scholarly journals Some animals are more equal than others: Validation of a new scale to measure how attitudes to animals depend on species and human purpose of use

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. e0227948
Author(s):  
Alexander Bradley ◽  
Neil Mennie ◽  
Peter A. Bibby ◽  
Helen J. Cassaday
Keyword(s):  
Human Purpose

Spiritual Foundations for an Ecologically Sustainable Society

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
Robert A. White
Keyword(s):  
Profound Change ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Baha'i Faith ◽  
Ecological Society ◽  
Human Endeavor ◽  
Spiritual Foundations ◽  
Cooperative Relationship ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable ◽  
Agriculture Development ◽  
Human Purpose

This paper takes a broad macroevolutionary approach to our changing relationship to Nature in light of the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. It suggests that humanity is perhaps, after all, not a delinquent species running out of control but is at the very centre of a vast growth process clearly approaching a tremendous transition. Drawing on the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith as well as on emerging knowledge in physics, ecology, and psychology, it suggests humanity is in a process of evolving consciousness that is leading to the birth of a new planetary culture. This process subsumes the development of a mature cooperative relationship between humanity and the ecosphere that gave it birth. This examination and synthesis will be accomplished in two parts. In the first part the basic attitudes to Nature that are contained within the Bahá’í writings will be explored and explicated. The second part will examine how the emergence of an ecological consciousness is linked to basic principles of the Bahá’í Faith. These principles will be related to tenets for an ecological society being advanced by contemporary social commentators. Implicit throughout is the Bahá’í view of the balance and cohesion of material and spiritual realities in approaching every question, whether it be environmental policy, agriculture, development, health, or peace. All areas of human endeavor are interrelated and require an integrated understanding of human purpose. This paper lays no claim to being an authoritative Bahá’í position and should be regarded as a preliminary attempt of one mind to grasp some of the deeper meanings latent in the voluminous writings of the Bahá’í Faith. Through this attempt it is hoped the reader will be led to a deeper understanding of current environmental dilemmas and will be offered a vision of profound change for which the current crises may be viewed as "forcing functions." As idealistic as this may seem, in this day only the visionary is pragmatic.

Antarctica and Siegfried Kracauer’s Extraterrestrial Film Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Fay
Keyword(s):  
Film Theory ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Human History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Purpose

`Siegfried Kracauer’s film and photographic theory along with cinematic records of early Antarctic exploration explain how this utterly inhospitable continent (Antarctica) and this media theory advance an alternative and denaturalized history of the present. Cinema has the capacity to reveal an earth outside of human feeling and utility without sacrificing the particularity that gets lost in scientific abstraction. And Antarctica, for so long outside of human history altogether, simply numbs feeling and refuses to yield to human purpose. It is also a continent on which celluloid encounters its signifying limits. Kracauer, this chapter argues, helps us to imagine an estranged and selfless relationship to an inhospitable or even posthospitable earth that may not accommodate us.

SOME BIOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS OF HUMAN PURPOSE

Zygon® ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 294-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred E. Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Human Purpose

scholarly journals Technology and human purpose: the problem of solids transport on the earth's surface

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Haff
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Potential Gradient ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Advective Transport ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Solids Transport ◽  
Human Purpose

Abstract. Displacement of mass of limited deformability ("solids") on the Earth's surface is opposed by friction and (the analog of) form resistance – impediments relaxed by rotational motion, self-powering of mass units, and transport infrastructure. These features of solids transport first evolved in the biosphere prior to the emergence of technology, allowing slope-independent, diffusion-like motion of discrete objects as massive as several tons, as illustrated by animal foraging and movement along game trails. However, high-energy-consumption technology powered by fossil fuels required a mechanism that could support advective transport of solids, i.e., long-distance, high-volume, high-speed, unidirectional, slope independent transport across the land surface of materials like coal, containerized fluids, and minerals. Pre-technology nature was able to sustain large-scale, long-distance solids advection only in the limited form of piggybacking on geophysical flows of water (river sediment) and air (dust). The appearance of a generalized mechanism for advection of solids independent of fluid flows and gravity appeared only upon the emergence of human purpose. Purpose enables solids advection by, in effect, enabling a simulated continuous potential gradient, otherwise lacking, between discrete and widely separated fossil-fuel energy sources and sinks. Invoking purpose as a mechanism in solids advection is an example of the need to import anthropic principles and concepts into the language and methodology of modern Earth system dynamics. As part of the emergence of a generalized solids advection mechanism, several additional transport requirements necessary to the function of modern large-scale technological systems were also satisfied. These include spatially accurate delivery of advected payload, targetability to essentially arbitrarily located destinations (such as cities), and independence of structure of advected payload from transport mechanism. The latter property enables the transport of an onboard power supply and delivery of persistent-memory, high-information-content payload, such as technological artifacts ("parts").

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