Reassessing the role of plants in society

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Amos
Keyword(s):  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Law And Policy

AbstractPlants have been and will continue to be fundamental to the evolution of human society. However, the law’s traditional approach to plants, based broadly on the need to facilitate the exploitation of plants for the benefit of humans and to regulate the impacts of that exploitation, fails to recognise the ways in which plants can be said to participate in society. This participation takes three forms: a contribution to the achievement of social goals, the shaping of social spaces and the influencing of individual and collective human behaviours. It is argued that the recognition of these roles that plants play in society in law and policy could begin to redress the continuing decline in plant diversity, and lead to a reformed understanding of society’s relationship with plants and the wider natural world.

scholarly journals A Comparative Institutional Approach to Law and Legal Institutions

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
George Barker
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Made In

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a revolution in economic policy and a transformation of the New Zealand economy. Such events also involved a revolution in legal thought and analysis. This article brings the main elements of this new economic approach to law and policy to a wider audience. It seeks to review the main features of the recent and significant advances that have been made in the economic analysis of organisations and institutions. The article first discusses the fundamental factors which must be recognised as constraints on the ability to secure an ideal society. It then discusses how private arrangements seek to overcome these constraints and the limits to their success. The role of the state in alleviating or overcoming problems with private solutions is also discussed, with the author stressing the need to recognise that the state is not an omniscient and omnipotent solver of social problems. The author concludes that the analysis of government and government policy needs to be based on a comparative institutional approach involving an assessment of institutional structures according to the processes and outcomes they involve, utilising generally accepted criteria for making social choices. Key factors that must be considered in comparing alternative means for achieving social goals are identified. 

Role of the family focused technologies in the clinical course of pregnancy at women of high obstetric risk

2016 ◽  
pp. 64-66
Author(s):  
S.Yu. Vdovichenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparison Group ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Married Couple ◽  
Premature Births ◽  
Individual Support ◽  
The Family ◽  
Risk Patients ◽  
Individual Preparation

The objective: to show a role of the family focused technologies in depression of frequency of pathology of pregnancy at women of high obstetric risk. Patients and methods. For determination of efficiency of prophylaxis of pathology of pregnancy on the basis of use of the family focused technologies complex clinical-psychological and laboratory and tool examination of 300 women with factors of obstetric risk which were divided into two groups was conducted. In the main group – 182 women with motivation on partner labors to which provided training on system of individual preparation of married couple to labors. The comparison group consisted of 118 women who were not in prenatal training and had individual support in childbirth, with the traditional approach to pain management. Results. Use of the family focused technologies during pregnancy allows to reduce significantly the frequency of the main complications of pregnancy, especially not incubation and premature births. Conclusion. In our opinion, the technique is simple, available and can widely be used in practical health care at women with high obstetric risk. Key words: obstetric risk, the family focused technologies, prophylaxis.

ECONOMIZATION OF ETHNO-POLITICAL CONFLICTS RESOLUTION IN GEORGIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-200
Author(s):  
M.D. Tokmazishvili
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Regional Market ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Conflicts Resolution

Resolution of ethno-political conflicts in the Caucasus by political means is in a “deadlock”, and peaceful economic projects in conflict zones face political obstacles. The economic isolation of states and the fragmentation of the regional market impede the development of countries, and the resolution of conflicts is hampered by opposing strategic political vectors of regional states, that negatively affect their economic growth. In this context, the article states that when political tools are not sufficient for integration, economic and social goals should be rationalized for the purpose of cohabitation and coexistence of people of different ethnic groups and cultures in the region. In the article, the author attempts to investigate the role of economic and social events as factors for mitigating ethnopolitical conflicts; determines how the economization of conflicts can affect the integration processes and strategies of Georgia in relation to the breakaway republics.

Fundamentality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Healey
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Theory ◽  
High Energy Physics ◽  
Physical Property ◽  
Natural World ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Quantum Field Theories ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
The World ◽  
Energy Physics

The metaphor that fundamental physics is concerned to say what the natural world is like at the deepest level may be cashed out in terms of entities, properties, or laws. The role of quantum field theories in the Standard Model of high-energy physics suggests that fundamental entities, properties, and laws are to be sought in these theories. But the contextual ontology proposed in Chapter 12 would support no unified compositional structure for the world; a quantum state assignment specifies no physical property distribution sufficient even to determine all physical facts; and quantum theory posits no fundamental laws of time evolution, whether deterministic or stochastic. Quantum theory has made a revolutionary contribution to fundamental physics because its principles have permitted tremendous unification of science through the successful application of models constructed in conformity to them: but these models do not say what the world is like at the deepest level.

It Keeps Me Seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Good Argument ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Relationship Of

Two scientists and a philosopher aim to show how science both enriches and is enriched by Christian faith. The text is written around four themes: 1. God is a being to be known, not a hypothesis to be tested; 2. We set a high bar on what constitutes good argument; 3. Uncertainty is OK; 4. We are allowed to open up the window that the natural world offers us. This is not a work of apologetics. Rather, the text takes an overview of various themes and gives reactions and responses, intended to place science correctly as a valued component of the life of faith. The difference between philosophical analysis and theological reflection is expounded. Questions of human identity are addressed from philosophy, computer science, quantum physics, evolutionary biology and theological reflection. Contemporary physics reveals the subtle and open nature of physical existence, and offers lessons in how to learn and how to live with incomplete knowledge. The nature and role of miracles is considered. The ‘argument from design’ is critiqued, especially arguments from fine-tuning. Logical derivation from impersonal facts is not an appropriate route to a relationship of mutual trust. Mainstream evolutionary biology is assessed to be a valuable component of our understanding, but no exploratory process can itself fully account for the nature of what is discovered. To engage deeply in science is to seek truth and to seek a better future; it is also an activity of appreciation, as one may appreciate a work of art.

scholarly journals Plato on Natural Kinds: The Promethean Method of the Philebus

Apeiron ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Proios
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Kind ◽  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Natural World ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Abstract Plato’s invention of the metaphor of carving the world by the joints (Phaedrus 265d–66c) gives him a privileged place in the history of natural kind theory in philosophy and science; he is often understood to present a paradigmatic but antiquated view of natural kinds as possessing eternal, immutable, necessary essences. Yet, I highlight that, as a point of distinction from contemporary views about natural kinds, Plato subscribes to an intelligent-design, teleological framework, in which the natural world is the product of craft and, as a result, is structured such that it is good for it to be that way. In Plato’s Philebus, the character Socrates introduces a method of inquiry whose articulation of natural kinds enables it to confer expert knowledge, such as literacy. My paper contributes to an understanding of Plato’s view of natural kinds by interpreting this method in light of Plato’s teleological conception of nature. I argue that a human inquirer who uses the method identifies kinds with relational essences within a system causally related to the production of some unique craft-object, such as writing. As a result, I recast Plato’s place in the history of philosophy, including Plato’s view of the relation between the kinds according to the natural and social sciences. Whereas some are inclined to separate natural from social kinds, Plato holds the unique view that all naturalness is a social feature of kinds reflecting the role of intelligent agency.

Rehabilitating Nature and Making Nature Habitable

1994 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Attfield
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Value Of Nature

Can nature be reconstituted, recreated or rehabilitated? And would the goal of doing so be a desirable one? There again, is wild nature intrinsically valuable, or are parks, gardens and farms sometimes preferable or of greater value? This cluster of questions arises from recent debates about preservation, restoration, wilderness and sustainable development. In discussing them I hope to throw some light on both the concept and the value of nature, and in due course on the attitudes which people should have towards it, the policies which should guide their practice, and thus on the proper role of humanity with regard to the natural world.

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