This paper sets out to launch a challenge to the usual ‘modernist’ view of the relationship between ecology and ethics. Two ‘post-modern’ interpretations of this relationship are considered. The first ‘deep’ interpretation holds that ecology reveals that nature has intrinsic value. The second interpretation derives from the work of Michel Foucault. The aim of his critique is to reveal how certain values are taken for granted by the acceptance of certain scientific models, and how the acceptance of those models as (...) true makes it impossible to articulate alternative values. I end by suggesting, contra Foucault, that phenomenological enquiry could serve to articulate alternative and perhaps more eco-friendly values. (shrink)

: Ecological Modernization theory emerged during the 1980s inresponse to other environmental sociology theories that mostly denunciateindustrialization and modernization as culprits of environmental degradation.The basic view of Ecological Modernization is to find a balance betweendevelopment of society and nation as well as environmental protection.Some scholars believe that this is the best module to develop a country, whileothers criticize it as a pro-capitalist concept. As Malaysia is now pushingits status towards becoming a developed and high-income nation, (...) people’swellbeing as well as environmental protection needs to be highly considered.Taking Ecological Modernization as fresh perspective to view the country’sdevelopment plan, this paper aims to understand whether the essence ofEcological Modernization was embedded in Pakatan Harapan’s politicalmanifesto during the 14th general election. As political manifesto serves asinitial policy making guidelines, it is imperative to understand the PakatanHarapan future plans for the country. (shrink)

This essay addresses the question of how sustainable development is possible, giving special reference to the role of technology. It argues that the dominant strategy for sustainable development that is now operative, ecological modernization, is insufficient, and that the reform of technology and of systems of production alone will not yield sustainable development. After a brief discussion of the notion of sustainable development, the current strategy for sustainability, ecological modernization, is outlined (§ 1). This strategy is (...) then subjected to a critique, because of its one-sided emphasis on the reform of production systems, its belief in a 'technological fix' and its retention of an unsustainable ideal of economic growth (§ 2). Finally (§ 3), it is argued that sustainable development requires a reform of lifestyles and systems of consumption, next to the ecological reform of systems of production. Reform of technology can actually contribute to the reform of lifestyles and consumption patterns, but only as part of a comprehensive reform strategy. (shrink)

The idea and use of the concept of intrinsic value in environmental ethics has spawned much debate in environmental ethics/axiology. Although for many, it seems fundamental and necessary for formulating an ethic for environmental protection, it seems to confuse and even undermine such efforts. ' Intrinsic value ' is, I argue, a concept born in the Western intellectual tradition for purposes of insulating and isolating those to whom intrinsic value can be attributed from one another and their environmental context. This (...) is especially true from the Modern period onward. When used as a basis for determining moral considerability, these Modern foundations engender contradictory and self-defeating ways of thinking about the individual/ecosystem relationship. As a result, formulations of moral sensibilities and principles become self-defeating and, vis-à-vis the ecological context, incoherent. On the critique of this Modern residue, an alternative axiological framework is built, using Anthony Weston's idea of interdepending values as a preparation for a more ecologically coherent approach to environmental protection. This approach is dialectical and attempts to formulate an ecological foundation for moral considerability. (shrink)

Ecology in principle is tied to evolution, since communities and ecosystems result from evolution and ecological conditions determine fitness values. Yet the two disciplines of evolution and ecology were not unified in the twentieth-century. The architects of the Modern Synthesis, and especially Julian Huxley, constantly pushed for such integration, but the major ideas of the Synthesis—namely, the privileged role of selection and the key role of gene frequencies in evolution—did not directly or immediately translate into ecological science. In (...) this paper I consider five stages through which the Synthesis was integrated into ecology and distinguish between various ways in which a possible integration was gained. I start with Elton’s animal ecology, then consider successively Ford’s ecological genetics in the 1940s, the major textbook Principles of animal ecology edited by Allee et al., and the debates over the role of competition in population regulation in the 1950s, ending with Hutchinson’s niche concept and McArthur and Wilson’s Principles of Island Biogeography viewed as a formal transposition of Modern Synthesis explanatory schemes. I will emphasize the key role of founders of the Synthesis at each stage of this very nonlinear history. (shrink)

This papaer will present ecological design as a new paradigm in design, explain its significance, and argue for ecological design as a better paradigmatic alternative to the modern movement led by the Bauhaus, and as a sounder and more socially relevant approach than the post-modernism.

