scholarly journals The need for adequate argumentation for the protection of biotic community

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-107
Author(s):  
Marcin Klimski
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Aldo Leopold ◽  
Biotic Community ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The World

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.

scholarly journals Humans as “Part and Parcel of Nature”: Thoreau’s Contribution to Environmental Ethics

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-186
Author(s):  
Jason P. Matzke
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Henry David Thoreau ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Aldo Leopold ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ontological Commitments ◽  
Personal Character ◽  
The World ◽  
Right Relationship

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) develops an understanding of human beings as “part and parcel of nature” that includes the idea that we are physically, spiritually, and attitudinally (more or less) connected to the world around us. The image he offers is one in which life spent too much in civilization, where work and social expectations determine the quality of one’s daily life and personal character, lead to lives of boredom, conformity, and misplaced priorities. Time spent in more natural environments is the antidote. Such experiences have the potential to jar us out of the conformist and—to his mind—personally stunting existence into which most fall. Growth and liberation come from experiencing the “More” of which both nature and we are a part. Thoreau calls us to reevaluate our values and priorities by being in a right relationship with nature, which does not require that we accept all of his particular ontological commitments. The argument that emerges for greater protection of the environment is admittedly quite human-centered. However, Thoreau’s insight that we are part and parcel of nature is important because, as Aldo Leopold later argues, we can only progress beyond a prudential approach to nature when we see ourselves as part of the larger whole. The world looks different when it is our home and community as opposed to being mere material to be used or a stage on which our lives unfold.

Sprinter and Sprummer

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Entwisle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Carnivorous Plants ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
The World

Since 1788, Australia has carried the yoke of four European seasons that make no sense in most parts of the country. We may like them for historical or cultural reasons, or because they are the same throughout the world, but they tell us nothing of our natural environment. It's time to reject those seasons and to adopt a system that brings us more in tune with our plants and animals – a system that helps us to notice and respond to climate change. Using examples from his 25 years working in botanic gardens, author Timothy Entwisle illustrates how our natural world really responds to seasonal changes in temperature, rainfall and daylight, and why it would be better to divide up the year based on what Australian plants do rather than ancient rites of the Northern Hemisphere. Sprinter and Sprummer opens with the origins and theory of the traditional seasonal system, and goes on to review the Aboriginal seasonal classifications used across Australia. Entwisle then proposes a new five-season approach, explaining the characteristics of each season, along with the biological changes that define them. The book uses seasons to describe the fascinating triggers in the life of a plant (and plant-like creatures), using charismatic flora such as carnivorous plants, the Wollemi Pine and orchids, as well as often overlooked organisms such as fungi. The final chapter considers climate change and how the seasons are shifting whether we like it or not.

Un Poète Maudit

2013 ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Tomaž Grušovnik
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
External World ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The World ◽  
External World Skepticism ◽  
Working Out

Images of landscapes and encounters with the natural world feature prominently throughout Stanley Cavell’s texts — so much so that Coleridge’s romantic visions of the natural environment (the cold, icy region through which the Mariner’s ship drifts) represent one of the cornerstones of Cavell’s understanding of “romanticism as working out a crisis of knowledge,” and “skepticism [as] what romantic writers are locked in struggle against.” Indeed, skepticism as an interpretation of “metaphysical finitude” as “an intellectual lack” is seen by Cavell as something that has to be overcome (and not, say, refuted); and this overcoming, at least when it comes to the external world skepticism, is envisioned as the “acceptance” of the world, or even as “the idea of a romance with the world.” The “world” romantic writers have in mind is, of course, the natural world, for we should “Let Nature be [our] teacher.” It seems, then, that overcoming of skepticism is inextricably bound up with accepting the natural world and its “gift of life.

Identity, Community and the Natural Environment: Some Perspectives from Process Thinking

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-267
Author(s):  
Clare Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Human Community ◽  
Process Thinking ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Differentiation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

AbstractAlfred North Whitehead's and Charles Hartshorne's process thinking presents a complex and sophisticated metaphysical underpinning for a theory of self and self-identity. Their construction of the self has significant implications for understanding of the (human) community and the natural environment. Process thinking, I argue, undercuts the idea of self unity; of self-continuity over time; and of self-differentiation from the world. When combined, these three elements mean that it is hard to separate the individual, personal self from the community and the natural world. I compare these implications from process thinking with what might seem similar implications from radical ecological philosophies. Although there are ethical and metaphysical differences between process thinkers and deep ecologists, both kinds of theory need to be treated with caution in application to our thinking about the environment.

