Avner de-Shalit
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240388
- eISBN:
- 9780191599033
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240388.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of ...
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When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of environmental ethics failed to penetrate environmental policy and serve as its rationale? Obviously, there is a gap between the questions that environmental philosophers discuss and the issues that motivate environmental activists. Avner de‐Shalit attempts to bridge this gap by combining tools of political philosophy with questions of environmental ethics and environmental politics. He defends a radical position in relation to both environmental protection and social policies, in order to put forward a political theory, which is not only philosophically sound, but also relevant to the practice of environmental activism. The author argues that several directions in environmental ethics can be at odds with the contemporary political debates surrounding environmental politics. He then goes on to examine the environmental scope of liberalism, communitarianism, participatory democracy, and socialism, and concludes that while elements of liberalism and communitarianism may support environmental protection, it is participatory democracy and a modified version of socialism that are crucial for protecting the environment.Less
When constructing environmental policies in democratic regimes, there is a need for a theory that can be used not only by academics but also by politicians and activists. So why has the major part of environmental ethics failed to penetrate environmental policy and serve as its rationale? Obviously, there is a gap between the questions that environmental philosophers discuss and the issues that motivate environmental activists. Avner de‐Shalit attempts to bridge this gap by combining tools of political philosophy with questions of environmental ethics and environmental politics. He defends a radical position in relation to both environmental protection and social policies, in order to put forward a political theory, which is not only philosophically sound, but also relevant to the practice of environmental activism. The author argues that several directions in environmental ethics can be at odds with the contemporary political debates surrounding environmental politics. He then goes on to examine the environmental scope of liberalism, communitarianism, participatory democracy, and socialism, and concludes that while elements of liberalism and communitarianism may support environmental protection, it is participatory democracy and a modified version of socialism that are crucial for protecting the environment.
Willis Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328516
- eISBN:
- 9780199869862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328516.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter discusses environmental problems in relation to ethics (religious or otherwise). It describes criteria proposed in various strategies of environmental ethics. These include the strategy ...
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This chapter discusses environmental problems in relation to ethics (religious or otherwise). It describes criteria proposed in various strategies of environmental ethics. These include the strategy of nature's standing, the strategy of moral agency, and the strategy of ecological subjectivity. Environmental ethics is not an argument over what nature is (even when it is trying to establish that), nor over how nature is produced (even when it does that), nor a new radical anthropology (even when it includes one). Nor is it an intellectual consortium serving someone's environmentalist consensus. Environmental ethics is a domain marked out by several distinct strategies, each proposing a kind of practical rationality with its own criterion of adequacy. The three strategies together may adumbrate broadly shared criteria — together describing a complex sense practical rationality. It could be said that taken together the three strategies describe three crucial functions required for adequately understanding environmental issues and making them significant for moral experience.Less
This chapter discusses environmental problems in relation to ethics (religious or otherwise). It describes criteria proposed in various strategies of environmental ethics. These include the strategy of nature's standing, the strategy of moral agency, and the strategy of ecological subjectivity. Environmental ethics is not an argument over what nature is (even when it is trying to establish that), nor over how nature is produced (even when it does that), nor a new radical anthropology (even when it includes one). Nor is it an intellectual consortium serving someone's environmentalist consensus. Environmental ethics is a domain marked out by several distinct strategies, each proposing a kind of practical rationality with its own criterion of adequacy. The three strategies together may adumbrate broadly shared criteria — together describing a complex sense practical rationality. It could be said that taken together the three strategies describe three crucial functions required for adequately understanding environmental issues and making them significant for moral experience.
Carolyn Merchant
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295099
- eISBN:
- 9780191599262
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829509X.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
An important aspect of the ‘Earth Summit’ conference held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the extent to which it shifted environmental discourse beyond mere recognition of the environmental crisis ...