The U.S. stock market is one of the largest and most complex marketplaces in the global financial system. Over the past several decades, this market has evolved at multiple structural and temporal scales. New exchanges became active, and others stopped trading, regulations have been introduced and adapted, and technological innovations have pushed the pace of trading activity to blistering speeds. These developments have supported the growth of a rich machine-trading ecology that leads to qualitative differences in trading behavior at human (...) and machine time scales. We conduct a longitudinal analysis of comprehensive market data to quantify nonstationary dynamics throughout this system. We quantify the relationship between fluctuations in the number of active trading venues and realized opportunity costs experienced by market participants. We find that information asymmetries, in the form of quote dislocations, predict market-wide volatility indicators. Lastly, we uncover multiple micro-to-macro level pathways, including those exhibiting evidence of self-organized criticality. (shrink)

Volume 51, Issue 11, October 2019, Page 1073-1079.

This article considers the emergence of world environmental history as a rapidly growing but undertheorized research field. Taking as its central problematic the gap between the fertile theorizations of environmentally-oriented social scientists and the empirically rich studies of world environmental historians, the article argues for a synthesis of theory and history in the study of longue dureesocio-ecological change. This argument proceeds in three steps. First, I offer an ecological reading of Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern World-System. Wallerstein's handling of (...) the ecological dimensions of the transition from feudalism to capitalism is suggestive of a new approach to world environmental history. Second, I contend that Wallerstein's theoretical insights may be effectively complemented by drawing on Marxist notions of value and above all the concept of “metabolic rift,” which emphasize the importance of productive processes and regional divisions of labor within the modern world-system. Finally, I develop these theoretical discussions in a short environmental history of the two great “commodity frontiers” of early capitalism – the sugar plantation and the silver mining complex. (shrink)

This short article was originally delivered as a lecture in China, The article sketches a process view of history from ancient to medieval civilization, to modernity in two major phases, and to the current transition to a constructive postmodern, ecological civilization.

v. I. Cycles, causality, ecology -- v. II. Evolution & appendices.

Resumen:El artículo indaga en las causas antropológicas y filosóficas de la crisis ecológica actual. Postula que una causa fundamental es el dualismo moderno que contrapone naturaleza e historia. A través de diversos procesos de la modernidad como la consolidación de la historicidad junto a la idea de progreso, los cambios en la percepción del tiempo, la separación de espacio y tiempo, la disociación de la historia natural de la historia total, y el dualismo solipsista del cartesianismo, contribuyen en su conjunto (...) a constituir la modernidad como desvinculación y a la “historia” como matriz epistemológica predominante tanto para pensar la realidad como para intervenir en ella. Como un modo de superar esa sobrevaloración de la historia en décadas recientes parece asomar un nuevo principio, el “principio del cuidado” de la Tierra unido a la responsabilidad intrageneracional e intergeneracional como únicos caminos plausibles para enfrentar integralmente la grave crisis ecológica que nos afecta. Esta nueva ética del cuidado es inseparable de razones estrictamente teológicas que convocan a salvaguardar la Tierra como morada del Logos.Palabras clave: historia; progreso; desvinculación; responsabilidad; cuidado; ecología-integral. (shrink)

Indigenous knowledge is often dismissed as ‘traditional and outdated’, and hence irrelevant to modern ecological assessment. This theoretical paper critically examines the arguments advanced to elevate modern western ecological knowledge over indigenous ecological knowledge, as well as the sources and uses of indigenous ecological knowledge. The central argument of the paper is that although the two systems are conceptually different, it would be fallacious to regard one as superior to the other merely because they are premised (...) on different worldviews. (shrink)

Chapter 1: The Rise of Anthropocene Theory: Politics, ontology and the feedback loop of Western humanism -- Chapter 2: Repoliticising Ecology: Indigenous knowledge in the Anthropocene -- Chapter 3: Tell the truth in the face of the extinction: Exceptionalism and depoliticization in Anthropocene activism -- Chapter 4: Rights of nature and Indigenous Threshold Politics -- Chapter 5: Acting, Resisting, Surviving: Indigenous Agency Beyond the 'End Times' -- Epilogue Anthropocene Afterlives.

This paper examines the theory of sustainable development presented by Jeffrey Sachs in The Age of Sustainable Development. While Sustainable Development ostensibly seeks to harmonise the conflict between ecological sustainability and human development, the paper argues this is impossible because of the conceptual frame it employs. Rather than allowing for a re-conceptualisation of the human-nature relation, Sustainable Development is simply the latest and possibly last attempt to advance the core idea of western modernity — the notion of self-determination. Drawing (...) upon Hegel's account of historical development it is argued that Sustainable Development and the notion of planetary boundaries cannot break out of a dualism of nature and self-determining agents. (shrink)

