Cavendish vs. Descartes on Mechanism and Animal Souls

2019 ◽  
pp. 642-658
Author(s):  
Hadley Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Analogical Argument ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Nature Of Matter

In the Discourse on the Method, Descartes attempts to prove that animals are mere machines, lacking reason and, by extension, consciousness. This chapter explores the response to this position offered by Margaret Cavendish in her 1664 Philosophical Letters. Following a reconstruction of the analogical argument Cavendish constructs to refute the Cartesian position, there is an examination of Cavendish’s metaphysical views in contrast to Descartes’s, revealing the sharp divide between these two thinkers on questions related to the nature of matter, the intelligibility of mechanical explanations in nature, the proper conception of reason, and the relationship between human beings and the natural world.

墮胎——道家和道教的觀點

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-147
Author(s):  
Linchun QUAN
Keyword(s):  
Medical Technology ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Past ◽  
One Child Policy ◽  
Child Policy ◽  
Digital Commons ◽  
Bioethical Issues ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.道家思想尊重人性、堅持貴生輕物、生命至上，維護人的發展。道家對待生死的態度是遵循自然本性，主張順其自然。從這一觀點出發，墮胎不是自然而然，而是通過人為的手段達到其他的目的。道教除了順其自然的思想外，還強調陰陽平衡、尊道積德。道教認為，胎兒具有靈性，因此是有生命的，殺死胎兒屬於殺生惡行。道家和道教對待墮胎的態度無疑對於當今審視中國墮胎政策，富有一定的啟示意義。雖然，道家和道教沒有使用“權利”這樣的倫理語言，但卻反映了對生命的尊重。Daoism, one of China’s major philosophical and religioustraditions, emphasizes such notions as holism, organicism, andnaturalness, promoting the idea of living in line with the rulesand patterns of nature. This essay examines the Daoist ethics ofliving naturally with special attention given to abortion. It pointsout that for philosophical Daoism, abortion is not acceptablebecause it is considered an “artificial” action for a self-servingpurpose, such as aborting an unwanted baby girl after a sex teston a fetus. For religious Daoism, abortion is not acceptable because the fetus has a spirit and a soul. Both traditions maintain the importance of the sacredness of all life. Yet the language of rights and choices is absent in Daoism, and the aim of the essay is to present the basic teaching of Daoism and show that it is relevant to contemporary bioethical issues. With the increasing use of modern medical technology that makes the control or manipulation of the human body much easier, it is utterly important for humanity to think about the nature of human beings and the relationship between itself and the natural world. The essay also contends that Daoism offers a perspective to reflect on the one-child policy in China that has been practiced in the past few decades.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 1355 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

scholarly journals Respect for Nature – A Prescription for Developing Environmental Awareness in Preschool

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
Eva Ärlemalm–Hagsér
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
National Agency ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation ◽  
The Relationship

Embedded in the notion of sustainability lies a striving for an environmentally sustainable world and respect and care for the non-human world, as well as efforts to establish social, economic and political justice or all people. This paper deals with education for sustainability in Swedish pre-schools from two perspectives: first, the views held concerning the relationship between human beings and nature; second, young children’s participation and agency. The theoretical underpinning is informed by critical theory with a case study approach. The empirical material is derived from 21 applications, which were from Swedish preschools to be certified with »The Diploma of Excellence in Sustainable Development« (Swedish National Agency for Education). The main findings show that few critical questions are raised about the human-nature relationship in the applications, even though views concerning the connectedness with, and care and respect for the natural world are emphasised. Children’s participation and agency are neglected in a structure of ready-made views, activities and working methods already imbedded in the current pedagogical practices. Implications for research and practice would be to further explore how the understandings of the relationship between humans and nature are constructed within early childhood education. 

scholarly journals MyĶlenie relacyjne, inkluzyjne w dobie kryzysu klimatycznego

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Piotr Skubała ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Relational Thinking ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
The World ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Relationship