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An important aspect of the ‘Earth Summit’ conference held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the extent to which it shifted environmental discourse beyond mere recognition of the environmental crisis towards the basic issue of restructuring society to create an enduring relationship with nature and the non‐human world. One of the important products of the Rio conference was the emergence of a new democratic concept encompassing the rights of women, environmental justice, multiculturalism, and North–South conflicts. This chapter explores the linkages between women's rights and a new concept of human partnership with the natural world. The smaller issue of human partnership opens the door to the larger issue of partnership between mankind and nature, and to a new form of environmental ethics.Less
An important aspect of the ‘Earth Summit’ conference held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the extent to which it shifted environmental discourse beyond mere recognition of the environmental crisis towards the basic issue of restructuring society to create an enduring relationship with nature and the non‐human world. One of the important products of the Rio conference was the emergence of a new democratic concept encompassing the rights of women, environmental justice, multiculturalism, and North–South conflicts. This chapter explores the linkages between women's rights and a new concept of human partnership with the natural world. The smaller issue of human partnership opens the door to the larger issue of partnership between mankind and nature, and to a new form of environmental ethics.
Willis Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328516
- eISBN:
- 9780199869862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328516.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter begins with a discussion of Christian environmental ethics. It then discusses religious environmentalism, cosmology and Christianity, pastoral strategies and environmental theologies, ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of Christian environmental ethics. It then discusses religious environmentalism, cosmology and Christianity, pastoral strategies and environmental theologies, and three ecologies of grace. An overview of the succeeding chapters is presented.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of Christian environmental ethics. It then discusses religious environmentalism, cosmology and Christianity, pastoral strategies and environmental theologies, and three ecologies of grace. An overview of the succeeding chapters is presented.
Willis Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195328516
- eISBN:
- 9780199869862
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328516.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Christianity struggles to show how living on earth matters for living with God. While people of faith increasingly seek practical ways to respond to the environmental crisis, theology has had ...
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Christianity struggles to show how living on earth matters for living with God. While people of faith increasingly seek practical ways to respond to the environmental crisis, theology has had difficulty contextualizing the crisis and interpreting the responses. This book presents a field-shaping introduction to Christian environmental ethics that offers resources for renewing theology. Observing how religious environmental practices often draw on concepts of grace, the book maps the way Christian environmental strategies draw from traditions of salvation as they engage the problems of environmental ethics. It then uses this new map to explore afresh the ecological dimensions of Christian theology. The book first shows how Christian ethics uniquely frames environmental issues, and then how those approaches both challenge and re-inhabit theological traditions. It identifies three major strategies for making environmental problems intelligible to Christian moral experience. Each one draws on a distinct pattern of grace as it adapts a secular approach to environmental ethics. The strategies of ecojustice, stewardship, and ecological spirituality make environments matter for Christian experience by drawing on patterns of sanctification, redemption, and deification. The book then confronts the problems of each of these strategies through critical reappraisals of Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth, and Sergei Bulgakov.Less
Christianity struggles to show how living on earth matters for living with God. While people of faith increasingly seek practical ways to respond to the environmental crisis, theology has had difficulty contextualizing the crisis and interpreting the responses. This book presents a field-shaping introduction to Christian environmental ethics that offers resources for renewing theology. Observing how religious environmental practices often draw on concepts of grace, the book maps the way Christian environmental strategies draw from traditions of salvation as they engage the problems of environmental ethics. It then uses this new map to explore afresh the ecological dimensions of Christian theology. The book first shows how Christian ethics uniquely frames environmental issues, and then how those approaches both challenge and re-inhabit theological traditions. It identifies three major strategies for making environmental problems intelligible to Christian moral experience. Each one draws on a distinct pattern of grace as it adapts a secular approach to environmental ethics. The strategies of ecojustice, stewardship, and ecological spirituality make environments matter for Christian experience by drawing on patterns of sanctification, redemption, and deification. The book then confronts the problems of each of these strategies through critical reappraisals of Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth, and Sergei Bulgakov.
David Harvey
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295099
- eISBN:
- 9780191599262
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829509X.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Takes up the issues of social class raised by the environmental justice movement in the US. The discussion begins with the primary issue that has given rise to the movement, namely, the dumping of ...