본 연구는 현대 문명담론을 생태학적 세계화 차원에서 체계화하기 위해 기획된 것이다. 아울러 단․복수론의 궁극적 지평의 융합으로서 메타 이론적 학문 토대를 기초함은 물론 최종적으로는 인간과 자연, 중심과 주변, 서구와 비서구 등의 이분화적 갈등 구도를 파기하고 생태학적 관계성 회복을 전제하는 생태문명학의 정립을 그 목표로 한다. 현재 인류가 직면한 여러 생태학적 위기는 단순한 물리적인 환경의 파괴를 넘어 더 많은 함의를 지닌다. 금세기 생태학적 진단은 계몽주의와 산업 혁명에 연원한 현대 문명의 여러 폐단들에 대한 뼈아픈 반성을 수렴하는 것이다. 생태 문명의 건설은 생태 회복과 관리뿐만 아니라 (...) 전체적인 사회 문화 양식의 혁신과 관련된다. 또한 여기에는 세계화를 촉발시킨 서구 근대성에 대한 비판이 담겨 있다. 왜냐하면 근대성은 인간과 자연, 인간과 인간, 서양과 동양이라는 제 존재의 관계망들을 파편화함으로써 현대 문명의 위기를 초래한 진원지로 지적되기 때문이다. 이렇게 타자와의 관계성을 배제하는 이원적 근대성은 단수적 문명의 진보 신념으로 이어진다. 서구의 문명 개념에 내포된 ‘진보 대 야만’의 구획 의식은 단선적 진보사관에 연원한 서구보편주의의 세계적 동질화 과정의 근저를 이룬다. 그리고 여기에는 서구 문명의 패권을 강제하는 강권주의 논리가 함의되어 있다. 현재의 서구문명강권주의가 근대성의 닫힘과 두절의 이항 대립 의식에 근거한다면 무엇보다도 상호 주체적 연결 고리를 인정하는 생태 지향적 근대성으로서의 열림과 소통의 인식 전환이 이루어져야 한다. 이것은 복수적 근대성에 기초한 범 인류 중심의 생태학적 관계망을 담보하는 ‘세계주의 시각’의 전일적 문명관을 요구하는 것이다. 우리가 염원하는 새로운 문명관은 인권과 생명에 위해를 가하는 일체의 강권에 대한 저항과 해체에 있다. 아울러 인류의 평화와 공존을 위해 세계인이 합심해 노력해야 한다는 상호 주체적 평등 관계를 기초로 한 세계주의적 ‘생태문명’, 즉 세계 문명 중심의 다문명적 공존주의 문명관의 각성과 구축에 있다. 이처럼 생태학적 문명관은 문명 사이의 상호 관계에 관한 어떤 규범적 패러다임을 설정하는 토대가 된다. 강조컨대 현대 문명의 내핵인 근대주의가 공존 이념과 어울리지 않는다는 점에서 공생공영의 이념을 일반화하기 위해서는 무엇보다도 인간중심주의적 근대주의 문화를 비판하고 청산해야 할 것이다. 이를 위해서는 주객 이분법을 타파하고 주체와 객체 간의 새로운 관계 설정이 중요하다. 이른바 대자연이 최고의 주체라는 자연중심주의로 회귀해야 한다. 그리고 자연 속의 모든 존재들이 저마다의 주체성을 소유하며 때문에 삼라만상이 존재의 가치와 권리가 있음을 인정해야 한다. 이를 달리 말하면 ‘자연 중심의 다주체적 공생주의 자연관’이라 할 수 있다. 이 자연관을 문명론으로 치환해볼 때 ‘세계 문명 중심의 다문명적 공존주의 문명관’ 건설의 토대로 활용할 수 있다. 생태와 문명의 교차점에는 세계 문명의 소통으로서의 ‘생태문명학’이 자리한다. 자연 중심적 세계관으로의 전회는 특정한 패권 문명 중심에서 세계 문명 중심으로의 인식 전환과 함께 그 동안 주체와 중심의 그늘에 가려져 억눌리고 소외당했던 객체와 주변의 복권을 의미한다. 특히 서구의 이분법적 차별 구도는 근대성과 접맥된 세계화 이론에 깊이 착근되어 있다. 현재의 세계 문명은 ‘세계성 대 지역성’ 내지는 ‘근대성 대 전통성’이 대립하면서 서로 거대한 압력을 행사하는 각축장이 되고 있다. 이것은 단수적 보편 문명의 세계적 일체화와 복수적 개별 문명의 자기정체성 강화의 문제로 확대 해석할 수 있다. 이로 보건대 세계화와 관련된 현대 문명담론의 최대 관건은 단․복수적 문명론의 역사순기능적인 면을 동시에 구현시킬 수 있는 보편문명론과 문명다원주의의 화해와 회통에 있다. 즉 현재와 미래의 세계는 단일의 보편 문명과 고유한 특징을 지닌 복수의 개별 문명들이 중층적으로 공존한다고 보고 ‘문명다원주의를 그 전제로 한 보편 문명에의 지향’으로 정리할 수가 있다. 또한 ‘보편 문명’이 태생적으로 서구제국주의와 접맥된다는 점에서 다원성과 타자성을 감내하는 생명관적 자애로운 보편주의가 확보되어야 한다. 본 논고에서는 이 명제들의 충족 논거로서 생태문명학의 핵심 규범과 운용 요칙 들을 각각 제시했다. (shrink)

