The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem

Author(s):  
Hans Blumenberg

This chapter reflects on Hans Blumenberg's “The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem” (1951), a reception history of technē. Technology has historically constituted itself as applied natural science — as a constructive extension of nature — and this structural continuity would seem to determine the character and methodology of its problems once and for all. The historical reality of human life with technology has failed to confirm this basic assumption, however. Technology, as an objective domain within the modern world, has more and more visibly separated itself from its functional continuity with nature and has entered into new constellations that are sui generis and, indeed, diametrical opposites to natural reality. From the mere use of nature for eking out a living through to the increasing exploitation of nature as a reservoir of energy and natural resources, the development of technical consciousness and the technical will tend toward making a claim for the radical and total transformation of nature as mere materia prima for the exercise of human power.

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-256
Author(s):  
Akhtar Siddiqi

Islam and Ecology illuminates the issues of environmental change andhuman survival. The authors present the Islamic view of ecology basedon the Qur'an and the hadith. Each essay contains Qur'anic passages thatsupport the view that natural phenomena are important to humanity, forthey have been created by God. The book is valuable because it is basedon scientific knowledge and Islamic principles. While the book contributesmuch to understanding Islamic teachings on the environment, it doesnot contribute much to our understanding of ecological problems.The book is flexible, and the concepts with which it deals are presentedin a manner designed for quick comprehension. Each essay makesthe reader feel ethically obliged to follow these concepts, as it is madeclear that most of our actions are based on our understanding of the willof God, how we think the world works, and what we believe our role inthe world should be. The book's purpose is not to drown the reader withfacts, but to present and explore a small number of basic and useful concepts.Another aim is to illustrate how one can constantly strive to improveone's life in the light of the Sunnah, how God's dictates can illuminateideas, and how one can organize one's life in a meaningful way.Chapter one deals with Islam and ecology, the planet Earth, air andwater pollution, deforestation, and the relationship between humanity andanimals. It is stated that Islam teaches humanity to use what is needed accordingto the moral and ethical discipline laid down by the Creator.However, after a brief initial engagement, the author does not deal withthe facts of ecology and the merits of Islamic teaching in this area.254 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 102Chapter two is analyzes Islamic ethics and the environment. Theauthor is shott on the environment, as he concentrates mainly on ethicsaccording to the Shari'ah and humanity's love for the components ofnatmc. He then discusses how people can perfect themselves if they followthe commands of God. The chapter is mtricted to ethical values anddeals only briefly with the envitonment. For some teason, the authordeemed it unnecessary to give historical incidents or quotations that showhow Muslims thinkers analyzed nature and how important it was to themto urge the proper use of environmental and natural mumes.The environmental crisis is an outward manifestation of a crisis ofmind and spirit. There could be no greater misconception than to believeit is Concerned only with endangered wildlife, man-made ugliness, andpollution. We recognize that the Earth's moumes and environmentalpmblems, as well as the possible solutions, ate interconnected in complexways that we ate only beginning to understand. With this recognition, andthe knowledge that we must seek God's guidance, it is hoped that peoplewill begin to understand and care a little more about natute.Chapter thtee is concerned with science within Islam. The author distinguishesbetween science within Islam and the scientific system basedon human thought and the belief that the physical universe is the onlyreality. He describes the methods and uses of science and claims that itis essential that science should ptaise the Creator-scientists must pmducea unity between religious practice and scientific education. The resultingprinciples will help humanity treat the environment with love, gratitude,and care, and will show it how to make the best use of the world'stesoutces. Based on this undemtandmg, it becomes an Islamic duty toconsetve and protect the world and its tesoutces. The author does not gointo the history of Muslim science in order to illuminate the methodsused in the natural sciences to interrelate nature and produce its meaning.However, some idea of the scope of the cutrent debate on environmentalproblems is given, which provides a new approach to the environment.Chapter four examines natural resources. Although the term "resource"is not defined, it documents the main Islamic principles and preceptsconcerning natural resources. The major focus is on land (dividedinto developed and undeveloped) and water, which fottn the necessaryelements for all human life and activity. Islamic land laws and the roleof animals and plants as natural nsowes are also mentioned. In myopinion, he should have explained that "mutces" does not refer to athing or a substance, but rather to a function that may be performed bya thing or a substance or to an operation in which it may take part to satisfya particular need . It in these areas that Islamic teachings ate morerelevant as a guide to achieving humanity's well-being. The contents ofthe chapter are useful and can be easily adapted to a community's needs ...