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Takes up the issues of social class raised by the environmental justice movement in the US. The discussion begins with the primary issue that has given rise to the movement, namely, the dumping of toxic wastes in poor communities or countries. The inhabitants affected are those least able to absorb the resultant dangers to health, and such dumping practices can be seen as both discriminatory and neo‐imperialist. The levels of protest engendered have resulted in US federal government measures to address the issues of environmental justice involved, and the dumping debate can be generalized to a wider and higher level of social justice. On this level, a debate on environmental ethics is unfolding; it is essentially unresolvable because there is no philosophical method of resolving disagreements between different viewpoints regarding the social relations, power imbalances, beliefs, and institutions that underlie the environmental problem. The current rhetoric of environmental justice is not adequate to the task of reconciling competing visions of the rights that it purports to extend. Inability to adjudicate between rival arguments of ‘not in my back yard’ thus produces the unsatisfactory stalemate ‘not in anybody's back yard’. If environmental justice is to be more than an assemblage of particularist postures, some form of embracing socialist plan of action has to be formulated.Less
Takes up the issues of social class raised by the environmental justice movement in the US. The discussion begins with the primary issue that has given rise to the movement, namely, the dumping of toxic wastes in poor communities or countries. The inhabitants affected are those least able to absorb the resultant dangers to health, and such dumping practices can be seen as both discriminatory and neo‐imperialist. The levels of protest engendered have resulted in US federal government measures to address the issues of environmental justice involved, and the dumping debate can be generalized to a wider and higher level of social justice. On this level, a debate on environmental ethics is unfolding; it is essentially unresolvable because there is no philosophical method of resolving disagreements between different viewpoints regarding the social relations, power imbalances, beliefs, and institutions that underlie the environmental problem. The current rhetoric of environmental justice is not adequate to the task of reconciling competing visions of the rights that it purports to extend. Inability to adjudicate between rival arguments of ‘not in my back yard’ thus produces the unsatisfactory stalemate ‘not in anybody's back yard’. If environmental justice is to be more than an assemblage of particularist postures, some form of embracing socialist plan of action has to be formulated.
Hilary Marlow
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569052
- eISBN:
- 9780191723230
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569052.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This final chapter engages with the knotty problem of how, if at all, it is possible to derive contemporary ethics from biblical texts. It discusses the rise of interest in the ethics of the Old ...
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This final chapter engages with the knotty problem of how, if at all, it is possible to derive contemporary ethics from biblical texts. It discusses the rise of interest in the ethics of the Old Testament over recent years. It then provides a brief summary of contemporary ethical principles, including the development of environmental ethics. Finally, the chapter explores connections that can be drawn between the ancient texts and contemporary environmental ethics, and proposes a new model for a biblical environmental ethic, one that integrates the intrinsic worth of all creation with human need for community and response to God.Less
This final chapter engages with the knotty problem of how, if at all, it is possible to derive contemporary ethics from biblical texts. It discusses the rise of interest in the ethics of the Old Testament over recent years. It then provides a brief summary of contemporary ethical principles, including the development of environmental ethics. Finally, the chapter explores connections that can be drawn between the ancient texts and contemporary environmental ethics, and proposes a new model for a biblical environmental ethic, one that integrates the intrinsic worth of all creation with human need for community and response to God.
Avner de‐Shalit
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240388
- eISBN:
- 9780191599033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240388.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Environmental ethics has been very innovative and has progressed rapidly; however, the price we paid was that it has lost touch with the public and its philosophical needs. de‐Shalit claims that ...
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Environmental ethics has been very innovative and has progressed rapidly; however, the price we paid was that it has lost touch with the public and its philosophical needs. de‐Shalit claims that while all moral reasoning involves a process of reflective equilibrium between intuitions and theory, a distinction should be drawn between ‘private’, ‘contextual’, and ‘public’ modes of reflective equilibrium. Environmental philosophers have used either the first or second mode of reasoning, whereas philosophy that discusses political institutions must adopt a public mode of reflective equilibrium. The latter differs from the other two models in that it weighs both the intuitions and the theories put forward by activists and the general public. This will make environmental philosophy more democratic and political and less engaged in meta‐ethics.Less
Environmental ethics has been very innovative and has progressed rapidly; however, the price we paid was that it has lost touch with the public and its philosophical needs. de‐Shalit claims that while all moral reasoning involves a process of reflective equilibrium between intuitions and theory, a distinction should be drawn between ‘private’, ‘contextual’, and ‘public’ modes of reflective equilibrium. Environmental philosophers have used either the first or second mode of reasoning, whereas philosophy that discusses political institutions must adopt a public mode of reflective equilibrium. The latter differs from the other two models in that it weighs both the intuitions and the theories put forward by activists and the general public. This will make environmental philosophy more democratic and political and less engaged in meta‐ethics.
Clare Palmer
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269526
- eISBN:
- 9780191683664
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269526.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book challenges the popular conception that process thinking offers an unambiguously positive contribution to the philosophical debate on environmental ethics. It critically examines the ...