Climate change caused by excessive emissions of greenhouse gases is becoming, along with excessive exploitation of the environment, agriculture and urbani-zation, one of the main threats to life on Earth and our civilization. Although we have known about the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and the rise of the average temperature on Earth since end of the 20th century, it was only after nearly 100 years that we took international action to reduce this phenomenon. We are looking at the closing window and the question arises whether we will be able to react and stave oȮ the climate crisis. We know what immediate actions are needed, but we do not take them. It seems that a neces-sary condition for doing the work of repairing the world is a complete change in the way we view the natural world. It must be based on relational thinking, emphasize mutual relationships, the interdependence of man and nature, hu-man beings and non-human beings.

Thoreau’s luminous Homer in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-444
Author(s):  
Luke Parker
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Literary Expression ◽  
Unidirectional Movement ◽  
Living Nature ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Individual Human

Abstract Henry David Thoreau’s relationship to Greek literature, and Homer’s Iliad in particular, is more often remarked than analysed. This article argues that Thoreau’s engagement with Homer in his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, proves central to the themes of that work highlighted by critics as well as its less-studied formal hybrid of poetry and prose. I show that Thoreau constructs Homer as the poetic ideal in which the perennially renewed life of the natural world becomes accessible to human beings caught in the fatal and unidirectional movement of historical time. Thoreau’s ideas here may track Romantic conceptions of Homer and Greek literature more generally, but Thoreau turns contemporary uncertainty around the person of Homer into reflection on the relationship between personal experience and literary expression of ‘living nature’. This turns out to structure a larger dichotomy between poetry and prose, one in which Thoreau associates the latter with authentic experience and self-expression of an individual human life. In A Week’s engagement with Homer, then, we see Thoreau negotiating not only some core concerns of his writing but also his evolution from aspiring poet to author of the works in prose that ultimately define his career.

Cavendish’s Anti-Hobbesian Materialism

2021 ◽  
pp. 74-89
Author(s):  
Stewart Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
Human Beings

This chapter examines the distinctive materialist philosophy of Margaret Cavendish. Cavendish gave a materialist account of the natural world, but departed in several ways from Hobbes’s materialism. Her view was a panpsychist one, on which some matter was fundamentally and irreducibly sensitive, and other matter was fundamentally and irreducibly rational. The chapter argues that Cavendish’s view lies in some ways between Hobbes’s view and Henry More’s. Cavendish’s view also reverses the mechanist model of explanation used by Hobbes and others: rather than explaining thought in terms of motion, Cavendish explains motion in terms of thought. The chapter also notes Cavendish’s sometime view that human beings have a divine, immaterial, supernatural soul, and examines her views about how, and to what extent, material beings can conceive of immaterial ones.

scholarly journals Earth-Man Degradation In Corasanti's The Almond Tree: An Eco Critical Study

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (III) ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Iqra Khadam ◽  
Amna Aziz ◽  
Faiza Saeed
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Almond Tree ◽  
The World ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Relationship

This article finds out the relationship between nature and human beings. Nature is being damaged by advanced technology as well as by human beings. Glotfelty (1996) presents his idea that it is the relation of living organisms to their environment that bring changes in the surroundings. We have seen the loss of humanity in this age of science and advancement. The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti (2012) is about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. For this purpose, the research is done from Eco Criticism lenses. Both physical and natural world shares close relations. The urgency of examining literature from an ecological point of view has increased due to the present environmental crisis which has swept the globe. This research leads to the conclusion that there must be peace and harmony in the world by being friendly not only with other human beings but with the environment as well.

scholarly journals An Ecocritical Reading of Selected Poems of Muhammad Haji Salleh

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Hamoud Yahya Ahmed ◽  
◽  
Ruzy Suliza Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Physical World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ecological Consciousness ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
Literature And Environment ◽  
The Relationship