EMPIRISMA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Arif Dan Yuli Darwati

This paper will try to explain the relationship between religion and culture. These two topics are the most important items that are inseparable in the history of human civilization from the classical to the modern period. Religion is ahuman belief system that is related to God. If the rule comes from God, then it cannot be said to be a culture, because it is not human creation, but God’s creation that is absolute. Religion is interpreted as part of the life (culture) ofindividuals or groups, each of which has the authority to understand religion and apply it. With the characteristics as indicated by Fazlur Rahman, wherever religion is located, it is hoped that it can provide guidance on values or moralsfor all activities of human life, whether social, cultural, economic or political. Not infrequently also religion becomes a determining factor in the adhesive process of social cultural interaction of the community as well as unifying thenation. Culture and religion are something different but can influence each other so that new cultures or mixing of cultures emerge. The opinion of Endang Saifudin Anshari who said in his writing that religion and culture do notinclude each other, in principle one is not part of the other and each consists of itself. Between them, of course, they are closely related like us, we see in everyday life and human life. As also seen in the close relationship between husband and wife who can give birth to a son but the husband is not part of the wife, and vice versa. Religion and culture are two different things but cannot be separated. The existence of a religion will be greatly influenced and affect thepractice of a religion in question. And conversely, a culture will be greatly influenced by the beliefs of the society in which culture develops. Therefore religion is not only an individual problem but religion is also a social affair whichultimately religious people are not only able to give birth to individual piety but also must be able to give birth to social piety.Key words: Interaction, Religion, Culture,


1979 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Frederick Sontag

For some time it seemed as if Christianity itself required us to say that ‘God is in history’. Of course, even to speak of ‘history’ is to reveal a bias for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century forms of thought. But the justification for talking about the Christian God in this way is the doctrine of the incarnation. The centre of the Christian claim is that Jesus is God's representation in history, although we need not go all the way to a full trinitarian interpretation of the relationship between God and Jesus. Thus, the issue is not so much whether God can appear or has appeared within, or entered into, human life as it is a question of what categories we use to represent this. To what degree is God related to the sphere of human events? Whatever our answer, we need periodically to re-examine the way we speak about God to be sure the forms we use have not become misleading.


1978 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Charles R. Bowlus

The relationship between military and social organization has long been a topic of major concern and debate among scholars specializing in the history of the European middle ages. It is a topic of importance, for, as we who live in the modern world are aware, the ways in which any government organizes its people for warfare have many implications that go well beyond the strategy of a particular campaign or the tactics employed at a decisive battle. The rudimentary nature of the economies and governments in medieval Europe probably made the relationship between military and social organization more direct and, hence, more obvious than it is today. Peasants may have been illiterate, but they were cognizant of their obligation to serve in local levies and to provide food, fodder, and transport facilities for armies on campaign. Magnates who kept a retinue with them at all times and who garrisoned private fortresses were dependent on surpluses produced by the peasantry for the maintenance of these forces.


Horizons ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-287
Author(s):  
John M. Ballweg

AbstractOne does not read far or engage in a discussion about the complexity of the modern world without sensing an evolutionary vision which reflects the thought of Teilhard de Chardin. College students who are introduced to the Teilhardian vision respond in positive and creative ways. Teaching such a course reveals insights into young people's reaction to the present and future implications of a high-tech society. In an age of increasing control over the forces of nature by human-kind, crucial questions emerge. Two concerns attract students to Teilhard: fear of the future in terms of the direction and quality of human life; and an interest in the relationship between religion and science, which indicates substantive attitudes of a younger generation toward faith in God. Whether there is agreement with Teilhard is not the question, but the fact that he has pressed us to face the issues.