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This book challenges the popular conception that process thinking offers an unambiguously positive contribution to the philosophical debate on environmental ethics. It critically examines the approach to ethics which may be derived from the work of process thinkers such as A. N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, pointing out questions about justice and respect for individual integrity which are raised. With these questions in mind, the book compares process ethics to a variety of other forms of environmental ethics, as well as deep ecology. This comparative study reveals a number of difficulties associated with process thinking about the environment. Although some reformulations of process philosophy in the light of these difficulties are offered, the book suggests that a question mark should remain over the contribution which process philosophy can make to environmental ethics.Less
This book challenges the popular conception that process thinking offers an unambiguously positive contribution to the philosophical debate on environmental ethics. It critically examines the approach to ethics which may be derived from the work of process thinkers such as A. N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, pointing out questions about justice and respect for individual integrity which are raised. With these questions in mind, the book compares process ethics to a variety of other forms of environmental ethics, as well as deep ecology. This comparative study reveals a number of difficulties associated with process thinking about the environment. Although some reformulations of process philosophy in the light of these difficulties are offered, the book suggests that a question mark should remain over the contribution which process philosophy can make to environmental ethics.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195108231
- eISBN:
- 9780199853441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195108231.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
After several centuries of an ever-increasing eclipse of the religious significance of nature in the West and neglect of the order of nature by mainstream Christian religious thought, many Christian ...
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After several centuries of an ever-increasing eclipse of the religious significance of nature in the West and neglect of the order of nature by mainstream Christian religious thought, many Christian theologians have in the past two or three decades become interested once again in nature and in addressing the environmental crisis. Diverse paths have been chosen to face this challenge, some seeking to go back to the traditional roots of Christianity, others to turn East to Indian and Far Eastern religions, and yet others to search for the wisdom of the Native Shamanic religions, especially those of the Americas. This chapter casts a critical glance on at least some of the Christian voices seeking to create what some now call “eco-theology” before turning to other religions. Today, there is much written by philosophers and scientists concerned with ecology that deals with environmental ethics and that have in fact a religious impact and in some cases a directly religious dimension.Less
After several centuries of an ever-increasing eclipse of the religious significance of nature in the West and neglect of the order of nature by mainstream Christian religious thought, many Christian theologians have in the past two or three decades become interested once again in nature and in addressing the environmental crisis. Diverse paths have been chosen to face this challenge, some seeking to go back to the traditional roots of Christianity, others to turn East to Indian and Far Eastern religions, and yet others to search for the wisdom of the Native Shamanic religions, especially those of the Americas. This chapter casts a critical glance on at least some of the Christian voices seeking to create what some now call “eco-theology” before turning to other religions. Today, there is much written by philosophers and scientists concerned with ecology that deals with environmental ethics and that have in fact a religious impact and in some cases a directly religious dimension.
Anna Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520226548
- eISBN:
- 9780520926059
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520226548.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This book examines the complex connections among conceptions of human nature, attitudes toward non-human nature, and ethics. The book proposes an “ethical anthropology” that examines how ideas of ...
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This book examines the complex connections among conceptions of human nature, attitudes toward non-human nature, and ethics. The book proposes an “ethical anthropology” that examines how ideas of nature and humanity are bound together in ways that shape the very foundations of cultures. It discusses mainstream Western understandings of what it means to be human, as well as alternatives to these perspectives, and suggests that the construction of a compelling, coherent environmental ethics will revise our ideas not only about nature but also about what it means to be human. The book begins to integrate theological narratives with scientific ones, looking for a compelling correlation between them where modern and religious sensibilities might both be affirmed.Less
This book examines the complex connections among conceptions of human nature, attitudes toward non-human nature, and ethics. The book proposes an “ethical anthropology” that examines how ideas of nature and humanity are bound together in ways that shape the very foundations of cultures. It discusses mainstream Western understandings of what it means to be human, as well as alternatives to these perspectives, and suggests that the construction of a compelling, coherent environmental ethics will revise our ideas not only about nature but also about what it means to be human. The book begins to integrate theological narratives with scientific ones, looking for a compelling correlation between them where modern and religious sensibilities might both be affirmed.
Anna L. Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520226548
- eISBN:
- 9780520926059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520226548.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This volume explores the connections among ideas about nature, ideas about humanness, and environmental ethics. This book is divided into nine chapters that explore ideas about the definition, ...
