Philosophy of ecology is a concept under the philosophy of science, which is a subfield of philosophy. Its main concerns centre on the practice and application of ecology, its moral issues, and the intersectionality between the position of humans and other entities. This topic also overlaps with metaphysics, ontology, and epistemology, for example, as it attempts to answer metaphysical, epistemic and moral issues surrounding environmental ethics and public policy.

The aim of the philosophy of ecology is to clarify and critique the 'first principles’, which are the fundamental assumptions present in science and the natural sciences. Although there has yet to be a consensus about what presupposes philosophy of ecology, and the definition for ecology is up for debate, there are some central issues that philosophers of ecology consider when examining the role and purpose of what ecologists practice. For example, this field considers the 'nature of nature', the methodological and conceptual issues surrounding ecological research, and the problems associated with these studies within its contextual environment.

Philosophy addresses the questions that make up ecological studies, and presents a different perspective into the history of ecology, environmental ethics in ecological science, and the application of mathematical models.

Ecology is considered as a relatively new scientific discipline, having been acknowledged as a formal scientific field in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Although an established definition of ecology has yet to be presented, there are some commonalities in the questions proposed by ecologists.

Ecology was considered as “the science of the economy [and] habits,” according to Stauffer, and was proponent in understanding the external interrelations between organisms. It was recognised formally as a field of science in 1866 by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). Haeckel termed ‘ecology’ in his book, Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866), in the attempt to present a synthesis of morphology, taxonomy, and the evolution of animals.

Haeckel aimed to refine the notion of ecology and propose a new area of study to investigate population growth and stability, as influenced by Charles Darwin and his work in Origin of Species (1859). He had first expressed ecology as an interchangeable term constituted within an area of biology and an aspect of ‘physiology of relationships’. In the English translation by Stauffer, Haeckel defined ecology as “the whole science of the relationship of organism to environment including, in the broad sense, all the ‘conditions for existence.'” This neologism was used to distinguish studies conducted on the field, as opposed to those conducted within the laboratory. He expanded upon this definition of ecology after considering the Darwinian theory of evolution and natural selection.

There is yet to be an established consensus amongst philosophers about the exact definition of ecology, however, there are commonalities in the research agendas that helps differentiate this discipline from other natural sciences.

Ecology underlies an ecological worldview, wherein interaction and connectedness are emphasized and developed through several themes: