The Death of the Ethic of Life

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Basl
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Philosophy Of Biology ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Ethics Of Technology ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Moral Importance ◽  
Practical Concern ◽  
Living Organisms

According to the ethic of life, all living organisms are of special moral importance. Living things, unlike simple artifacts or biological collectives, are not mere things whose value is entirely instrumental. This book articulates why the ethic is immune to most of the standard criticisms raised against it, but also why such an ethic is untenable, why the domain of moral concern does not extend to all living things; it argues for an old conclusion in an entirely new way. To see why the ethic must be abandoned requires that we look carefully at the foundations of the ethic—the ways in which it is tightly connected to issues in the philosophy of biology and the sorts of assumptions it must draw on to distinguish the living from the nonliving. This book draws on resources from a variety of branches of philosophy and the sciences to show that the ethic cannot survive this scrutiny, and it articulates what the death of the ethic of life means in a variety of areas of practical concern, including environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, ethics of technology, and in philosophy more generally.

An Overview of Ethics and Environmental Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 697-703
Author(s):  
David B. Resnik
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Social Utility ◽  
Toxic Substances ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
Wide Range

This chapter provides an overview of the ethics of environmental health, and it introduces five chapters in the related section of The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics. A wide range of ethical issues arises in managing the relationship between human health and the environment, including regulation of toxic substances, air and water pollution, waste management, agriculture, the built environment, occupational health, energy production and use, environmental justice, population control, and climate change. The values at stake in environmental health ethics include those usually mentioned in ethical debates in biomedicine and public health, such as autonomy, social utility, and justice, as well as values that address environmental concerns, such as animal welfare, stewardship of biological resources, and sustainability. Environmental health ethics, therefore, stands at the crossroads of several disciplines, including public health ethics, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, and business ethics.

Ants as an Experiential Learning Strategy in Preschool Teacher Training

2021 ◽  
pp. 134-154
Author(s):  
Rosa María Gálvez Esteban ◽  
Beatriz Bravo Torija ◽  
Jose Manuel Pérez Martín
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Preschool Teachers ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Preschool Teacher ◽  
Education Project ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Living Organisms

In this chapter, the authors present the results of a project designed for 41 preservice preschool teachers to introduce the concept of living things as an experiential learning strategy in the classroom. The need to approach this concept from a different perspective prompted the design of an education project involving the introduction of insects into classroom as a teaching resource. An informative storyline was used for project launch presentation. The questions they strive to answer in this chapter are related with what concepts of living organisms and what inquiry stages will preservice teachers consider their pupils will carry out during the project. Relevant concepts that are usually not much covered in the preschool curriculum such as the life cycles of animals were considered by 23 participants. Twenty-five of the future teachers claimed that they would be able to work on every inquiry step if they implemented this project in the classroom.

Study on Ecological Value of Sustainable Development Based on China's Ancient Great Thinker's Thought on Ecological Ethics

2013 ◽  
Vol 869-870 ◽  
pp. 652-655
Author(s):  
Shi Hua Li
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Ecological Ethics ◽  
Ecological Value ◽  
Philosophical Thinking ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Relationship

Ecology is the science of studying the relationship between the living organisms and their environment. And the Environmental Science, which reveals the basic law of the harmonious development of society, economy and environment, is the discipline studying the interaction of people and environment. Ecology is not only the basic disciplines of environmental science, but also the scientifically recognized theoretical basis of environmental ethics. Tsunzi, a master on the Confucianism, one of the most distinguished Confucianists of the pre-Qin period, made the conception of sustainable development penetrate into his ecological ethics thoughts on the basis of philosophical thinking-Nature has its true law. If we hackle, inherit, comprehend, and utilize critically Tsunzis thought on ecological ethics, there will be some significant enlightening value for us to not only establish the theory of environmental ethics but also solve the increasing ecological crises facing humanity.

scholarly journals Van Rensselaer Potter: An Intellectual Memoir

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. WHITEHOUSE
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Cancer Metabolism ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Biomedical Ethics ◽  
License Plate ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
The University ◽  
Van Rensselaer Potter ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

Van Rensselaer Potter was the first voice to utter the word “bioethics,” yet he is too little appreciated by the bioethics community. My expectations for my first visit with Professor Van Rensselaer Potter were primed by conversations with leaders and historians of the field of biomedical ethics, including Warren Reich, Al Jonsen, and David Thomasma. When mentioning my interest in environmental ethics and my concerns for the current state of biomedical ethics, I was told that I must meet Van. On my first visit to Madison, Wisconsin, Van met me at the McArdle Laboratories for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, where he spent essentially his entire academic career as a basic oncological researcher. He was dressed informally and driving a rusting1984 Subaru station wagon with a license plate that read YES ZPG. We spent this first portion of our visit at the Institute where he is an Emeritus Professor and has contributed to understanding cancer metabolism as recognized by his election to the National Academy of Sciences. However, Van felt most at home in his shack located outside Madison. This country retreat included a rather primitive hut surrounded by acres of property owned by the family. I felt at the heart of Van's world when I sat in one of a pair of inexpensive plastic outdoor chairs in a particularly secluded part of the woods on the property, the place where Van himself communed with nature.

