Nature

Earth consciousness involves an understanding of our relationship with earth. It involves the study of earth forms, their life processes and inherent needs. The concept has created a field of frameworks and knowledge systems permeating into the day to day lives of humans including their political-economic-cultural spaces. The expression earth consciousness can be interpreted in many ways to include human awareness of nature & its processes, or the bond with mother earth and all its forms . Earth consciousness or the (...) universal respect for nature and all of its forms is manifesting in different ways. The multidisciplinary approaches that build the idea of Earth consciousness have added much weight to building frameworks for protection & preservation. One can see an influence of cultural, ethical, legal, philosophical, religious, & spiritual perspectives in the realization of a deep & meaningful relationship between humans with nature. This document sheds light on the diverse frameworks evolved and evolving to give effect to the growing earth consciousness. Much emphasis also placed on the "Rights in Nature Framework" and the "Post 2020 Bio-diversity Framework". (shrink)

Water plants of all sizes, from the 60-meter long Pacific Ocean giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) to the micro ur-plant blue-green algae, deserve attention from critical plant studies. This is the first book in environmental humanities to approach algae, swimming across the sciences, humanities, and arts, to embody the mixed nature and collaborative identity of algae. Ranging from Medieval Islamic texts describing algae and their use, Japanese and Nordic cultural practices based in seaweed and algae, and confronting the instrumentalization of seaweed (...) to mitigate cow methane release and the hype of algal photobioreactors, amongst many other standpoints, this volume comprehensively addresses the ancestors of terrestrial plants through appreciating their unique aquatic medium. (shrink)

This book develops an original interpretation of the relationship between F.W.J. Schelling and G.W.F. Hegel. It argues that the difference between these philosophers must be understood in light of their shared commitment to the philosophy of nature and the idea that spirit, or humanity, emerges from the natural world. The author makes a case for the contemporary relevance of German idealist philosophy of nature by walking the reader through its major themes, motivations, and arguments. Along the way, Schelling and Hegel (...) are shown to develop key insights about the structure of reality and the dependence of living things and human beings upon inorganic natural processes. In elucidating the details of Schelling's and Hegel's respective philosophies of nature, the book challenges some of our most basic assumptions about the scope of philosophical inquiry and the relationship between matter, life, and human existence. Schelling, Hegel, and the Philosophy of Nature will appeal to scholars and advanced students working on German idealism, as well as those interested in contemporary philosophies of nature and the topic of emergence. (shrink)

Argues that, to make progress within environmental ethics, philosophers must explicitly engage in environmental metaphysics.

An innovative look at philosophies of nature across cultures and traditions through the common thread of burning nature down in order to be reborn over and over again.

A Kantian approach can establish that non-human natural entities are morally considerable and that humans have duties to them. This is surprising, because most environmental ethicists have either rejected or overlooked Kant when it comes to this issue. Inspired by an argument of Christine Korsgaard, I claim that both humans and non-humans have a natural good, which is whatever allows an entity to function well according to the kind of entity it is. I argue that humans are required to confer (...) normative value on the natural good of all entities that have a natural good. This is so because, as a matter of fact, humans confer normative value on their own natural good simply because it is a natural good, which commits humans to the position that any natural good deserves to have normative value conferred on it. Since non-human natural entities have a natural good, their natural good deserves to have normative value conferred on it as well, and this is sufficient to make non-human natural entities morally considerable such that humans have duties to them. (shrink)

A key philosophical feature of Peter Jackson’s film interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s _The Lord of the Rings_ is its use of fantasy to inspire a “recovery” of the actual or, in other words, a reawakening to the beauty of nature and the many possible ways of living in healthier ecological relation to the world. Though none of these ways is perfectly achieved, this pluralistic view is demonstrated in the various lifeways of Hobbits, Elves, Men, and Ents. All of the positive (...) relationships embodied in the films—to trees, mountains, horses, and vegetable gardens—involve loving care and attention, receiving nourishment and livelihood without instrumentalization, or reducing nature to mere resource. The films also vividly display a variety of ugly and destructive ways of using the land to accrue power and wealth. These noxious ways, specifically because they actively destroy the lands that they use, always need more. They will thus eventually annihilate the beautiful ways of being if they are not actively resisted. Some of those who would rather be tending their own trees, gardens, or horses or even wandering in the wild forests must therefore turn their attention to struggle and resistance instead. This is a struggle full of grief, and at times even verging on despair, but it is marked by the refusal to give up hope. Indeed, what Jackson and Tolkien have to say about hope is as important in responding to the ecological crisis as anything they have to say about nature, inasmuch as they help to remind us that even in our own times, “there is still hope.”. (shrink)

