The Dialectical Links Between Environmental Ethics and Sciences

1998 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Ricardo Rozzi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Reciprocal Relationships ◽  
Misleading Interpretation ◽  
New Vision ◽  
The One ◽  
Radical Transformation

Ecologists formulate their scientific theories influenced by ethical values, and in turn, environmental ethicists value nature based on scientific theories. Darwinian evolutionary theory provides clear examples of these complex links, illustrating how these reciprocal relationships do not constitute a closed system, but are undetermined and open to the influences of two broader worlds: the sociocultural and the natural environment. On the one hand, the Darwinian conception of a common evolutionary origin and ecological connectedness has promoted a respect for all forms of life. On the other hand, the metaphors of struggle for existence and natural selection appear as problematic because they foist onto nature the Hobbesian model of a liberal state, a Malthusian model of the economy, and the productive practice of artificial selection, all of which reaffirm modern individualism and the profit motive that are at the roots of our current environmental crisis. These metaphors were included in the original definitions of ecology and environmental ethics by Haeckel and Leopold respectively, and are still pervasive among both ecologists and ethicists. To suppose that these Darwinian notions, derived from a modern-liberal worldview, are a fact of nature constitutes a misleading interpretation. Such supposition represents a serious impediment to our aim of transforming our relationship with the natural world in order to overcome the environmental crisis. To achieve a radical transformation in environmental ethics, we need a new vision of nature.

scholarly journals Ecotheology Islam: Teologi Konstruktif Atasi Krisis Lingkungan

ULUMUNA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-346
Author(s):  
Abdul Quddus
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Ethical Management ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
The One

The earth inhabited by human now is facing global environmental crisis. To respond to and tackle the crisis, a new awareness to explore the principles of religion has emerged today, which was then called ecotheology, an integral environmental insight based on ethical-theological as well as ethical-anthropological dimensions. This paper is aimed at, on the one hand, exposing principles of Islamic ecotheology that are able to be guiding principles in managing the nature, and on the other hand, comparing them with the principles of modern environmental ethics of the environmentalist/ eco-thinkers. The author argues that there are three principles of Islamic ecotheology that are relevant as the basis of ethical management of nature now days, namely the principle of tawḥid (unity of all creation), the principle of āmanah-khalīfah (trustworthiness-moral leadership), and ākhirah (responsibility).  

scholarly journals Environment and Literary Landscape: An Ecological Criticism of Louise Erdrich’s Novel Tracks

2019 ◽  
Vol IV (I) ◽  
pp. 158-163
Author(s):  
Sana Tariq ◽  
Bahramand Shah
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
American Literature ◽  
American Indians ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Native American Literature

Connecting the environment with societies’ cultures through literature has created a new awareness of environmental issues. The current environmental crisis is a product of modern human culture. The thought of using land as a commodity and disregard for environmental ethics has worsened the ecological crisis. The paper focuses issues of environment highlighted in Native American literature. The anthropocentric behavior of Euro-Americans is contrary to Native American idea of biocentrism. For American Indians, land is considered not merely a stage on which the act is played but also as an active participant in the drama with major role to play in the lives of the characters. This article applies Ecocriticism theory on Louise Erdrich’s fiction Tracks to generate an ecological criticism of the text. This paper highlights new ways of treating the natural world, putting responsibility on humans to see how their cultures are affecting environment.

scholarly journals Environmental Ethics: Anthropocentric Chauvinism as Seen in Western Ethical Theories

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6S4) ◽  
pp. 1385-1389 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Philosophy ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
Kantian Ethics ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Intrinsic Values ◽  
Biblical Teaching

The first ethical dogmas are imparted by parents and elders; however societies strongly believe only the documented proofs. So their ideas are attributed as document forms for historical evidences in philosophical view. These shreds of evidence have their origin from Ancient Greek Western ethical theories, and they consist of clever advices on how to live happily, to avoid unnecessary troubles, and to gain progress in one’s career. It is also helpful for rulers to judge people and treat them impartially. Unfortunately, these western ethical theories have eventually developed as more anthropocentric, and humans have started cultivating a chauvinistic attitude towards both nonhumans and natural resources or environment. Anthropocentrism plays a crucial role in the field of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy. This paper mainly deals with environmental ethics, which is the human ethical liaison between people and the natural world and the sort of opinion people create about the environment based on this relationship. Further it analyses how western ethical theories (misinterpretation of biblical teaching and applied normative ethics utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics) have given importance to human intrinsic values and how this anthropocentric chauvinism of the western ethical theories is the root of our present environmental crisis. It also proves that we are facing global crisis today not because how the ecosystems function but rather because of the immoral functioning of our ethical system.

