The Trouble with Anthropocentric Hubris, with Examples from Conservation

Anthropocentrism in Western (modern industrial) society is dominant, goes back hundreds of years, and can rightly be called ‘hubris’. It removes almost all moral standing from the nonhuman world, seeing it purely as a resource. Here, we discuss the troubling components of anthropocentrism: worldview and ethics; dualisms, valuation and values; a psychology of fear and denial; and the idea of philosophical ‘ownership’. We also question whether it is a truly practical (or ethical) approach. We then discuss three troubling examples of anthropocentrism in conservation: ‘new’ conservation; ecosystem services; and the IPBES values assessment. We conclude that anthropocentrism is fuelling the environmental crisis and accelerating extinction, and urge academia to speak out instead for ecocentrism.

Reset: Anthropogenic Climate Change Is Urban, not Modern

This is the second chapter on unthinking, specifically building a new narrative to show anthropogenic climate change is not a result of modern industrial society rather it has a much deeper pedigree as essentially urban in nature. The narrative has been constructed by matching Jane Jacobs’ ideas on the power of cities from their initial invention of agriculture to William F. Ruddiman’s revision of the sequence of greenhouse gases generating anthropogenic climate change. There are two initial outcomes: first a critical reassessment of the importance of cities in geographical imaginings of the past, and second a critical intervention into the dating of the Anthropocene pushing it back many thousands of years.

Pluralisme Agama Bukan Nihilisme: Respon Untuk Kaum Fundamentalis

This article will see the problem of pluralism through multi- dimensional approach. The plural society is not only the characteristic of modern industrial society, but also the characteristic of Islamic society, since the Prophet (PBUH) era. Normatively, al-Quran clearly rejects the exclusif way of life. In todays life, admitting diversity but having no will to create harmony will cause an unendless problem. Pluralism is the divine design which must be applied in manner and action. This must not stop in the discourse, but more practical. Human being is not merely a homo pluralist, who appreciate the diversity, but homo multiculturalist, who believe that in a plural relation there must be build real actions based on equality and justice.

Capital and Capitalism

The chapter summarizes the nature of capital and capitalism. The chapter also highlights concepts related to the role of the State in economic activity, and the nature of industrial policy. The initial concepts dealt with are that of capital as a fund, capital as structure and capital as capabilities. Capitalism necessitates socially organizing production. Assessing organizational and administrative contingencies is important for understanding capitalism. Institutions are the bedrock of capitalism. The broad roles of Government, in designing laws and regulations, building infrastructure and acting as entrepreneur, are discussed. The implementation of national industrial strategies facilitates growth. The nature of industrial strategies is highlighted. Industrial policy activities, as defined by the three facets of institutions, innovation and involvement, are discussed. With respect to India’s industrial strategy, independent India’s founders’ visions of a modern industrial society, grounded in a need to involve Government in institution building, are introduced.

Body Semiotics

This chapter considers how the (male) action bodies in martial arts cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s, posed between mastery and vulnerability, served as a site/sight through which the aspirations and anxieties of Hong Kong people living in the flux of a rapidly modernizing society were articulated and made visible. Specifically, it identifies three types of action body—the narcissistic body, the sacrificial body, and the ascetic body—and discusses how each crystallized out of the changing social and ideological dynamics of Hong Kong during the period. As socially symbolic signs, these diverse but interrelated representations of the body are extremely rich in meanings, inscribing within themselves not only fantasies of nationalist pride and liberated labor but also the historical experience of violence, in the form of both colonization and unbridled growth, that lay beneath the transformation of Hong Kong into a modern industrial society.

Conclusion: John Henry, Efficiency, and Community

This chapter discusses the origin of the John Henry legend and how it has been attributed to West Virginia around the time railroads expanded into the new frontier, seeking the region's rich raw materials. Though there are many interpretations of the legend, John Henry still serves as a parable for the shift to modern industrial society and its ramifications. The social struggles represented by the conflict over mountaintop removal belong not to John Henry's era, but to a subsequent social shift that West Virginians and Americans in general struggled with at the turn of the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, the relationships between corporate efficiency and community bonds are similar enough to warrant revisiting the parable.

O jovem Lukács e Dostoiévski

A referência decisiva para o pensamento religioso de Lukács não é o misticismo católico, judeu ou hindu, mas muito mais (como para todo o círculo Max Weber) a espiritualidade russa, e notadamente, Dostoiévski. Nessa época, Bloch e Lukács estavam fascinados pela literatura e filosofia religiosas russas, e o seu reino coletivista-religioso sobre a terra era concebido como “uma vida no espírito de Dostoiévski”3. Somente podemos compreender essa atração deles pela Rússia entre eles, assim como de os outros membros do círculo, através da sua repulsa contra o mundo individualista e seelenlos da sociedade industrial daEuropa ocidental.The decisive influence in Lukács’religious thought is not Catholic, Jewish or Hindu mysticism, but above all (as it was for all Mar Weber’s circle) Russian spirituality and, particularly, Dostoyevsky. In those times, Bloch and Lukács were fascinated by Russian religious literature and philosophy, and their religiously collectivist kingdom on earth was conceived as a “life in the spirit of Dostoyevsky”. We can only understand the attraction towards Russia among them, as well as among other members of the circle, if we have in mind their rejection of an individualistic world and the seelenlos of western modern industrial society.

Tenkning i sykepleie om eksklusjon av foreldre ved barns innleggelse i sykehus

Analyses of textbooks in nursing, of photographs and numerous other documents suggest that parents had limited access to participate in the care for their hospitalized children in Norway in the period 1877-1940. The analyses are conducted in the tradition of the French philosopher Michel Foucault’s writings on discipline. In accordance with Foucault’s understanding, it seems logical that ideas about parenting exclusion had impact even within the hospital health care system in the current era, provided the general separation of parents and children in the modern industrial society at large. In this perspective, exclusion of parents in the hospital health care system may be considered a consequence of employers’ interests with regard to productivity, the lack of welfare services for parents, and the fear of parents transmitting infections from the hospitals.