scholarly journals Considering All (Non) Living Things: A Biocentric Orientation in Blair Richmond’s The Lithia Trilogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Ida Farida ◽  
Yudi Permadi ◽  
Trisha Adelia ◽  
Nolly Liviani
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Gaia Hypothesis ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The Right

This article elucidates the perspective of The Lithia Trilogy, written by Blair Richmond, towards environment. This research is executed based on ecocriticism, a literary approach which focuses on the exploration of environmental issues in literary works. The theory is taken from Laurence Buell on the meaning of ecocriticism. From the analysis of the structure of the novels, it is found that the trilogy presents the idea of biocentrism, an assumption that the earth and all of the living things on it have the right to fulfill their needs without any molestation from the other, especially from humans. Biocentrism is the opposing concept of Anthropocentrism, both of which are studied in environmental ethics. Two issues of conflicts are presented in this trilogy: herbivores versus omnivores and environ-mentalists versus capitalists. The result of the research reveals that the novels suggest not to eat animals to save fauna and socialize Gaia hypothesis to save all living and non-living things on the earth. As one work of young adult literature, this trilogy explicitly teaches those suggestions to young readers.

scholarly journals Water: a substance with unique properties

2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Valery I. Slesarev
Keyword(s):  
Vortex Motion ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Wide Frequency Range ◽  
Radio System ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Network Of Hydrogen Bonds ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
First Time ◽  
Vortex Tubes

Water is a supramolecular aqua system with a single highly structurally dynamic network of hydrogen bonds. Since this grid is inhomogeneous in properties and structure, a proposed aquamezophase model of water takes into account the indicated heterogeneity and homogeneity of water. The peculiarities of intermolecular interactions for hydration and aquaclatratation, characteristic of water, are described. For the first time, the peculiarities of the chemistry and energy of water during vortex motion were revealed. This made it possible to propose a mechanism of action for vortex tubes, a cyclone of J. Rank, and aqua-vortex heat generators. Due to the vortex movement, the aquatic systems of the living organisms actively show restorative properties and become a source of energy necessary for life. Due to the thermodynamic nonequilibrium, openness, nonlinearity, and self-oscillating properties, water is a source of very weak acoustic and electromagnetic aqua emissions in a wide frequency range from fractions of Hz to 1017 Hz, which are recorded as emissions from the end of the 20th century. Since water is a source of radiation and is sensitive to external radiation, water is an aqua-radio system. Under even weak external influences, water is characterized by phase transitions of the second order under external weak influences, at which its ΔUtotal ≈ 0. At the first resonance stage, a quickly coordinated and conjugated transformation |ΔUfree|↔|ΔUconnect| occurs, which changes the properties of water. The second stage is a slow return to its original state, i.e., structural-temporal hysteresis is observed. The change in the properties of water as a result of a phase transition of the second kind is called aquacommunication. Given that living things in molecular composition consist of 99% of water, all living things are also aqua-systems.

Vitalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bechtel ◽  
Robert C. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Movement Perception ◽  
The Third ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Mechanical Devices ◽  
Élan Vital ◽  
Mechanistic View

Vitalists hold that living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things. In its simplest form, vitalism holds that living entities contain some fluid, or a distinctive ‘spirit’. In more sophisticated forms, the vital spirit becomes a substance infusing bodies and giving life to them; or vitalism becomes the view that there is a distinctive organization among living things. Vitalist positions can be traced back to antiquity. Aristotle’s explanations of biological phenomena are sometimes thought of as vitalistic, though this is problematic. In the third century bc, the Greek anatomist Galen held that vital spirits are necessary for life. Vitalism is best understood, however, in the context of the emergence of modern science during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Mechanistic explanations of natural phenomena were extended to biological systems by Descartes and his successors. Descartes maintained that animals, and the human body, are ‘automata’, mechanical devices differing from artificial devices only in their degree of complexity. Vitalism developed as a contrast to this mechanistic view. Over the next three centuries, numerous figures opposed the extension of Cartesian mechanism to biology, arguing that matter could not explain movement, perception, development or life. Vitalism has fallen out of favour, though it had advocates even into the twentieth century. The most notable is Hans Driesch (1867–1941), an eminent embryologist, who explained the life of an organism in terms of the presence of an entelechy, a substantial entity controlling organic processes. Likewise, the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1874–1948) posited an élan vital to overcome the resistance of inert matter in the formation of living bodies.

