Ecology and Vision

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Eggemeier

This essay analyzes the significance of contemplative practice for the development of environmental ethics. The writings of Mary Oliver, Annie Dillard, and Tim Lilburn are examined as examples of the way in which the cultivation of a contemplative way of seeing the world constitutes an important environmental practice. While Oliver, Dillard, and Lilburn differ in the strategies they employ to facilitate this contemplative experience, they converge in their view that the work of learning to see the natural world with contemplative attention is a spiritual act that is not only significant in its own right but which also serves to support the development of an environmental ethics.

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laÿna Droz ◽  

The concept of humans as relational individuals living in a milieu can provide some solutions to various obstacles of theorization that are standing in the way of an ethics of sustainability. The idea of a milieu was developed by Tetsuro Watsuji as a web of signification and symbols. It refers to the environment as lived by a subjective relational human being and not as artificially objectified. The milieu can neither be separated from its temporal—or historical—dimension as it is directly related to the “now” of perceptions and actions in the world. In other words, elements of the natural milieu can be said to have a constitutive value as they contribute to our well-being by helping us make sense of our life and our world. In their temporal and relational dimensions, Watsuji’s notions of the milieu and human being are thus directly related to the notion of sustainability. This concept offers some convincing solutions to overcoming the problem of temporal distance, by shifting the center of argumentation from unknown, passive, and biologically dependent not-yet- born people to the transmission of a meaningful historical milieu. The turning point here is that if what matters is the survival of ideal and material projects that people live (and sometimes die) for, then future generations have tremendous power over them, as the actions of those future people will determine the success or failure of the projects started by present generations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
diana noyce

In 2009 the world celebrated the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's seminal work, the Origin of Species. While much was made of his evolutionary thinking, there was more to Darwin than merely challenging the way the Western World thought about the natural world. Gregarious by nature, Darwin also enjoyed the pleasures of the table. From his Glutton Club days at Cambridge University and throughout the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin not only collected specimens to develop his understanding of the natural world but he also ate them. He was never more satisfied than digesting species unknown to the human palate, at least the English palate. Darwin relished the culinary delights that different lands offered and approached the discovery of a new dish, and of the way it was cooked, with the same sense of curiosity and adventure he brought to collecting specimens.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-107
Author(s):  
Marcin Klimski

The changing state and quality of the environment is now taken for granted by communities living in many distant parts of the world. It is felt more and more intensely that disadvantageous interference in the natural environment will sooner or later have an impact on the biotic community, including humans themselves. However, the problem has not yet been so clearly accentuated, so as to prevent the effects, which often become irreversible. Environmental ethics is one of the scientific disciplines which has attempted to find proper arguments for the protection of the biotic community, as well as to enhance the feelings of responsibility and care for the socio-natural environment. Among the ethical ideas which are developed in this context, the holistic view presents the broadest scope of human moral responsibility for the natural world. Such an approach is considered to have originated in the writings of the American researcher, Aldo Leopold. His ideas and great determination have become well known to those who were not indifferent to the issues of respect for the environment and environmental protection. The article outlines the possibility to incorporate arguments based on the thought of Aldo Leopold, in the process of environmental education, whose aim is the protection of biotic community.


Author(s):  
Azad Jafar Jafarov

Environmental protection is considered an important element in most religions. The article is devoted to the philosophical understanding of the problem of the influence of religion on the environment, human behavior and attitude to nature. Religion has always touched upon the problem of the relationship between man and the world around him. In the existing religious traditions, various ideals of the relationship between man and nature have been formed. As a result, the ideological functions of religion acquire special significance. In our time, religions can be a spiritual source for the development and formation of environmental ethics and natural aesthetics. Religious ethics awakens in people a consciousness that is different from material and technological thinking. Religion helps people understand that their control over the living and inanimate world is unlimited and that cruelty towards nature will turn to them. Religion teaches people that the purpose of life is not to maximize consumption. While technology gives man the physical strength to create or destroy the world, religion teaches virtue. Directly or indirectly, religion can be a powerful source of environmental protection. Therefore, we need to use the power of the influence of religion to protect nature. The nature of the influence of religion on the current state and development of society largely depends on the relationship between people of different faiths. The religious consciousness of people developed in the direction of knowledge of the world and its laws, methods of practical use. Some religious ideologies deify human nature and reflect people's responses to their environment. Religion, as a form of social consciousness, has always, in one way or another, taken care of man's relationship with the natural world, traditionally expressed a certain moral and ethical concern for the environment and determined the moral obligations of man in relation to the environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172
Author(s):  
Yashoda Chaulagain

