Abstract:

: Today, environmental problems not only disrupt the ecological balance but also reduced the quality of life of all living and non-living beings. Although these problems are very old, they have shown their main effects with Industrial and Urban revolutions. In the intellectual sense, the main reason of these problems is the Enlightenment in which the mind, which sees the human as the most superior being, is at the forefront and the idea of dominating nature has emerged. In this study, the intellectual reasons underlying the concrete causes of environmental problems are studied in the context of human and environmental relations as part of of urbanization and industrialization processes. In this context, the study, which deals with these problems in two main points, the pre-Enlightenment period, which includes Ancient Natural Philosophy and Medieval Philosophy, and the Enlightenment period shaped by the Renaissance, Modernity and Scientific Revolution, emphasizes the changes in the perspective of nature. Changes in the way people perceive the environment before and after the Enlightenment and the problems created by these changes have brought both environmental pollution and resource depletion.

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