Environmental ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Living Things ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Moral Respect

Theories of ethics try to answer the question, ‘How ought we to live?’. An environmental ethic refers to our natural surroundings in giving the answer. It may claim that all natural things and systems are of value in their own right and worthy of moral respect. A weaker position is the biocentric one, arguing that living things merit moral consideration. An ethic which restricts the possession of moral value to human persons can still be environmental. Such a view may depict the existence of certain natural values as necessary for the flourishing of present and future generations of human beings. Moral respect for animals has been discussed since the time of the pre-Socratic philosophers, while the significance to our wellbeing of the natural environment has been pondered since the time of Kant and Rousseau. The relation of the natural to the built environment, and the importance of place, is a central feature of the philosophy of Heidegger. Under the impact of increasing species loss and land clearance, the work on environmental ethics since the 1970s has focused largely on one specific aspect of the environment – nature in the wild.

Fragmenting Cosmic Connections: Converting Nature Into Commodity

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darrell Addison Posey
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
World View ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Gallery Forests ◽  
Commodification Of Nature ◽  
Living Organisms

Most contributions to this volume frame emerging ‘consciousness of connections’ through international politics, economics and trade, urban/ rural exchanges, social movements, environmental transformations, and global citizenship and governance. These views reflect a remarkably linear world-view of dialectics such as: past/present, growth/sustainability, internal/external, and production/recycle. Langton (Chapter 9), however, introduces the idea of symbolic environmental space, or spacialization, which is expressed in the Aboriginal concept of totem. Totem defines other dimensions of knowing that emerge from cosmic environments through connections with animal spirits. These non-lineal manifestations might be described as spiritual clusters that, unlike the electron clouds that enshroud an atomic nucleus, are literally grounded through centres that define human landscapes marked by cultural mechanisms such as sacred sites and song lines. Indigenous peoples in other parts of the world share with Aboriginal Australians this view of cosmic connectedness between living things and the Earth (see Posey and Dutfield 1996). Thus, human beings share life with all other living organisms, and, indeed, may be transformed into other transgenic forms through death, ceremony, or shamanistic practice. In this chapter, I want to explore how such world-views function to create and maintain anthropogenic and cultural landscapes that conserve ecological and biological diversity. I also hope to show how global trade and political initiatives are working to sever and fragment these cosmic connections by reducing the vast bio-diversity of nature to mere products for biotechnology and commercial exploitation. I suggest that the commodification of nature—especially through Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)—is one of the biggest threats to global security in the twenty-first century. This is because global consumerism is driven by market prices that ignore or obliterate the local cultural, spiritual and economic values of indigenous and local peoples, who still manage, maintain and conserve much of the biological diversity of the planet. Many of my examples will come from the Kayapó Indians, with whom I have lived and worked since 1977. The Kayapó inhabit a 4 million hectare (approximately 9 million acre) continuum of ecosystems from the grasslands of the Brazilian planalto to the tropical and gallery forests of the Amazon basin.

Biology and Materials? Part I

MRS Bulletin ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 24-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Alper
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Vital Force ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The Common ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Science Departments ◽  
First Time

Poets and philosophers have, through the ages, viewed organisms as the embodiment of the mysterious “Vital Force,” a unique non-earthly element required for the functioning of life processes.Biologists have seen, in living organisms, an adaptive, self-reproducing, evolving collection of molecules acting solely according to the laws of chemistry and physics.Historians speak of the iron or bronze ages and, more recently of the plastics (polymers) and the silicon ages. Materials science departments speak of metals, alloys, ceramics, and perhaps polymers—but not of genes.The “common man” has, it must be admitted, seen living organisms as a source of useful and important materials—wood for building; cotton, silk, and other fibers for textiles; horn, shell, and bone for tools and weapons; fats for lubricants; fur for clothingBut, in fact, few of us now think of materials when we think of living things. Neither do we think of DNA, protein, and carbohydrates when we think of materials.No, biologists have not been blackballed by materials scientists, chemists, and physicists. Until recently, they neither understood the processes by which life produces its materials nor even conceived of manipulating those processes to tailor the properties of the materials to our needs. Only within the past few years has the “biological revolution” expanded our understanding of the molecular basis for biological phenomena and our ability to control them. It is only now, for the first time, that one can point to a legitimate field of science based on mimicking, adapting, and controlling biological systems with the goal of producing novel materials with important, unique, and useful properties.

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