Ralf Isenmann

• In its scientific sense, industrial ecology represents an emerging transdisciplinary field of studying industrial systems and their fundamental linkage with natural ecosystems. As a short form, industrial ecology is called the "science of sustainability". At the bottom of industrial ecology there is a refreshingly different perspective of understanding nature as model in comparison with other scientific disciplines and concepts of understanding nature e.g. in terms of "sack of resources", "biophysical limit", "something outside", "surrounding", or just "environment" as opposed to industrial systems. The keynote of industrial ecology's specific perspective of understanding nature is to balance the development of industrial systems with the constraints of natural eco-systems, analogous to an "industrial symbiosis". The goal is to contribute for laying a fundamental underpinning for industrial ecology in its scientific sense, in this case especially for its use of nature as model. Therefore an impressive battery of philosophical arguments is provided bringing to bear against the sort of probably raised fallacies and facile or hasty proclaimed critics by sceptics, hard-liners, and mainstream-scientists who often overlook industrial ecology's stimulating role towards sustainability.