A Science of Friendly Pigs … Carving Out a Conceptual Space for Addressing Animals as Sentient Beings

This article is a thinking exercise to re-imagine some of the principles of a transformational vocational education and training (VET) approach underpinned by participatory democracy and governance, and is drawn from a longer work on an ABC of the principles that could be considered when discussing ways to transform VET for South African learners and teachers. The purpose of this article is to scope out the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental context of VET and to suggest some of the possible ingredients to inspire co-created design. Thus the article is just a set of ideas for possible consideration and as such it makes policy suggestions based on many ways of knowing rooted in a respect for self, others (including sentient beings) and the environment on which we depend. The notion of African Renaissance characterises the mission of a VET approach in South Africa that is accountable to this generation of living systems and the next.

The Graciousness of the Buddha to Sentient Beings

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3226615 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Chamnong Kanthik ◽

Sudaporn Khiewngamdee

Keyword(s):

Sentient Beings ◽

The Buddha

Women Healing the Globe, Preserving the Tibetan Plateau

Feminist Theology ◽

10.1177/09667350211000603 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 264-289

Author(s):

Janice L. Poss

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Roman Catholic ◽

The Tibetan Plateau ◽

Rosemary Radford Ruether ◽

Relevant Today ◽

The Earth ◽

Faith Traditions ◽

Responsible Care ◽

Exemplary Practice ◽

Sentient Beings

The Tibetan Plateau’s Permafrost is melting at an alarming rate. Six of the world’s major rivers are sourced in the Tibetan Himalayas that are warming at a faster rate than the rest of the earth. If the temperature of the region continues to increase, the rivers will dry up and the earth will warm at an even faster rate. Buddha Yeshe Tsogyal (ye shes mTsho rgyal) (757–817 CE), long considered the Mother of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, was the consort of Padmasambhava. She reached “complete liberation” or Nirvana in a single lifetime. Her stories are preserved in rman thar. Her life was an exemplary practice of compassion, responsible care, and non-violence toward all sentient beings and the world. Can we follow her proto-eco-feminist example? Can we build responsible care for our planet and humanity across disciplines and faith traditions? What does compassionate, non-violent Buddhist thought and Roman Catholic pastoral care bring to eco-feminism? Can an eco-feminist epistemology informed by Buddhist EcoDharma construct programs of sustainability into humanity’s excessive habits integrating science’s ability to quantify, with Buddha nature? Can Catholicism’s pastoral ability to show dependence on God, the peaceful, compassionate Creator of all allow us to see our dependence on God and our earth? Many women have already begun this work around the globe. In 2002, Rosemary Radford Ruether brought 16 women together from around the globe in Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion to tell us how they are doing it and succeeding. Each is highlighted here for their visions on how to heal the planet at the grassroots level. From their insights, this article explores their contributions as being still relevant today and adding new concerns about the dangers arising on the Tibetan Plateau. The article emphasizes their ideas, provides a warning and other ideas that collective activation might inspire to address climate change.

Should we Ascribe Capabilities to Species and Ecosystems? A Critical Analysis of Ecocentric Versions of the Capabilities Approach

Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics ◽

10.1007/s10806-021-09863-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Anders Melin

Keyword(s):

Critical Analysis ◽

Political Liberalism ◽

Capabilities Approach ◽

Overlapping Consensus ◽

As Species ◽

Theories Of Justice ◽

Comprehensive Doctrines ◽

Sentient Beings

AbstractMartha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach is today one of the most influential theories of justice. In her earlier works on the capabilities approach, Nussbaum only applies it to humans, but in later works she extends the capabilities approach to include sentient animals. Contrary to Nussbaum’s own view, some scholars, for example, David Schlosberg, Teea Kortetmäki and Daniel L. Crescenzo, want to extend the capabilities approach even further to include collective entities, such as species and ecosystems. Though I think we have strong reasons for preserving ecosystems and species within the capabilities approach, there are several problems with ascribing capabilities to them, especially if we connect it with the view that species and ecosystems are subjects of justice. These problems are partly a consequence of the fact that an ascription of capabilities to species and ecosystems needs to be based on an overlapping consensus between different comprehensive doctrines, in accordance with the framework of political liberalism on which the capabilities approach builds. First, the ascription of capabilities to species and ecosystems presupposes the controversial standpoint that they are objectively existing entities. Second, the ascription of capabilities to ecosystems and species and the view that they are subjects of justice is justified by claiming that they have integrity and agency, but these characteristics have different meanings when applied to collective entities and humans, respectively. Third, the view that species and ecosystems are subjects of justice seems to require the controversial assumption that they have interests of their own, which differ from the interests of the sentient beings that are part of them. However, even if we do not ascribe capabilities to species and ecosystems and regard them as subjects of justice, there are still strong reasons to protect them within the capabilities approach, as the preservation of ecosystems and species is an important precondition for many human and animal capabilities.