Ecocriticism is concerned with the relationship between literature and environment or how the relationships between humans and their physical world are reflected in literature. In this paper, we attempt to analyse selected poems of Muhammad Haji Salleh using some concepts from ecocriticism as an analytical lens. The premise of this paper is based on the poet’s symbiotic relationship which has become a significant feature of his work. Using six of his nature poems to exhibit Muhammad’s idea of mutual relationship between the human world and the natural world of environment, we show the poet’s concern about the slightest interference of human beings into the world of nature which results in the disruption of human-nature relationship. Muhammad Haji Salleh does not limit himself to presenting the brighter and darker side of nature, rather he has gone a step further to reveal the very concept of ecosystem and reflect the blossoming of ecological consciousness in modern Malaysian society. This approach of reading Muhammad Haji Salleh exhibits the current interest in the environment and the ways in which it has to be treated with respect and love. By explicating the intrinsic features of nature in his selected poems, we can inculcate environmental awareness and inspire ecological consciousness among people in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world. Keywords: Ecocriticism, ecosystem, interrelationship, ecological consciousness, poetry and Muhammad Haji Salleh

scholarly journals Environmental Ethics: Catalyst for Human/ Nature Relationship in “A White Heron”

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172
Author(s):  
Yashoda Chaulagain
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Natural Domain ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Mother Earth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

All the life forms have fundamental right to live in this universe. Human beings have duties, rights, and responsibilities towards the non-humans, and natural world. By not having a systematic and comprehensive account regarding the relationship between humans and the natural world, human beings are denying the importance of the life forms of other creatures in the world. Hence, the present research attempts to analyze the biocentric relationship of human beings with nature and its stewardship by being aware and knowledgeable of the world around them and protecting the world species. The study further argues the cooperative mechanism and symbiotic relationship between nature and human beings in this natural domain with reference to Jewett’s protagonist, Sylvia, who represents the symbol of mother earth by saving White Heron from the hunter. She restricts the Hunter to mastery over it. In addition, the work encompasses the conflict of nature with civilization by portraying the relationship of Sylvia, who preserves nature, from a foreigner, the Hunter who is concomitant with the danger of civilization. The Hunter who tracks the White Heron is from the city and hence stained by civilizations, sees nature is a place to exploit and desires the White Heron as another piece of his collection. In this sense, Sylvia represents herself true lover and preserver of the natural world and the Hunter is considered in complete opposition to the tranquility of the woodland.

scholarly journals Topography in the Timaeus: Plato and Augustine on mankind's place in the natural world

1988 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 104-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Material World ◽  
Moral Position ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
Bull's Eye ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper I shall be considering the relationship between the shape or structure of the world and the moral position occupied by human beings, particularly with regard to man's attitude towards and use of the natural resources of the material world he inhabits.1. The shape of the worldThere are two basic spatial metaphors that we frequently use in analysing notions of value and morality: one is the scale of up and down, with high and low or top and bottom as alternative ways of referring to the same type of hierarchy; the other is the notion of a centre, the bull's eye: if we are self-centred we value ourselves more highly than other things; if we have an anthropocentric view we value humanity above other animals. Thus we usually suppose that we put whatever we value most highly (on the one set of metaphors) at ‘the centre of things’ (on the other set).

A Māori Girl Watches, Listens, and Learns – Coming of Age from an Indigenous Viewpoint: Mauri (Merata Mita, 1988)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Fox
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Indigenous Woman ◽  
Spiritual Dimension ◽  
The World ◽  
Life Force ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines Merata Mita’s Mauri, the first fiction feature film in the world to be solely written and directed by an indigenous woman, as an example of “Fourth Cinema” – that is, a form of filmmaking that aims to create, produce, and transmit the stories of indigenous people, and in their own image – showing how Mita presents the coming-of-age story of a Māori girl who grows into an understanding of the spiritual dimension of the relationship of her people to the natural world, and to the ancestors who have preceded them. The discussion demonstrates how the film adopts storytelling procedures that reflect a distinctively Māori view of time and are designed to signify the presence of the mauri (or life force) in the Māori world.

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