In a recent reformulation, biophilia has been defined as "the innate tendency to focus attention on life forms and anything that reminds us of them, and in some cases to affiliate with them emotionally" (E.O. Wilson). Biophilia seems to manifest early as early as school-age children and may prove to be a key resource for the development of a deep ecological culture.
Empathy, here understood as the ability to feel, understand and share the thoughts and emotions of another person, evolves with the child's psychic development. It is around the age of 3-4 years that the child experiences the first forms of empathy by participatory sharing that will accompany him or her throughout childhood. In adolescence, with the development of an increasingly sophisticated cognitive capacity, the ability to feel and share others' thoughts and emotions extends to encompass entire social groups (empathy by general conditions; Bonino, 1998) and, in a translational form, to participate in the "emotions" and expressiveness of animals, in the sacredness of plant life (Hill, 2000) and certain natural places (Naess, 1976; Snyder, 1990). Empathy is thus transformed into differentiated participation in different forms of life and natural objects (Barbiero, 2007).
Biophilia is also the psychobiological basis of naturalistic intelligence, which can only emerge and be enhanced through direct contact with nature and appropriate education (Barbiero & Berto, 2016). Within the theory of multiple intelligences, naturalistic intelligence is "the ability to connect deeply with the living world and to appreciate the effect this relationship has on us and the environment itself" (Gardner, 1999).
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