由於人類文明之發展，造成自然的嚴重衝擊，進而使環境倫理成為廿一世紀十分重要而迫切的問題。中國道家思想一向對人文社會採取較為批判的態度，而對自然則較為肯定。因此，我們在討論中國的環境倫理思想時，當然不會忽視道家思想的重要。本文首先探討時下有關中國環境倫理討論的特點及其限制，而後進一說明中國人對自然雖然充滿關懷，但是卻較缺乏客觀知識之充分支持。如果我們說環境倫理學包含了形上學、自然觀及價值觀，那麼，中國的道家思想在形上學及價值觀誠然有著十分精到之意見，但在自然觀上則較欠缺客觀知識之支持。正因為欠缺客觀知識之支持，也使得我們在建構道家環境倫理思想時，只能停留在觀念階段，而缺乏落實之方法及內容。因此，有關道家環境倫理思想之發展，應該強化客觀知識之地位，使得其形上學及價值觀更具落實之方向與內容。

　　　　　The Development of human civilization and technology has caused serious impact on natural environment, and made environmental ethics one of the most important and exigent problems of the 21st century. Taoism tends to be critical human society and values Nature and natural processes. Hence, when we come to problems related to Chinese environmental ethics, Taoism is naturally one of the prominent theories. This paper will first examine the characteristic and limitations of recent discussion and explains why Chinese show much concern with Nature, however, without sufficient objective knowledge base. Where environmental ethics encompasses metaphysics, ideas of Nature and value, Taoism contains significant insights, though it lacks support from objective knowledge again. Consequently, our reconstruction of Taoistic environmental ethics remains in the stage of idea exploration rather than methods of practice and substantial directives. This is in fact the most urgent task for the most urgent task for the development of Taoism, that is , exploring further the direction and concretization of Taoistic metaphysics and theory of value in terms of environmental sciences.