Biological conservation practices and approaches take many forms. Conservation projects do not only differ in their aims and methods, but also concerning their conceptual and normative background assumptions and their underlying motivations and objectives. We draw on philosophical distinctions from the ethics of conservation to explain variances of different positions on conservation projects along six dimensions: (1) conservation ideals, (2) intervention intuitions, (3) the moral considerability of nonhuman beings, (4) environmental values, (5) views on nature and (6) human roles in (...) nature. The result is a map of the moral landscape of biological conservation, on which these six dimensions are layered. This map functions as a heuristic tool to understand conceptual and normative foundations of specific conservation projects, which we will illustrate with four paradigmatic examples: the Pisavaara Strict Nature Reserve, Predator Free New Zealand, the Oostvaardersplassen Nature Reserve and the Great Green Wall Project. With this map as a heuristic tool, we aim to conceptually illuminate disagreement and clarify misunderstandings between representatives of different environmental protection strategies and to show that the same project can be supported (or criticised) on different grounds. (shrink)

La crise écologique que nous traversons a profondément transformé notre rapport à la nature, au point qu'aux yeux de certains la notion et le mot même de nature seraient devenus inadéquats pour penser la place de l'homme dans le monde à l'ère de l'anthropocène. L'écologie nous invite à nous défaire de l'anthropocentrisme dont notre culture, et notamment la représentation du paysage et l'expression du sentiment de la nature auraient été porteuses. Michel Collot montre que cette hypothèse d'une "fin de la (...) nature" repose sur la conception d'une nature-objet, régie par des lois mécaniques, qui a prévalu un moment dans l'Occident moderne mais que l'évolution récente des sciences de la vie et de la terre, comme celle des sciences humaines et sociales a largement remise en cause. S'il est vrai que la crise écologique, comme le dit Baptiste Morizot, est aussi une crise de la sensibilité, il convient de mobiliser pour y remédier un nouveau sentiment de la nature, que Michel Collot propose de définir comme une écosensibilité. La richesse et la diversité de la production artistique et littéraire qui met en scène et remet en jeu aujourd'hui nos relations avec la nature permet d'échapper à une certaine doxa écologique ou écologiste. Elle nous aide à inventer un nouvel humanisme, qui cesse d'opposer l'homme et la nature, la nature et la culture, au profit de leur interaction féconde. (shrink)

For eller imod Naturen? Naturen er traditionelt blevet opfattet som noget skidt, man kunne behandle, som man ville; som noget lavt, man har kunnet udnytte; endog som noget "syndigt", man skulle undertrykke! I denne bog vil Naturen blive skrevet med stort, og heri vil man møde en tradition, der som en understrøm, eller måske rettere overstrøm, har været til stede som alternativet til den herskende naturfjendske tænkemåde. Denne tradition har man forsøgt at undertrykke på alle måder! Man har gjort Platon (...) til discipel af Sokrates i stedet for Pythagoras, man har fortiet, at Cicero, Kepler, Leibniz, Goethe og Ørsted alle var inkarnerede platonikere -- ligesom også Henrik Pontoppidan var det: 'At lovprise det skønne, gode, retfærdige; at brændemærke skurkene, narrene, hyklerne -- det er og har været og vil vedblive at være en værdig opgave også for de skønne kunster' -- sådan skrev Pontoppidan selv, og hans. 'Lykke-Per' skriver (ligesom Platon!) en bog om en 'Fremtidsstat'. Den er baseret på "grøn energi", og i stedet for kirker har den templer for platoniske ideer som Sandheden og Retfærdigheden. (shrink)

Can our relationship with nature be loving and reciprocal? The claim is hard to sustain when nature is taken to encompass polluted and urban places. The notion of reciprocity loses its force, and the lovability of these places is put into question. Also, the demand of love may obscure the ethical demand in our relationship with nature: to be responsible in our meaning-making practices.