The paper explores the fundamental thoughts of ancient India, specifically Vedic and Upanishadic ideologies, which believed that man has no authority to dominate the Earth at the expense of his/her benefits. Each and every one ought to protect, preserve, take care and show genuine concern for the Earth to whom he/she has ascribed divine motherhood. We shall also observe that western anthropocentrism is itself facing a great challenge, and as a consequence, a new shade of ethical consciousness coined as „environmental (...) ethics‟ has emerged. Environmental ethics mainly a non–anthropocentric ethics in its approach recognises that nature and her beings should not be exploited and dictated by man, since nature is thought to be an end in itself which should be treated with love, care and respect. One of the major off–shoots of this new shade of non–anthropocentric ecological ethics is deep–ecology which has unlike anthropocentric attitude, of the mainstream–European tradition ascribed intrinsic value to nature. Finally, the paper will try to arrive at a conclusion by making a critical yet comparative analysis, between the basic and positive observations of the Indian classical thought as well as central doctrines of deep ecology of Western environmental thought by relating both of them. Such an attempt intends to relate both of them by pointing out striking similarities between them, in spite of the difference in time and cultural milieu in which they emerged. (shrink)

Cognitive ecology is the study of cognitive phenomena in context. In particular, it points to the web of mutual dependence among the elements of a cognitive ecosystem. At least three fields were taking a deeply ecological approach to cognition 30 years ago: Gibson’s ecological psychology, Bateson’s ecology of mind, and Soviet cultural-historical activity theory. The ideas developed in those projects have now found a place in modern views of embodied, situated, distributed cognition. As cognitive theory continues to shift (...) from units of analysis defined by inherent properties of the elements to units defined in terms of dynamic patterns of correlation across elements, the study of cognitive ecosystems will become an increasingly important part of cognitive science. (shrink)

Ecology has often been characterized as an immature scientific discipline. This paper explores some of the sources of this alleged immaturity. I argue that the perception of immaturity results primarily from the fact that historically ecologists have based their work upon two very different approaches to research.

This article critically engages with Castoriadis’s elucidation of autonomy. It does so by taking into account the implications of Castoriadis’s enduring interest in the ecological devastation of the natural world, on the one hand, and the changing configuration of his philosophical anthropology, on the other—especially in regard to his reconsideration of the creativity of nature in the 1980s and the reconfiguration of the nomos and physis problematic. It contextualizes these movements in his thought within a broader hermeneutic of modernity (...) that, following Johann Arnason, emphasizes the cultural currents of both Romanticism and the Enlightenment as constitutive of modernity as a field of tensions. In an extension of Arnason’s elaboration, however, the present article argues that a latent opening towards an ecological worldhood is implicit to Castoriadis’s hermeneutic of modernity that, conversely, also finds Castoriadis at the limits of autonomy. (shrink)

The Swiss-born medical researcher Karl Friedrich Meyer is best known as a ‘microbe hunter’ who pioneered investigations into diseases at the intersection of animal and human health in California in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, historians have singled out Meyer’s 1931 Ludwig Hektoen Lecture in which he described the animal kingdom as a ‘reservoir of disease’ as a forerunner of ‘one medicine’ approaches to emerging zoonoses. In so doing, however, historians risk overlooking Meyer’s other intellectual contributions. Developed in a (...) series of papers from the mid-1930s onwards, these were ordered around the concept of latent infections and sought to link microbial behavior to broader bio-ecological, environmental, and social factors that impact hostpathogen interactions. In this respect Meyer—like the comparative pathologist Theobald Smith and the immunologist Frank Macfarlane Burnet—can be seen as a pioneer of modern ideas of disease ecology. However, while Burnet’s and Smith’s contributions to this scientific field have been widely acknowledged, Meyer’s have been largely ignored. Drawing on Meyer’s published writings and private correspondence, this paper aims to correct that lacuna while contributing to a reorientation of the historiography of bacteriological epidemiology. In particular I trace Meyer’s intellectual exchanges with Smith, Burnet and the animal ecologist Charles Elton, over brucellosis, psittacosis and plague—exchanges that not only showed how environmental and ecological conditions could ‘tip the balance’ in favor of parasites but which transformed Meyer thinking about resistance to infection and disease. (shrink)