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Barkas ◽  
Xenia Chryssochoou

Abstract. This research took place just after the end of the protests following the killing of a 16-year-old boy by a policeman in Greece in December 2008. Participants (N = 224) were 16-year-olds in different schools in Attiki. Informed by the Politicized Collective Identity Model ( Simon & Klandermans, 2001 ), a questionnaire measuring grievances, adversarial attributions, emotions, vulnerability, identifications with students and activists, and questions about justice and Greek society in the future, as well as about youngsters’ participation in different actions, was completed. Four profiles of the participants emerged from a cluster analysis using representations of the conflict, emotions, and identifications with activists and students. These profiles differed on beliefs about the future of Greece, participants’ economic vulnerability, and forms of participation. Importantly, the clusters corresponded to students from schools of different socioeconomic areas. The results indicate that the way young people interpret the events and the context, their levels of identification, and the way they represent society are important factors of their political socialization that impacts on their forms of participation. Political socialization seems to be related to youngsters’ position in society which probably constitutes an important anchoring point of their interpretation of the world.


Author(s):  
Alistair Fox

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-443
Author(s):  
Paul Mazey

This article considers how pre-existing music has been employed in British cinema, paying particular attention to the diegetic/nondiegetic boundary and notions of restraint. It explores the significance of the distinction between diegetic music, which exists in the world of the narrative, and nondiegetic music, which does not. It analyses the use of pre-existing operatic music in two British films of the same era and genre: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), and demonstrates how seemingly subtle variations in the way music is used in these films produce markedly different effects. Specifically, it investigates the meaning of the music in its original context and finds that only when this bears a narrative relevance to the film does it cross from the diegetic to the nondiegetic plane. This reveals that whereas music restricted to the diegetic plane may express the outward projection of the characters' emotions, music also heard on the nondiegetic track may reveal a deeper truth about their feelings. In this way, the meaning of the music varies depending upon how it is used. While these two films may differ in whether or not their pre-existing music occupies a nondiegetic or diegetic position in relation to the narrative, both are characteristic of this era of British film-making in using music in an understated manner which expresses a sense of emotional restraint and which marks the films with a particularly British inflection.


The Eye ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (128) ◽  
pp. 19-22
Author(s):  
Gregory DeNaeyer

The world-wide use of scleral contact lenses has dramatically increased over the past 10 year and has changed the way that we manage patients with corneal irregularity. Successfully fitting them can be challenging especially for eyes that have significant asymmetries of the cornea or sclera. The future of scleral lens fitting is utilizing corneo-scleral topography to accurately measure the anterior ocular surface and then using software to design lenses that identically match the scleral surface and evenly vault the cornea. This process allows the practitioner to efficiently fit a customized scleral lens that successfully provides the patient with comfortable wear and improved vision.


Author(s):  
Adrián Bertorello

RESUMENEl trabajo examina críticamente la afirmación central de la hermenéutica de Paul Ricoeur, a saber, que el soporte material de la escritura es el rasgo determinante para que una secuencia discursiva sea considerada como un texto. La escritura cancela las condiciones fácticas de la enunciación y crea, de este modo, un ámbito de sentido estable en el que se puede validar una concepción de la subjetividad que está implicada en las dos estrategias de lecturas (el análisis estructural y la apropiación), esto es, un sujeto pasivo que se constituye por la idealidad del significado. Asimismo, el trabajo intentará precisar una serie de ambigüedades en el uso que Ricoeur hace del «ser en el mundo» para sostener la referencialidad del discurso.PALABRAS CLAVETEXTO, ESCRITURA, REFERENCIA, SUBJETIVIDAD, MUNDOABSTRACTThis paper critically examines the main assertion of Paul Ricoeur´s hermeneutics, i.e., that the material base of writing is the determining feature to consider a discursive sequence as a text. Writing cancels the factual conditions of enunciation and creates, in this way, a background of stable meaning where it is possible to validate a conception of subjectivity implicated in the two reading strategies (the structural analysis and the appropriation), i.e., a passive subject constituted by the ideality of meaning. Likewise, this paper aims to clarify some ambiguities in the way Ricoeur uses the «beings in the world» to support the discourse referentiality.KEY WORDSTEXT, WRITING, REFERENCE, SUBJECTIVITY, WORLD


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