Twaalf inheemse en religieuze leiders uit verschillende werelddelen spreken zich in dit boek uit over de heiligheid van de natuur. Hun eeuwenoude wijsheden inspireren ons om anders te gaan denken over onze omgang met alles wat leeft. Aan het woord komen de Groenlandse sjamaan Angakkorsuaq, de Amerikaanse indianenleider Chief Lane Jr., masaileider Mwarabu, de boeddhistische geestelijke Shih, de dichtende islamgeleerde Ur Rehman Chishti, orthodox rabbijn Slifkin, Maya-priester Sac Coyoy, hindoe-prins Jhala, Aztekenleider Sanchez, leider van de Canadese Bear Clan Wawatie, bisschop (...) Smeets van Roermond en theoloog Valerio van Rochester Cathedral. 0Oeroude natuurwijsheden uit alle streken! (shrink)

This paper aims to identify and relate different ecological approaches (primarily Preservation and Conservation) that played a significant role in developing a global ecological conscience. After presenting a comprehensive historical account of the approaches and movements in ecological thought, at the end of the paper, I will briefly highlight the potential areas of future research that could develop and re-frame ecological thought that ensures collaboration, co-adaptation, and sustainability in the environmental ethos. I fully acknowledge the diverse environmental movements in different (...) parts of the world, and I also recognize the complexity, multi-dimensionality, and dissimilarity of ecological thoughts in different cultures. Nevertheless, the dominant and the most influential standpoint that governed and shaped modern ecological thought comes from western thinkers, scientists, and activists. Therefore, in this paper, I will confine myself to the western environmental tradition. (shrink)

Lorraine Daston's "Against Nature" seeks to explain why, in spite of compelling objections to the contrary, human beings continue to invest nature with moral authority. More specifically, she claims that our propensity to moralize nature is traceable in part to human nature. Though I criticize Daston for not paying adequate attention to John Stuart Mill's narrow sense of 'nature', I also highly recommend her book.

Though many ethicists have the intuition that we should leave nature alone, Kyle Johannsen argues that we have a duty to research safe ways of providing large-scale assistance to wild animals. Using concepts from moral and political philosophy to analyze the issue of wild animal suffering (WAS), Johannsen explores how a collective, institutional obligation to assist wild animals should be understood. He claims that with enough research, genetic editing may one day give us the power to safely intervene without perpetually (...) interfering with wild animals’ liberties.---------------Questions addressed include: In what way is nature valuable and is interference compatible with that value? Is interference a requirement of justice? What are the implications of WAS for animal rights advocacy? What types of intervention are promising?---------------Expertly moving the debate about human relations with wild animals beyond its traditional confines, Wild Animal Ethics is essential reading for students and scholars of political philosophy and political theory studying animal ethics, environmental ethics, and environmental philosophy. (shrink)

Wie wollen wir leben und wie können wir unserem Leben Sinn geben angesichts der drängenden Krisen der Gegenwart? Wie können solche Fragen überhaupt beantwortet werden, wenn eine säkulare Kultur scheinbar nur Antworten auf Fragen nach dem „wie?“, nicht aber nach dem „wozu?“ erlaubt. Martin Kolmar deutet im vorliegenden Buch die gegenwärtigen und bevorstehenden Krisen, allen voran die Klimakrise, als Krise der westlichen Denk- und Wahrnehmungsweisen und versucht einen Ausweg daraus aufzuzeigen. Dazu beginnt er mit einer Analyse westlicher Vorstellungswelten aus der (...) Perspektive des „Erhabenen“. Es zeigt sich, dass das „Erhabene“ als Grenzerfahrung überraschende und relevante neue Perspektiven auf die Gegenwart öffnet und zugleich einen Weg zu einer säkularen, rationalen Form der Sinnerfahrung erkennbar macht. Das Besondere dieses Buches ist die Verknüpfung philosophischer und gesellschafts- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Forschung mit Erkenntnissen der Psychologie und der Neurowissenschaft. Es zeigt auf, dass traditionelle Vorstellungen des „Guten Lebens“ und der Verortung der eigenen Existenz als Teil der Natur, mit moderner Forschung korrespondieren. Ist man bereit, sich hierauf einzulassen, stellt insbesondere die Bedrohung durch die Klimakrise nicht nur ein mögliches Katastrophenszenario und eine große technologische Herausforderung dar, sondern eine Chance für ein besseres Leben, welches aus einer anderen Haltung ihm gegenüber resultiert. (shrink)