The article discusses the ecological aspects of John Milbank’s thought in the context of the growing climate crisis. For this purpose, the concept of integral ecology is interpreted in the spirit of Milbank’s integralism, which rejects the notion of “pure nature” as a manifestation of secularism and calls for theological grounding of the environmental discourse. This perspective allows us to see the limitations of the modern way of thinking, caught up in the metaphors of “conquest of nature” and “return (...) to nature.” As an alternative, the concept of “kenotic anthropocentrism” is proposed, which sees man as a rational, social, creative and religious animal, that somehow transcends his own nature, being called to union with God. On the one hand, such an approach proclaims the ontological superiority of man over other creatures, and on the other, it reminds us of his role as the guardian—and not the owner—of the Earth. Thus, it differs significantly from Clive Hamilton’s “modest anthropocentrism,” whose call to care for the environment is ultimately based on arbitrary freedom and the imperative of self-preservation. Milbank’s position is closer to Bruno Latour’s anthropocentrism emphasizing the role of man as a political representative of silent earthlings—rivers, mountains and animals. However, Milbank advocates a strong ontological hierarchy rejected by Latour, which makes him less sensitive to the material dimension of climate change. Moreover, Milbank’s militant anti-secularism may be an obstacle to a much needed broader discussion of the ecological crisis, even if his critique of modernity is hard to ignore. (shrink)

The theory and practice of ecological reason have consistently suffered various shortcomings, versions of anthropocentrism and holism prominent among them. Even definitions of ecological reason that rely on philosophically informed policy studies and that explicitly take the functional and substantive moments of reason into account have not escaped these problems. An account of interdisciplinarity can shed light on how these intractable problems arise, since many of them fail to build interdisciplinarity as such sufficiently into the definition of (...) class='Hi'>ecological reason. Genuine interdisciplinarity, distinguished from both multidisciplinarity and metadisciplinarity, can thus be seen to be necessary (not sufficient) to liberate ecological reason and to illuminate its theory and practice for late moderns. (shrink)

The threat of ecological collapse is increasingly becoming a reality for the world’s populations, both human and nonhuman; addressing this global challenge requires enormous cultural creativity and demands a diversity of perspectives, especially from the humanities. Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines draws from a variety of academic disciplines and positions in order to explore the role and nature of environmental responsibility, especially where such themes intersect with religious or theological viewpoints. Covering disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, politics, (...) peace studies, economics, women’s studies, and the ecological sciences as well as systematic and moral theology, the contributors emphasize how these positions have begun to develop distinct perspectives on urgent ecological issues, as well as pointing toward specific practices at the local and international level. This volume provides a multidisciplinary point of departure for urgent conversations on environmental responsibility that resist simplistic solutions. Rather, the contributors highlight the complex nature of modern ecology, and suggest creative ways forward in the situation of an apparently intractable global problem. (shrink)