Wittgenstein and Religion

2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kober
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
The Other ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
God's Will ◽  
The One ◽  
Exclusive Focus

It will be shown that Wittgenstein's philosophical approach to religion is substantially shaped by William James' . For neither during the period nor later does Wittgenstein thematise religious doctrines, but rather struggles to determine what it means for a sincere person to have a specific religious (James called these attitudes "experiences"). Wittgenstein's almost exclusive focus on attitudes explains, (i) why he is able to strictly discriminate between scientific and empirical claims on the one hand and religious utterances on the other, (ii) why religious and mythical narrations should not be understood as promoting (pre-scientific) theories, (iii) why Wittgenstein non-cognitively interprets religious utterances such as "This is God's will" as avowals, and (iv) why he seems to promote fideism. Wittgenstein's one-sided way of reflecting on religious matters, however, should not be understood as adumbrating or even promoting any more specific account of religion, especially bearing in mind that many of his remarks concerning religion are connected to or motivated by reflections on his own life. This thesis is meant to imply that Wittgenstein does not, as the usual understanding holds, offer a theology for atheists.

scholarly journals Cooperatives and Social Capital: A Narrative Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 534
Author(s):  
Isabel Saz-Gil ◽  
Ignacio Bretos ◽  
Millán Díaz-Foncea
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Agricultural Cooperatives ◽  
Reciprocal Relationships ◽  
Narrative Literature ◽  
Narrative Literature Review ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

How cooperatives generate and absorb social capital has attracted a great deal of attention due to the fact that they are collective organizations owned and democratically managed by their members, and, accordingly, are argued to be closely linked to the nature and dynamics of social capital. However, the extant literature and knowledge on the relationship between cooperatives and social capital remain unstructured and fragmented. This paper aims to provide a narrative literature review that integrates both sides of the relationship between cooperatives and social capital. On the one hand, one side involves how cooperatives create internal social capital and spread it in their immediate environment, and, on the other hand, it involves how the presence of social capital promotes the creation and development of cooperatives. In addition, our theoretical framework integrates the dark side of social capital, that is, how the lack of trust, reciprocal relationships, transparency, and other social capital components can lead to failure of the cooperative. On the basis of this review, we define a research agenda that synthesizes key trends and promising research avenues for further advancement of theoretical and empirical insights about the relationship between cooperatives and social capital, placing particular emphasis on rural and agricultural cooperatives.

Comparing the Meaningfulness of Finite and Infinite Lives: Can We Reap What We Sow if We Are Immortal?

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Metz
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
William Lane Craig ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Important Argument ◽  
Moral Choices ◽  
The One

AbstractOn the rise over the past 20 years has been ‘moderate supernaturalism’, the view that while a meaningful life is possible in a world without God or a soul, a much greater meaning would be possible only in a world with them. William Lane Craig can be read as providing an important argument for a version of this view, according to which only with God and a soul could our lives have an eternal, as opposed to temporally limited, significance since we would then be held accountable for our decisions affecting others’ lives. I present two major objections to this position. On the one hand, I contend that if God existed and we had souls that lived forever, then, in fact, all our lives would turn out the same. On the other hand, I maintain that, if this objection is wrong, so that our moral choices would indeed make an ultimate difference and thereby confer an eternal significance on our lives (only) in a supernatural realm, then Craig could not capture the view, aptly held by moderate supernaturalists, that a meaningful life is possible in a purely natural world.

scholarly journals The impact of convergent technologies on changing labor markets

KANT ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 240-245
Author(s):  
Tatiana Vorontsova
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Physical Strength ◽  
Humanistic Approach ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

The article analyzes the problems of the development of convergent technologies, which, on the one hand, make it possible to overcome the natural limitations of man and expand his capabilities, on the other hand, threaten humanity. The author identifies various research positions in assessing the prospects for NBIC convergence - from overtly alarmist to overly enthusiastic. A classification of possible results of technological innovations is proposed, in which changes in the natural world, the technical environment and the transformation of social relations and spiritual and moral values are highlighted. Trends in the labor market are noted such as job cuts due to automation, the polarization of the labor market for highly paid intellectual workers and cheap physical strength, the emergence of new professions that require special education in several areas, changes in the organization of labor by the type of network interaction, the emergence of new forms of employment - temporary, deprived of guarantees and infringing on social rights. The future labor market is characterized as fragmented and isolated. The conclusion is drawn about the need for a humanistic approach in assessing the prospects of technological development.