Ecology and Vision

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Eggemeier
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Contemplative Practice ◽  
Annie Dillard ◽  
Environmental Practice ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

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.

scholarly journals Kwestia ochrony życia ludzkiego - czyli konieczność uznania miłości do człowieka za podstawę szacunku do naturalnego środowiska

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-190
Author(s):  
Stanisław Biały
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Consecutive System ◽  
The World ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

The point of departure for the reflections in this article was the premise that the ecological crisis is the result not only of the degradation of nature, but also comes from the destruction of that environment, which is the spirituality of modern man. the point is that the more and more intensive use of the biosphere causes many unfavorable chemical and biological changes in the natural environment, which not only have their source in the way of thought and acting of man, but also have their effects on these. Because of this, the author comes to the conclusions that among the fundamental tasks that are before the world of today, one must also include the equiping of man with an ecological knowledge (that is: with a determined set of information connected in a causal-consecutive system on the subject of the functioning of the natural environment and the dependences between it and civilization), but above all: with a system of values and their normative equivalents. Only in such a manner can people be instilled with an adequate attitude, understood as a developed feeling of a link with the world of nature and its parts. We speak here of the readiness for its defense, manifested in concrete actions. Thus , an essential role of such a scientific discipline as environmental ethics shall be giving people the proper catalog of values and norms, which could properly form their motivations, attitudes and behavior as regards the natural environment, which at the end we call the relation of man to himself.

Contextual Footbridge Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Beade-Pereda
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Positive Response ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Case Scenario ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
The World ◽  
Points Of View

<p>The design of footbridges, paradigmatic cases of human transformation of the environment, should go beyond their main function as pieces of infrastructure, always aspiring to improve the quality of the built world. How a design relates to its specific context and its evolution through time is crucial to that respect. A positive response to the context in the design can lead to footbridges that are, for example, fitting additions to valuable environments, or catalysers for the transformation of declining areas. A less successful response, on the contrary, may just lead to crossings without further contribution to the site or, in the unfortunately not unusual worst-case scenario, to elements in conflict with the built environment from various points of view.</p><p>The article describes different strategies to successfully respond to the particularities of different contexts in footbridge design, using examples of the author’s experience ranging from first designed pieces of ambitious urban transformation projects, to a footbridge in a natural environment nearby a historic crossing, or a movable footbridge in one of the main financial districts in the world.</p>

Islam and Environmental Ethics

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Md. Abu Sayem
Keyword(s):  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Moral Teachings ◽  
Islamic View

The present paper deals with Islamic moral teachings of the environment from a Qur’ānic perspective. It attempts to correlate some familiar Qur’ānic terms with human moral responsibility towards the natural world. The paper investigates whether the Islamic view of the natural world supports the anthropocentric and bio-centric approach to environmental ethics or not. In so doing, the paper aims to present an Islamic balancing approach to the environment, show why such a unique approach is necessary to address the present environmental degradation, and how it can work for environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals ПРИНЦИПЫ ПРИРОДОИНТЕГРАЦИИ В ФОРМИРОВАНИИ АРХИТЕКТУРНОЙ СРЕДЫ СОВРЕМЕННЫХ ОБЪЕКТОВ ЗДРАВООХРАНЕНИЯ

World Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (3(43)) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Скороходова Алина Валерьевна ◽  
Родик Янина Сергеевна ◽  
Даниленко Евгений Леонидович
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
Favorable Result ◽  
Compositional Structure ◽  
The World ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Functional Purpose

The relevance of health facilities formation taking into account principles of nature integration is substantiated in the article. It is shown that the concept of harmonious interaction with nature gives the best results for treatment and rehabilitation of patients; it gains more popularity and attracts attention of specialists in the field of medicine, architecture and design around the world. On the basis of the research work, several principles of nature integration in formation of architectural environment of health facilities can be distinguished. They depend on functional purpose of architectural objects, compositional structure, climatic conditions, ecosystem and location. It is proved that architectural formation of health facilities harmoniously associated with natural environment directly affects health of patients. In the process of architectural environment formation it is very important to take into account interests of environment users and nature itself, in order to obtain a favorable result of interaction of natural environment and man. Taking into account principles of nature integration in the design of health facilities contributes to improving the quality of medical and rehabilitation institutions environment, raising the level of services provided and harmonizing the environment.

Evolving Infrastructure - Light and Transparent

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Stein
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
The People ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
The World

<p>In very simple terms cities consist of infrastructure, operations, and people. All over the world more and more people are migrating to cities to find work and improve their living conditions. Consequently, for more and more people the built environment in our cities becomes their natural environment. The quality of the natural environment has a strong impact on the well-being of the people living in it, thus, we can improve the quality of life for an ever-growing number of people by improving the quality of buildings and structures. For years under public budget pressure, infrastructure has been designed focusing mainly on functional aspects, with occasionally abysmal results in terms of user friendliness. More recently this trend has reversed, and this paper shows some examples of large and small infrastructure projects in New York City where special emphasis has been put on creating a pleasant experience for commuters and other travelers. Engineers play an important role in this trend, as with their knowledge and creativity they are instrumental in supporting the municipality’s efforts to find affordable solutions for their projects.</p>

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