While the idea of art as self-expression can sound old-fashioned, it remains widespread—especially if the relevant ‘selves’ can be social collectives, not just individual artists. But self-expression can collapse into individualistic or anthropocentric self-involvement. And compelling successor ideals for artists are not obvious. In this light, I develop a counter-ideal of creative receptivity to basic features of the external world, or artistic objectivity. Objective artists are not trying to express themselves or reach collective self-knowledge. However, they are also not disinterested (...) or emotionless. They can be unmoved by personal feelings and human concerns, but they are still receptive—just attuned to the more elemental forces that creatively inspire them. I elaborate this ideal in dialogue with John Ruskin’s influential critique of the pathetic fallacy. By contextualizing Ruskin’s view vis-à-vis Romantic and Modernist poetics, post-Kantian aesthetics, modern environmental art, and contemporary theories of expressiveness, I show how it indirectly motivates my account. (shrink)

At present universities are devoted to the acquisition of specialized knowledge and technological know-how. They fail to do what they most need to do: help the public acquire a good understanding of what our problems are, what needs to be done to solve them. Universities do not even conceive of their task in that way. The result is that the public, by and large, fails to appreciate just how serious the problems that face us are, and so fails to put (...) pressure on governments to act in the ways that are required. -/- Modern science and technology make possible modern industry and agriculture, modern power production and travel, modern hygiene and medicine, modern armaments: these in turn have led to much that is of great benefit, but also to the global problems that threaten our future. Science divorced from the capacity to solve problems of living wisely is a disaster. It is that disaster that academia, as at present constituted, is designed to produce – and has produced: the modern world. We have to learn how to solve the grave global problems that confront us. That in turn requires that our institutions of learning – our schools and universities – are designed and devoted to the job. At present they are not. In giving priority to the pursuit of knowledge, they fail to do what most needs to be done and, even worse, are the source of our problems. It is absolutely vital, for the future of humanity, that universities are transformed radically so that they give absolute priority to the all-important task of helping the public come to understand what our problems are, and what we need to do about them. And as a result get governments to act. -/- The book demonstrates that universities as at present constituted violate reason and, as a result, betray humanity. Cure universities of their structural irrationality, and they would come actively to promote actions required to solve global problems, and help humanity make progress toward a better world. The book spells out in detail the changes that need to be made to academic inquiry, why they need to be made, and how they would enable universities to empower humanity to solve current global problems. (shrink)