scholarly journals Antropologia e ciência no começo da filosofia moderna: sobre a formação normativa do conceito de modernidade como autorreferencialidade, auto-subsistência, autonomia, endogenia e independência da razão – um ensaio

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-119
Author(s):  
Leno Francisco Danner ◽  
Agemir Bavaresco ◽  
Fernando Danner
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Foundation ◽  
Normative Concept ◽  
Secular Culture ◽  
Movement Dynamics ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Endogenous Process

In this paper, we argue that the normative concept of modernity as self-referentiality, self-subsistence, autonomy, endogeny and independence of reason is based on the correlation of anthropology and science in a double, however correlated, point: on the one hand, it is rooted on the idea of the natural world as a purely technical, physical, chemical and biological triad of structure, dynamics and object, which obeys to quantitative and definite-invariable material laws; on the other, it is grounded on the idea of human mind or human nature as a normative subject that is able to interpret in an objective way this purely technical nature and, more importantly, to construct the epistemological-moral-ontological objectivity from the modern self’s capability of creating its own axiology and rationalizing the epistemological-moral foundation and the anthropological-ontological place-belonging in the world and in society. As a consequence, the normative concept of modernity, associated to a technical view of nature and to a political-profane-historical notion of society-culture-consciousness, of socialization-subjectivation, enables the idea that modernity is a very singular anthropological-societal-cultural-cognitive process of evolution in human history, as its paradigmatic basis (reason between natural science and secular culture) represents directly universalism in itself, so as to construct a barrier and an opposition between modernity and the other of modernity, as well as to institute the process of modernity-modernization and its comprehension as a self-referential, self-subsisting, autonomous, closed and endogenous process, and as a principle of movement, dynamics and explanation. Here, modernity can be explained only by its internal processes, subjects, principles, values and multiple dynamics, as it signifies a self-constructive movement in itself and by itself, as an overcoming of traditionalism as a minority and a consolidation of modernity-modernization as a majority due to the intersection of reason, science and culture.

Reimagining the Nation-State: Indigenous Peoples and the Making of Plurinationalism in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROGER MERINO
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
State Transformation ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
The People ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Political Foundations ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
The One

AbstractIn the last two decades, the concept of plurinationalism has appeared in discussions about nationalism, statehood and multilevel governance, being formulated as a new state model that accommodates cultural diversity within the liberal state with the aim of solving nationalistic conflicts in countries marked by profound ethnic grievances, mainly in Europe. However, these discussions have paid less attention to the meaning of plurinationalism in ex-colonial contexts, particularly in recent experiences of state transformation in Bolivia and Ecuador, where the role of indigenous peoples in the plurinational project has been crucial. To fill this gap, this article explores the legal and political foundations, challenges and local and international dynamics in the building of the plurinational model in both countries. Under a critical engagement with Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), this article argues that plurinationality from indigenous perspectives departs from multicultural liberal models associated with current European plurinational views, and addresses two challenges: a global political economy of resource extraction, and a racialized state structure working as a barrier to actual plurinational implementation. These limitations explain an intrinsic tension in the Bolivian and Ecuadorian experience: on the one hand, plurinational governments try to unify the people around the ‘national interest’ of developing extractive industries; and on the other hand, they attempt to recognize ethno-political differences that often challenge the transnational exploitation of local resources.

The Animistic Way: Contemporary Paganism and the Posthuman

Poligrafi ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107-127
Author(s):  
Victoria Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
The Other ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Paganism

This article aims to explore the affinities between contemporary Paganism and the posthuman project in how they approach the non-human natural world. On the one hand, posthumanism explores new ways of considering the notion of humans and how they are linked with the non-human world. On the other hand, Neopaganism expands this reflection to the spiritual domain through its animistic relational sensibility. Both perspectives challenge the modern paradigm where nature and humans are opposed and mutually disconnected. They instead propose a relational ontology that welcomes the “different other.” This integrated relationship between humans and the “other than human” can be understood through the semiotic Chora, a notion belonging to Julia Kristeva that addresses how the subject is not symbolically separated from the world in which it is contained.

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