Sustaining Virtuous Forms

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Bilbro

The introduction analyzes the different forms, values, and virtues that are embedded in an industrial economy and contrasts them with those that characterize a sustainable economy. Berry’s vision critiques the industrial grammar of specialization, competition, and capital that underlies our contemporary way of life, shaping areas as disparate as agriculture, medicine, education, science, architecture, aesthetics, and energy. Though such an approach has proven remarkably effective in some ways, particularly in its ability to solve isolated problems, Berry argues that these industrial forms of life contribute to disease, are vulnerable to disruption, and cause lasting damage to their environments. Instead, Berry challenges us to imagine more harmonious, formally complex solutions to our problems, and his standard for lasting, sustainable solutions is health. Through its formal order, health accounts for the one fundamental reality that an industrial logic seeks to ignore or conquer—death. Sustainable economies practice virtues of renewal and return, cultivating death so that it serves life in ways that are analogous to the organic fertility cycle. In this way, such economies enable their members to practice resurrection.

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-31
Author(s):  
P.V. Kuzenkov

The article offers a new evaluation of the wellknown phenomenon of cultural renaissance of the peoples of the Middle East and Egypt of the Syrians, the Copts, the Armenians, the Georgians, etc., in the first centuries AD. This period is commonly associated with the spreading of Christianity around the territory of the Roman Empire and the Parthian, later on Sassanid Iran. According to the author there are reasons to regard the genesis of the Christianity in the Middle East as a single yet multifaceted process of transformation of the Late Antiquity culture in its totality of the Eucumene, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pamir mountains. The essence of this process could roughly be defined as overcoming the Hellenistic culture crisis called forth by the ever deepening disparity between the transcendental intellectual environment it had given rise to, on the one hand, and its ideological nucleus rooted in the archaic Greek mythology, on the other. The only feasible recourse out of this crisis was the appearance of a new cultural nucleus, conventionally described as the canonized sacred text (The Holy Scriptures). This nucleus, together with the Hellenistic cultural and technological achievements (general literacy, school education, science, literature, symbolic culture, etc.) gave rise to religious civilizations with Christianity as the principal example. Thus, the author describes the historical transition from the Late Hellenistic and Post Hellenistic cultures of the Ancient Rome and the Ancient Middle East that resulted in the new nationallytinged in form but supranational in content cultures of the Christianity in the Middle East.В статье предлагается новая оценка известного феномена культурного возрождения народов Ближнего Востока и ЕгиптоСирийцев, Коптов, Армян, Грузин и др. в первые века нашей эры. Этот период обычно связывают с распространением христианства по территории Римской Империи и Парфянского, позднее Сасанидского Ирана. По мнению автора есть основания рассматривать генезис христианства на Ближнем Востоке как единый, но многогранный процесс трансформации культуры поздней Античности в ее тотальности Ойкумены, от Атлантического океана до Памирских гор. Суть этого процесса можно приблизительно определить как преодоление кризиса эллинистической культуры, вызванного все более углубляющимся несоответствием между трансцендентальной интеллектуальной средой, которую она породила, с одной стороны, и ее идеологическим ядром, коренящимся в архаической греческой мифологии, с другой. Единственным возможным выходом из этого кризиса было появление нового культурного ядра, условно описываемого как канонизированный священный текст (Священное Писание). Это ядро, наряду с эллинистическими культурными и технологическими достижениями (общая грамотность, школьное образование, наука, литература, символическая культура и др.) породило религиозные цивилизации с христианством, в качестве основного примера. Таким образом, автор описывает исторический переход от Позднеэллинистической и Постэллинистической культур Древнего Рима и Древнего Ближнего Востока к новым национально окрашенным по форме, но наднациональным по содержанию культурам христианства в Cредние века.


2000 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Sherman A. Jackson

Native born African-American Muslims and the Immigrant Muslimcommunity foxms two important groups within the American Muslimcommunity. Whereas the sociopolitical reality is objectively the samefor both groups, their subjective responses are quite different. Both arevulnerable to a “double Consciousness,” i.e., an independently subjectiveconsciousness, as well as seeing oneself through the eyes of theother, thus reducing one’s self-image to an object of other’s contempt.Between the confines of culture, politics, and law on the one hand andthe “Islam as a way of life” on the other, Muslims must express theircultural genius and consciously discover linkages within the diverseMuslim community to avoid the threat of double consciousness.


Author(s):  
Bennett W. Helm

This Chapter examines three sources of motivation for individualistic conceptions of persons (responsibility, identity, and practical rationality), all of which are in conceptual tension with the sorts of authority we can have over each other. We can relieve this tension in part by following Peter Strawson in understanding responsibility to depend on “human communities”—communities of respect by which we hold each other responsible to certain norms and so to certain practices or way of life. Yet the authority by which we hold others responsible presupposes the worth not only of the norms but also of the agent and the one holding her to those norms. We can understand such worth, it is suggested, in terms of communities of respect—in terms of its members’ joint respect for each other and for its norms and practices.


Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Gladun ◽  
Soili Nysten-Haarala ◽  
Svetlana Tulaeva

There is a growing global interest in Arctic natural resources that have a strong influence on the local economies. The Arctic economy is a rather unique phenomenon encompassing Indigenous practices, local economic activities, and industrial development. Indigenous economies vary across the Arctic states and exhibit divergent economic mixtures. In globalizing societies and full market economies, traditional Indigenous economies are changing and perceived especially by the non-Indigenous to be a tribute to old customs rather than a way of life that is being followed by the young generation. However, certain groups of the contemporary Indigenous populations in the Arctic continue to preserve their culture and ensure the continuation of Indigenous ways of life. The development of Indigenous communities is closely linked to their economic well-being, on the one hand, and to their culture and traditions, on the other. Our article contributes to the discussion on the significance of Indigenous economies in providing sustainability in terms of Indigenous communities, their culture, and traditions. The research objective is to identify strategies and tools that sustain Indigenous economies as well as the goals of various stakeholders in encouraging and supporting the traditional economic activities of Indigenous peoples. We contrast three countries—Russia, Finland, and the United States (Alaska)—and discuss some governmental strategies that can be employed for preserving unique Indigenous economies. The research methods consist of a content analysis of state and regional legislation and strategies, social studies of stakeholders’ opinions, case studies describing market infrastructure, and economic activities as well as features of traditional lifestyles and Indigenous knowledge typical of these regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 001
Author(s):  
Santiago Del-Castillo ◽  
Leo Ramos ◽  
Demmy Mora-Silva

Higher education is the last phase of the academic learning process, that is, the one that comes after the secondary stage. It is provided at universities, colleges or technical training academies. The education offered by higher education is at the professional level. The objective of the study was to analyze the management of Higher Education in the country and to describe the main activities of the institutions linked to these activities. The main results indicate that three institutions are the protagonists in management. The Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT), the Council for Quality Assurance in Education (CACES) and the Council of Higher Education (CES). Higher education is one of the main drivers of societal evolution. Investing in education is vital to ensure a prosperous and competitive socioeconomic system. Higher education has a high responsibility to society: they are responsible for preparing the professionals of the future.


Author(s):  
John M. Cooper

This chapter examines the philosophy of Plotinus. It argues that philosophy, and only philosophy, can prepare us adequately for our true life, a life consisting of contemplation of Forms, in self-absorption into Intellect and into Intellect's own origin, the One. Furthermore, this very contemplation, which constitutes both our natural good and our true life, is an exercise of completely achieved philosophical understanding. For Plotinus, and the late ancient Platonists in general, philosophy is the sole road to happiness, and also its very essence. Thus, the Platonist way of life is doubly a philosophical life. The practice of philosophy is the sole necessary means to happiness. Moreover, the highest level of active philosophical understanding is happiness. It is the very essence of happiness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2538
Author(s):  
Manuel Arias-Maldonado

The pursuit of environmental sustainability has been affected by two significant developments in the last years. On the one hand, the Anthropocene hypothesis suggests that the human impact on the environment has increased to such a degree, that natural systems are now disrupted at a planetary level. The most dangerous manifestation of the Anthropocene is climate change, where there is need for greater urgency in the face of insufficient climate action. There are a number of scientists who currently warn of the possibility that failing to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may render the Earth uninhabitable in the first place. A first goal of this paper is thus to ponder how the sustainability paradigm may be affected in the face of this threat and whether, in fact, sustainability may be displaced by “habitability”. On the other hand, some climate policies are eliciting the reaction of a populist movement—from Trumpism to the gilets jaunes in France—that opposes the rise of environmentally-related taxes and denies climate change or questions the severity of its effects. Both as a concept and as a policy goal, sustainability thus finds itself under double pressure: as it must focus on keeping the planet inhabitable, while the political opposition to measures directed towards decarbonization also increases. In what follows, the paper suggests that sustainability should be understood as a technocratic project to keep the planet safe for humanity rather than imposing a new way of life for all its inhabitants. This is not to imply that moral or ideological debate is to be curtailed, but rather to differentiate between achieving environmental sustainability and seeking the reshaping of socionatural relations.


1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry R. Berkeley ◽  
Kay S. Bull

There is a richness of history, tradition, customs, and lore about rural America and rural schooling. Education in rural locales has had a significant and positive impact on education in suburban and urban areas. The same can be related about rural special education. In this article, retrospective views of the past and prospective thoughts about the future in the mix that occurs in rural education and rural special education were joined as voices to celebrate the successes and challenges confronting professional school people as they go about their daily work with students with disabilities in integrated settings and in separate classrooms. Teaching, working, writing, and living in a rural locale either for part of one's life or for all of one's life adds a degree of realism and practicality no matter how much one can be influenced by city life. In particular, for the one author while in the city, I always feel that I am from away, and while in New Hampshire, the country, I never feel that I am here enough. For both of the authors of this article, rural roots, deep or not as firm, color our appreciation and caring for a way of life too few people speak about and too few other people know about. It is in this spirit that we hope these thoughts are considered.


2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Helberg

Integrality of the psalms according to the relation between Psalm 1 (and 2) and the rest of the psalms The article explores views about the unity of the psalms and, as the author’s own approach, focuses especially on the need of the psalmist(s) not to be estranged. Simultaneously the place of trust in the psalms as well as that of the Torah/Law/Word of the Lord is scrutinised. The Torah requires on the one hand that one must distance oneself from an erroneous way of life, like disregarding God’s will and righteousness and on the other hand that one associates with a covenantal circle or community. The integrality of the psalms, like that of life, is rooted in the Torah of Yahweh, in close connection with the covenant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-416
Author(s):  
Onowa McIvor ◽  
Andrea Sterzuk ◽  
William Cook

i-kiyohkātoyāhk (we visit) is a phrase which describes our experience of trying to recreate an online version of our way of life, being together in the language. The following report is our view of the ways nēhiyawēwin/nīhithawīwin (Cree) language learning has adapted to the COVID-19 reality since March 2020. Our hope is that by sharing the experience most familiar to us, the one we are living as learners and speaker-teacher, we offer a useful perspective and potential solutions or directions for others.


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