기존의 생태철학에서, 환경 위기의 원인이 인간과 자연의 분리에 있으므로, 위기를 극복하기 위해선 인간과 자연의 친화가 필요하다고 한다. 우리는 동양사상이야말로 그런 합일성의 전형이라고 주장해 왔다. 실제로 동양의 전통문화 중에는 생태적 의의를 갖고 있는 사상적 내용이 적지 않게 들어있다. 그러나 현대 사회에서 그것이 얼마만큼의 활력과 의미를 갖고 있는지는 말하기 쉽지 않다. 다른 한 편으로 우리가 환경파괴의 주범이라고 생각하고 있는 서양의 사상이 생각만큼 반생태적인 내용을 담고 있지 않을 수도 있다. 따라서 우리는 좀 더 근본적인 곳에서부터 문제를 제기하고 답을 찾아 나가기 위해 “서양의 자연관은 (...) 반생태적인가?”라는 물음과 “동양의 자연관은 생태적인가?”라는 물음을 던지고 이에 대해 다시 검토해 볼 필요성이 있다. 특히 전자의 물음에 대해서는 적지 않은 연구가 있었기 때문에 후자의 물음에 대해 주목할 필요가 있으며 그에 대한 해답을 제시할 수 있다면 동양 생태 사상의 현대적 전환과 실천적 의의를 찾을 수 있는 단초를 제공하게 될 것이라 생각한다. 생태문제는 이론의 문제라기보다는 실천의 문제이다. 어떻게 실천을 가능하게 할 것인가의 문제이다. 개인과 국가, 기업 모두 어떻게 사는 것이 궁극적으로 가치 있는 삶인지 자각하지 못한다면 생태문제의 해결은 요원하다. 한 사람만의 자각으로는 해결이 불가능하며 생태문화의 사회적 조성과 교육이 동반되어야 한다. 이 과정에서 전통적인 환경 이해 방식과 사상을 비판적으로 고찰하고 객관적으로 바라봐야 할 필요성이 생기는 것이다. 동양 전통 문화가 담고 있는 풍부한 생태 사상적 요소의 보편적 가치는 그것이 현대적으로 전환될 수 있는 가능성을 실현시켜 줄 수 있는 기초가 된다. 그러나 보편적 가치만으로 그것이 현대적 이론으로 전환되어 실천과 연결될 수 있는지는 별도의 문제이다. 앞에서 언급했던 것처럼 생태 사상은 이론 문제이기 이전에 실천문제이다. 아무리 훌륭하고 잘 갖추어진 이론이라 할지라도 실천과 연결될 수 있는 현실적 길을 찾지 못한다면 그것은 아무 쓸모가 없는 것이다. 그러나 동양 전통 생태사상이 현대적으로 전환될 수 있는 가능성은 얼마든지 있다. 앞에서도 말했듯이 생태사상의 문제는 이론뿐만 아니라 실천이 병행되어야 하는 것이며, 과거의 문제가 아니라 현재의 문제이기 때문에 미리 답안을 정해놓고 문제를 검토하는 것이 아닌 오늘날의 입장에서 끊임없이 새로운 문제를 제시하고 답안을 찾으려 할 때 동양 생태사상의 현대적 전환은 어느 정도 가능성을 보게 될 것이다. (shrink)

Ecology, Culture And Philosophy Is An Important Collection Of Essays That Illustrate The Continuing Validity And Relevance Of The System Of Metaphysics Developed By Basanta Kumar Mallik, One Of The Great 20Th Century Indian Thinkers. One Of The Contributors Unravels Issues In Ecology, And Discusses How Radically New Ways Of Thinking Can Offer A Way Out Of The Crisis Of The Modern Industrial System Which Threatens The Survival Of The Human Species. Another Study Attempts To See The Conjection Of Musical (...) Development And Cultural Values In Relation To Both Tradition And Modern Human Experience. Yet Another Essay Examines The Domain Of Philosophical Enquiry And Develops A New Perspective On The Relationship Between Ideas And Patterns Of Thought. Central Of Mallik S Thinking Were Problems Of Peace And Human Survival. This Collection Focuses On The New Weltanschauung Of Mallik And Makes His Philosophical Work Accessible To The General Reader By Providing Explications Of Key Concepts. Drawing On Mallik S Wider Vision Of A More Humane Future, The Contributors Consider Fresh And More Harmonious Ways Of Thinking About How We Can Relate To Our Environment, And How We Can Creatively Overcome The Threats To Cultural Values. The Result Is A Volume Which Makes Us See Our Current Crisis Against A Horizon Of Possibilities Ensuring Human Survival If New Ways Of Thinking Can Be Come Prevalent. (shrink)

Niklas Luhmann is widely recognized as one of the most original thinkers in the social sciences today. This major new work further develops the theories of the author by offering a challenging analysis of the relationship between society and the environment. Luhmann extends the concept of "ecology" to refer to any analysis that looks at connections between social systems and the surrounding environment. He traces the development of the notion of "environment" from the medieval idea--which encompasses both human and natural (...) systems--to our modern definition, which separates social systems from the external environment. In Luhmann's thought, human beings form part of the environment, while social systems consist only of communications. Utilizing this distinctive theoretical perspective, Luhmann presents a comprehensive catalog of society's reactions to environmental problems. He investigates the spheres of the economy, law, science, politics, religion, and education to show how these areas relate to environmental issues. Ecological Communication is an important work that critically examines claims central to our society--claims to modernity and rationality. It will be of great importance to scholars and students in sociology, political science, philosophy, anthropology, and law. (shrink)

The thinking of those with the power to formulate and implement public policy is now almost totally dominated by the so-called science of economics. While efforts have been made to supplement or modify economics to make it less brutal or less environmentally blind, here it is suggested that economics is so fundamentally flawed and that it so completely dominates the culture of late modern capitalism (or postmodernity) that a new master human science is required to displace it and provide an (...) alternative coordinating framework for research and for defining reality. This could then provide an alternative basis for formulating public policy. It is argued that if human ecology is to fill this role, it will must be developed on consistently anti-reductionist foundations, and that such a social science would totally reorient public policy from a domain for power elites to a domain for genuinely democratic societies to define and control their destinies. -/- . (shrink)

