It’s a Greek word meaning “love of life and the living world.” American biologist E. O. Wilson popularized this concept in 1984. Wilson theorized that because we evolved in nature, we have a biological need to connect with it. We are genetically determined to love the natural world. It’s in our DNA.
This is essentially a hypothesis on why we like to go outside, why we feel so calm in nature, and why we feel so good out in the forest. It serves as an explanation to why we feel more ‘stress free’ when we take even as little as a fifteen minute walk outside. It can also be an explanation for why we like to keep pets and house plants around. Biophilia has also been described as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life."

 
Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia. Harvard University Press, 1989.

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