Author(s):  
Bethânia De Albuquerque Assy ◽  
Florian Fabian Hoffman

Resumo: A resposta da Escola de Salamanca à crise cognitiva gerada pelo encontro entre europeus e ameríndios no século XVI tem se convertido em um dos momentos mais referenciados na historiografia colonial devido ao papel que desempenhou na formação do direito internacional (europeu). Embora a posição tradicional sobre o uso dos direitos naturais da Escola para enquadrar o relacionamento com os ameríndios tenha mitigado a universalidade colonizadora do incipiente ius gentium (europeu), (re)leituras post/descoloniais mais recentes expuseram esse movimento como uma mera estratégia para a subjugação epistêmica dos ameríndios. No entanto, de acordo com suas premissas historicistas, ambas as posições se concentraram no impacto da doutrina de Salamanca sobre a história europeia das ideias e deixaram (relativamente) sub-explorado seu significado como resposta à experiência de alteridade radical em relação ao encontro ameríndio. O recurso a linguagem de direitos dos salamanquianos também pode ser visto como uma maneira de lidar com o desafio perspectivista fundamental que a “razão” culturalmente diferente, ainda que epistemologicamente equivalente, dos ameríndios representou. A sua “solução” de um jusnaturalismo pluricultural historicamente concretizado não era inteiramente coerente nem livre do eurocentrismo. Mas sua gênese contrafactual por meio de uma combinação de realismo universalista escolástico tardio e de multinaturalismo indígena mostra que o encontro ameríndio era intelectualmente muito menos unilateral do que a recepção europeia histórica reconheceria. No entanto, essa abordagem exige não apenas uma virada (sutil) para uma perspectiva etnográfica, mas também uma reconstrução antropológica radical da historiografia do início da era moderna do direito internacional.Abstract: The School of Salamanca’s response to the cognitive crisis which the encounter between Europeans and Amerindians in the sixteenth century generated has become one of the most referenced moments in colonial historiography for the role it played in the formation of (European) international law. While the traditional position on the School’s use of natural rights to frame the relationship with Amerindians argued that it thereby sought to mitigate the colonizing universality of the incipient (European) ius gentium, more recent post/decolonial (re-)readings have exposed this move as a mere strategy for the epistemic subjugation of Amerindia. However, in line with their historicist premises, both positions have focussed on the impact of Salamancan thought on the European history of ideas and have left its significance as a response to the experience of radical alterity vis-à-vis the Amerindian encounte (relatively) underexplored. For the Salamancan’s resort to rights language can also be seen as a way to grapple with the fundamental perspectivist challenge that the culturally different yet epistemically equivalent ‘reason’ of the Amerindians represented. Their “solution” of a historically concretized pluricultural jusnaturalism was neither entirely coherent nor free from Eurocentrism, but its counterfactual genesis through a combination of late scholastic universalist realism and Amerindian multinaturalism shows that the Amerindian encounter was intellectually much less one-sided than its European reception history would acknowledge. Yet, this approach requires not only a (subtle) shift towards an ethnographic perspective but also a (radically) anthropological reconstruction of the historiography of early modern international law.


Author(s):  
Marcos Pinheiro Barreto

O artigo realiza um diálogo com alguns historiadores ambientais, tendo como foco a história da Mata Atlântica, demonstrando a pertinência de revermos criticamente os padrões de produção e de apropriação dos recursos naturais, desde a pré-história até o período colonial no Brasil. Recuperando historicamente as relações das diferentes formações sociais com a floresta, compreende-se o caráter predatório dos impactos socioambientais resultantes do projeto colonizador português em nosso país.Palavras-chave: Mata Atlântica; História Ambiental; Ensino de História. THE ATLANTIC FOREST AND THE TEACHING OF HISTORY: from prehistory to brazilian colonial periodAbstractThe article conducts a dialogue with some environmental historians with a focus on the history of the Atlantic Forest, demonstrating the relevance of critically reviewing the patterns of production and appropriation of natural resources, from prehistoric times to the colonial period in Brazil. By recovering historically the relationship between the forest and different social formations, we can understand the predatory nature of socio-environmental impacts resulting from the Portuguese colonial project in our country.Keywords: Atlantic Forest; Environmental History; History Teaching.


Author(s):  
N. A. Minkina ◽  
E. A. Leonova

The article discusses the relationship between science and morality, the history of this relationship, and the reasons for a recent surge of interest in this issue. An attempt is made to identify internal and external mechanisms that regulate morality. The authors reason that among the most important of them are conscience, responsibility, and public opinion. The paper specifically addresses the problem of the responsibility of science, the structure of responsible actions, as well as new social relations emerging in the modern world.


Humaniora ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Arik Kurnianto

The purpose of this study was to assess the development of animated films in Indonesia based on historical studies to determine simultaneously mapping the history Indonesia in the context of world/global animation history. This study also examines the relationship between the histories of Indonesiananimated films with history first entry of the film in Indonesia which began the Dutch colonial era. According to Stephen Cavalier, the world history of animation was divided into five large round starts from the era before 1900 (The Origin of Animation) to the digital era (1986-2010). Based results of the study, Indonesian animation in the context of five major round of world animation, though have long been in contact with foreign-made films and animation (Disney Studio) has into Indonesia from the early 20th century (the early 1900s), the animation is produced Indonesia has only emerged in the '50s through the vision of a Soekarno, the first President. 1950 in the world of animation history entered the era of transition from gold age of traditional animation/cartoon (golden age of cartoons) are dominated by studio Disney to the era of television (television era). In a review of the history of animation, the era of the '50s travel half a century is the era of the modern world of animation history. Based on the facts the Indonesian animation has actually grown quite long, but the development of animation in Indonesia was very slow when seen in the context of the world animation history. 


Author(s):  
Donna R. Gabaccia

To determine how scholars have tackled the study of food as part of world histories, this article reviews research connecting the history of food with that of human mobility. It explores how and under what circumstances food practices "spread" or "diffuse" among human societies. It asserts that the study of food is becoming a more central theme in world history due to recent interest in mapping the links among the culturally distinct societies of the six continents over the course of human life on earth. Such histories offer a glimpse into the relationship of the general and particular in culinary culture. World histories indicate that trade, human migrations, and media are the mechanisms that allow particular foods, food practices, food technologies, and food knowledge to travel across space and time, and cultural boundaries to become general.


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