The prevailing economic paradigm, in which a closed circular flow of production and consumption can be described in terms of 'natural laws ' of the equilibrium of market forces, is being challenged by our growing knowledge of complex systems, particularly ecosystems. It is increasingly apparent that neo-classical economics does not reflect social, economic and environmental realities in a world of limited resources. The best way to understand the problems implicit in the concept of 'sustainable development ' is provided by (...) class='Hi'>Ecological Economics – a new synthesis in which the traditional virtue of thrift is justified using modern ideas from systems theory and thermodynamics. (shrink)

This article submits a proposal to replace the term sustainability with the term ‘ecological justice’. This novel expression adds to the term Anthropocene, which largely ignores the significant differences from the perspective of justice concerning which human cultures have profoundly reshaped the Earth. Ecological justice refers to the fact that the Earth is the habitat not only of human beings but also of a multitude of other life forms and includes the rights of nonhuman creatures. Over and above (...) this, the term ecological justice speaks to the rights of marginalised people who suffer because of the destruction of natural resources without having significantly contributed to their misuse. In this sense, a new orientation toward the integrity of creation is necessary to overcome the one-sided technicist and economically determined attitude that has become so typical of modern thinking in the Global North. Churches are challenged to develop an integrative concept of ecological justice from the perspective of the biblical tradition, including recent initiatives such as the ‘Wuppertal Call’.Contribution: To overcome generalising and anthropocentric perspectives, the proposal of this article argues for the preferred term, ‘ecological justice’. This term is inclusive to nonhuman communities in nature, taking into account the effects of environmental destruction on marginalised people. The challenge should be to develop an integrative and unifying concept of ecological justice. The following contribution addresses the question of semantics concerning the key concepts underpinning ecological challenges. (shrink)

Ecological sustainability can be considered the primary goal of higher education development, as it provides an ontological way to think about what it means for higher education’s long-term development. Given the widespread concern of ecological sustainability, it’s urgent to interpret and deconstruct ecological sustainability in Chinese higher education from indigenous and original perspectives. By drawing on the wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy which provides unique enlightenment for ecological sustainability, this paper discusses the harmonization of (...) class='Hi'>ecological sustainability and higher education development. In the light of the connotation of contemporary ecological sustainability and the new development of Chinese higher education, the paper also constructs a dynamic model of ecologically sustainable development in Chinese higher education. The aim is to initiate more philosophical dialogues between ancient and modern education, and to provide a new way of conceptualizing Chinese ancient education philosophy in the postmodern times. (shrink)

This book makes explicit the ecological implications of Martin Heidegger. It examines how the trajectory of Heidegger's thinking harbors an "ecological turn," which comes to the forefront in his attempt to anticipate the impending crisis precipitated by modern technology. Schalow's emphasis on such key motifs as stewardship, dwelling, and 'letting be' serves to coalesce the problem of freedom in a new and innovative way, in order to expand the interpretive or hermeneutic horizon for re-examining Heidegger's philosophy. By prioritizing (...) a response to today's environmental crisis and the possible impact upon future generations, the author traverses a divide within Heidegger scholarship by developing a deeper, critical outlook on his philosophy--without either reiterating standard interpretations or rejecting it wholesale. He develops a trans-human approach to ethics, which, by prioritizing the welfare of the earth, nature, and animals, counters the anthropocentric bias and destructive premise of modern technology. Heidegger's Ecological Turn will be of interest to Heidegger scholars and researchers working in phenomenology, hermeneutics, continental philosophy, and environmental philosophy. (shrink)

‘‘COGNITIVE ECOLOGY’’ is a fruitful model for Shakespearian studies, early modern literary and cultural history, and theatrical history more widely. Cognitive ecologies are the multidimensional contexts in which we remember, feel, think, sense, communicate, imagine, and act, often collaboratively, on the fly, and in rich ongoing interaction with our environments. Along with the anthropologist Edwin Hutchins,1 we use the term ‘‘cognitive ecology’’ to integrate a number of recent approaches to cultural cognition: we believe these approaches offer productive lines of engagement (...) with early modern literary and historical studies.2 The framework arises out of our work in extended mind and distributed cognition.3 The extended mind hypothesis arose from a post-connectionist philosophy of cognitive science. This approach was articulated in Andy Clark’s Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again, and further developed by Susan Hurley and Mark Rowlands, among others.4 The distributed cognition approach arose independently, from work in cognitive anthropology, HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), the sociology of education and work, and science studies. The principles of distributed cognition were articulated in Hutchins’s ethnography of navigation, Cogni- tion in the Wild,5 and developed by theorists such as David Kirsh and Lucy Suchman.6 These models share an anti-individualist approach to cognition. In all these views, mental activities spread or smear across the boundaries of skull and skin to include parts of the social and material world. In remembering, decision making, and acting, whether individually or in small groups, our complex and structured activities involve many distinctive dimensions: neural, affective, kines-. (shrink)