Ik kan de zeepokken niet vinden. Het is een warme zaterdagnamiddag in september, ik ben net aangekomen op het eiland en loop langs het water in de haven. Ik ben hier bijna twintig jaar niet geweest." In 'Vuurduin' gaat Eva Meijer een week naar Vlieland, op zoek naar wat verdwijnt. Het ecosysteem van de wadden staat onder druk, maar er liggen ook delen van haar eigen geschiedenis op het eiland, stukken tijd die nooit meer terugkomen. Alles verdwijnt natuurlijk: familie, geliefden, (...) huisdieren, gebeurtenissen. En de natuurlijke wereld laat ons zien dat dat erbij hoort - het is de stof waar we uit geweven zijn. Tegelijkertijd verdwijnt de levende wereld waarin dit alles ingebed is zelf in razende vaart: diersoorten sterven uit, ecosystemen gaan eraan, de permafrost smelt, onze winters worden herfst. Met behulp van schrijvers, filosofen, kunstenaars en hond Doris gaat Meijer op zoek naar de juiste woorden voor dit verlies, en voor wat we ertegenover kunnen zetten"--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Comment défendre les Lumières aujourd'hui? Leur idéal d'émancipation a-t-il encore un sens? On ne saurait se borner à invoquer un esprit des Lumières immuable dans un contexte marqué par le réveil du nationalisme, les crises environnementales et sanitaires et l'augmentation des inégalités. Faire face au danger d'effondrement de notre civilisation sans renoncer à la rationalité philosophico-scientifique, mais en tenant compte de notre dépendance à l'égard de la nature et des autres vivants: telle est la démarche qui fonde ce livre. Pour (...) combattre les anti-Lumières qui souhaitent rétablir une société hiérarchique ou théocratique et répondre aux accusations des postmodernes qui suspectent tout universalisme d'être hégémonique, il faut donc proposer de nouvelles Lumières. Celles-ci supposent de revisiter l'histoire des Lumières, mais aussi de lutter contre l'amputation de la raison qui a été réduite à un instrument de calcul et d'exploitation. L'objectif des Lumières à l'âge du vivant et de leur projet d'une société démocratique et écologique est bien de destituer le principe de la domination--une domination des autres et de la nature à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur de soi qui traduit un mépris du corps et de la vulnérabilité."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Should we kill animals to save animals? This question lies at the heart of this case study. Sovereign nations have an interest in protecting and conserving their natural resources, and in particular their distinctive flora and fauna. As they seek to promote these interests, they inevitably face the economic question of how they are going to finance their conservation efforts. One way of answering this question is to engage in the practice of selling big game hunting licenses and using the (...) revenues to fund conservation programs. This strategy is counterintuitive (and to some, morally repellent); but it has a partial track record of success in places such as Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Despite its successes, there are some who believe that the moral objections to such a strategy outweigh any potential benefits. This case study provides the student with an opportunity to explore the tension between the desire to save endangered animals and the possibility that the best way to do that involves killing some of them. (shrink)

Onze relatie met het landschap is eigenlijk heel onduidelijk. Er zijn veel vragen daarover, zoals: waarom voelen we ons in sommige landschappen thuis en in andere niet? Of waarom scheiden we natuur en cultuur? En: hoe is de relatie tussen mens en natuur in niet-westerse culturen? Wat heeft muziek met natuur te maken? Waarom zijn ongewervelde dieren zo opwindend? Hoe kunnen we een echt partnerschap met natuur vormgeven?0Ecoloog en filosoof Matthijs Schouten behandelt dit soort vragen in de beschouwingen in dit (...) boek en gaat diep in op onze complexe en ambivalente relatie met natuur en landschap. (shrink)

Nature, a treasure trove of wisdom, is a great teacher of amazingly priceless life lessons to live a happy and worthwhile life. It speaks to us through its various phenomena. Gurbani helps up to decode Nature's invaluable lessons. Gurbani enunciates that Nature helps us to develop compassion and inner balance. It also guides us to help others to lead better lives. The interplay of five classical elements-air, water, fire, earth and akasha is the fundamental cause of all-natural phenomena. Let us (...) reflect on some of the social, ethical and spiritual lessons being provided by these. (shrink)

Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary science that is primarily concerned with developing interventions to achieve sustainable ecological and economic systems. While ecological economists have, over the last few decades, made various empirical, theoretical, and conceptual advancements, there is one concept in particular that remains subject to confusion: critical natural capital. While critical natural capital denotes parts of the environment that are essential for the continued existence of our species, the meaning of terms commonly associated with this concept, such as ‘non-substitutable’ (...) and ‘impossible to substitute,’ require a clearer formulation then they tend to receive. With the help of equations and graphs, this article develops new definite account of critical natural capital that makes explicit what it means for objective environmental conditions to be essential for continued existence. The second main part of this article turns to the question of formally modeling the priority of conserving critical natural capital. While some ecological economists have maintained that, beyond a certain threshold, critical natural capital possesses absolute infinite value, absolute infinite utility models encounter significant problems. This article shows that a relative infinite utility model provides a better way to model the priority of conserving critical natural capital. (shrink)

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