Resilience revisited: AIDS and resilience among a Yi ethnic minority in Southwest China

Theory & Psychology ◽

10.1177/09593543211001114 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095935432110011

Author(s):

Rachel Sing-Kiat Ting ◽

Louise Sundararajan ◽

Yuanshan Luo ◽

Junyi Wang ◽

Kejia Zhang

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Minority ◽

Southwest China ◽

Minority Group ◽

Target Population ◽

Conceptual Space ◽

Resilience Scale ◽

Aids Pandemic ◽

Western Psychology ◽

Semistructured Interviews ◽

Practical Implications

This study attempts to widen the conceptual space of resilience in (Western) psychology in order to better capture the resilience landscape of an ethnic minority group ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic—the Nuosu-Yi in Southwest China. Without decolonizing the construct of resilience, non-Western versions of coping with adversities cannot be properly understood. Our process of decolonization of resilience involved two steps: First, we conducted semistructured interviews with the target population ( N = 21) to take inventory of their Indigenous notions of resilience. Second, for conceptual comparison, we mapped the themes and categories, derived from thematic analysis, of the interview data onto the conceptual space of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), which we used as proxy for mainstream conceptualizations of resilience. This mapping revealed multiple lacunae in the theoretical framework of RSA, and unique properties in the Indigenous approach to adversities in contrast. Far reaching theoretical and practical implications of this investigation are discussed.

Crito and the Socratic Controversy

Polis The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought ◽

10.1163/20512996-90000085 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 21-45

Author(s):

Gabriel Danzig

Keyword(s):

Viable Alternative ◽

Moral Expert ◽

Sentient Beings ◽

The City

Crito was written in response to popular slanders concerning Socrates’ failure to escape from prison, and accompanying misgivings within the Socratic circle. Plato responds by asking his audience to disregard the slander of the mob and obey the moral expert instead. But he also responds by creating an image of Socrates and his friends widely at odds with the popular slander; by implying that Socrates’ critics were themselves guilty of some of the behaviour they charged against Socrates; by pointing out that Socrates had no viable alternative to death; and, in partial contradiction to all this, by rejecting the popular morality which saw Socrates’ abandonment and death as signs of failure. In the rhetorical climax of the composition, Plato shows that Socrates chose to die rather than victimize or offend the laws of the city, which he represents as sentient beings. The weaknesses that have been perceived in the arguments of the Athenian Laws are not fatal to the composition, because it aims not at a convincing demonstration, but at providing a portrait of Socrates’ own overwhelming conviction of the rightness of his decision.

OOK DE VIS MOET DUUR BETALEN

De Moderne Tijd ◽

10.5117/dmt2018.03-4.003.sedl ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 226-247

Author(s):

Lucie Sedláčková

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Animal Studies ◽

Fin De Siecle ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

Speaking Out ◽

Fin De Siècle ◽

New Ideas ◽

Sentient Beings ◽

Animal Agency

THE FISH HAVE TO PAY DEARLY AS WELL The representations of animals and vegetarianism in the works of Herman Heijermans and other socially engaged writers of the fin de siècle At the end of the nineteenth century, the perception of animals changed significantly due to the theory of evolution and other new ideas, which also affected a number of Dutch socialist-leaning writers. Utilizing the framework of literary animal studies, this article investigates how animals were represented in their works. Most of the examined writers present animals as sentient beings, which is also ref lected by their speaking out in favour of vegetarianism. Herman Heijermans takes a more ambivalent position: some of his writings show the possibility of animal agency, whereas in others, animals are subordinate to people’s needs and are objectified.

This Is My Body: A Reflection on Medical and Spiritual Distancing During the COVID19 Pandemic

The Linacre Quarterly ◽

10.1177/00243639211037924 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002436392110379

Author(s):

Lealani Mae Y. Acosta

Keyword(s):

Sentient Beings

As sentient beings and as patients, clinicians, and Catholics, we long for touch and union. With COVID19, the distancing inherent during the pandemic manifests itself in medical and spiritual ways as we yearn to connect with our patients, our physicians, and the Eucharist. Summary: As sentient beings and as patients, clinicians, and Catholics, we long for touch and union. With COVID19, the distancing inherent during the pandemic manifests itself in medical and spiritual ways as we yearn to connect with our patients, our physicians, and the Eucharist. COVID19 distancing manifests in medical & spiritual ways as we yearn to connect with our patients, our physicians, and the Eucharist.