The concern people are now expressing about the human environment, ecology, pollution, and overpopulation, though admittedly legitimate from a moral point of view, has not attracted much attention from philosophers. This is notable particularly inasmuch as the United States civil rights struggle, the Vietnam War, and various responses of civil disobedience and violence to social problems have all aroused philosophers to careful thought on rights and obligations. I do not want to suggest that a social problem is interesting only if (...) it is philosophically interesting; nor do I want to make light of the way in which the problems of waste, noise, and overcrowding have captured the popular imagination. Yes, we must protect and use wisely the human environment and natural resources. But still, saying it seems banal, and philosophers do not feed on banalities. Here we have a modern moral commandment which speaks to an urgent and serious matter but which, like “Do not steal,” seems so obvious as to be trite. Yes, we must plan the world’s population in a rational way. Even that commandment, though disputed by some, seems trite. (shrink)

The subject of this paper is the question of China’s contribution to the establishment of an association of ecological civilizations—as seen from the perspective of a European—given the growing economic, political, and ecological influence that China has in the world today. The question is which values are likely to guide Chinese development. Can concepts like “sustainability”, “environmental carefulness”, and “common concerns of humankind” easily be integrated as topics on the Chinese agenda? Or are they likely to be expelled (...) due to some basic values and ideas in traditional (or modern) Chinese worldviews? The paper discusses a number of modern interpretations that have argued that some basic concepts in the Chinese tradition are not only congenial with, but even provide fruitful additions to the modern debate about the establishment of cooperative ecological civilizations. In the final part the strong modern influence of both Marxist conceptions and consumerist behaviour is considered. (shrink)

This paper offers a critique of sustainability reporting and, in particular, a critique of the modern disconnect between the practice of sustainability reporting and what we consider to be the urgent issue of our era: sustaining the life-supporting ecological systems on which humanity and other species depend. Tracing the history of such reporting developments, we identify and isolate the concept of the ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL) as a core and dominant idea that continues to pervade business reporting, and business (...) engagement with sustainability. Incorporating an entity’s economic, environmental and social performance indicators into its management and reporting processes, we argue, has become synonymous with corporate sustainability; in the process, concern for ecology has become sidelined. Moreover, this process has become reinforced and institutionalised through SustainAbility’s biennial benchmarking reports, KPMG’s triennial surveys of practice, initiatives by the accountancy profession and, particularly, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s sustainability reporting guidelines. We argue that the TBL and the GRI are insufficient conditions for organizations contributing to the sustaining of the Earth’s ecology. Paradoxically, they may reinforce business-as-usual and greater levels of un-sustainability. (shrink)

The Dutch animal production sector faces significant pressure for change. We discuss a project for the design of a sustainable husbandry system for pigs. Named after the Greek hero Hercules, the project aimed for structural changes in both animal and crop production. However, instead of changing the course of the river, the project ended up merely adapting its flow. The Hercules project ran into difficulties typical for projects aiming at reflexive modernization. It relapsed from an effort for reflexive (...) class='Hi'>modernization to ecological modernization, by ultimately leaving the structural features of the sociotechnical regime intact. We show how this resulted from the biases and limitations implied by existing institutions, in which the project was unavoidably embedded. We introduce the idea of reflexive design, as “doing” reflexive modernization, which implies working on action and structure at the same time. A number of recommendations are given for reflexive design projects like this. (shrink)

This article takes stock of the project of ecological democracy, a project that has been central to debates in Environmental Values since the late 1990s. Whilst we can identify quite distinct articulations of eco-democratic thinking emerging out of the fields of green political theory, postcolonial/feminist political ecology and science studies/radical geography, it is argued that these discussions have reached something of an impasse of late following the rise of climate scepticism, authoritarian populisms and technocratic eco-modernisms. Resurgent eco-authoritarian impulses and (...) the hankering for a ‘green leviathan’, a climate Lenin or a ‘dictatorship of the sustainment’ to resolve our climate crisis make it more important than ever to affirm the need for just, rapid and democratic post-carbon transitions. The article goes on to outline how emerging discussions in radical design studies focused on redirective practice in conjunction with a revived eco-socialist focus on labour-focused political ecologies might open up different possibilities for a materialist re-grounding of ecodemocratic discussions. It is suggested that a political ecology of design embedded in public institutions, the workplace and civil society could possibleyreground a more substantive vision of ecological democracy but also allow us to think about the forms of creative labour that could drive the just transition. (shrink)