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This volume explores the connections among ideas about nature, ideas about humanness, and environmental ethics. This book is divided into nine chapters that explore ideas about the definition, meaning, and value of humanness in a variety of traditions of thought. It also considers central issues regarding the shape of our communities, the destruction of our natural environment and the character of moral discourse.Less
This volume explores the connections among ideas about nature, ideas about humanness, and environmental ethics. This book is divided into nine chapters that explore ideas about the definition, meaning, and value of humanness in a variety of traditions of thought. It also considers central issues regarding the shape of our communities, the destruction of our natural environment and the character of moral discourse.
Philip Lutgendorf
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195309225
- eISBN:
- 9780199785391
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309225.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter focuses on a theme implicit in much of the book: the relationship of Hanuman's simian form to the mediatory religious role he assumes and to the “messages” he so effectively delivers. It ...
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This chapter focuses on a theme implicit in much of the book: the relationship of Hanuman's simian form to the mediatory religious role he assumes and to the “messages” he so effectively delivers. It first considers the preoccupation of some modern Indian authors with the “problem” of Hanuman's monkey form, situating their interventions within colonial and post-colonial debates about history, race, and cultural and biological evolution. For comparative purposes, it surveys a wider range of human responses to anthropoid primates, including the cults of simian deities in Chinese and Japanese religions and the discourse of modern primatology. Returning to India, it considers Hanuman's role in modern Hindu nationalism and in the religious patronage of the emerging middle class. Finally, it examines evidence of Hanuman's continuing rise as a comprehensive and encompassing deity, signaled by new iconography and a proliferating theological discourse. An epilogue speculates on the potential for Hanuman's role in movements promoting ecology and environmental ethics.Less
This chapter focuses on a theme implicit in much of the book: the relationship of Hanuman's simian form to the mediatory religious role he assumes and to the “messages” he so effectively delivers. It first considers the preoccupation of some modern Indian authors with the “problem” of Hanuman's monkey form, situating their interventions within colonial and post-colonial debates about history, race, and cultural and biological evolution. For comparative purposes, it surveys a wider range of human responses to anthropoid primates, including the cults of simian deities in Chinese and Japanese religions and the discourse of modern primatology. Returning to India, it considers Hanuman's role in modern Hindu nationalism and in the religious patronage of the emerging middle class. Finally, it examines evidence of Hanuman's continuing rise as a comprehensive and encompassing deity, signaled by new iconography and a proliferating theological discourse. An epilogue speculates on the potential for Hanuman's role in movements promoting ecology and environmental ethics.
Paul B. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125879
- eISBN:
- 9780813135557
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125879.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
As industry and technology proliferate in modern society, sustainability has jumped to the forefront of contemporary political and environmental discussions. The balance between progress and the ...
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As industry and technology proliferate in modern society, sustainability has jumped to the forefront of contemporary political and environmental discussions. The balance between progress and the earth's ability to provide for its inhabitants grows increasingly precarious as we attempt to achieve sustainable development. This book articulates a new agrarian philosophy, emphasizing the vital role of agrarianism in modern agricultural practices. It unites concepts of agrarian philosophy, political theory, and environmental ethics to illustrate the importance of creating and maintaining environmentally conscious communities. The book describes the evolution of agrarian values in America following the path blazed by Thomas Jefferson, John Steinbeck, and Wendell Berry.Less
As industry and technology proliferate in modern society, sustainability has jumped to the forefront of contemporary political and environmental discussions. The balance between progress and the earth's ability to provide for its inhabitants grows increasingly precarious as we attempt to achieve sustainable development. This book articulates a new agrarian philosophy, emphasizing the vital role of agrarianism in modern agricultural practices. It unites concepts of agrarian philosophy, political theory, and environmental ethics to illustrate the importance of creating and maintaining environmentally conscious communities. The book describes the evolution of agrarian values in America following the path blazed by Thomas Jefferson, John Steinbeck, and Wendell Berry.
Anna L. Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227457
- eISBN:
- 9780823236626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227457.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
There is strong evidence in favor of two apparently contradictory truths. First, most people want a clean and safe environment, with abundant habitat for nonhuman species ...
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There is strong evidence in favor of two apparently contradictory truths. First, most people want a clean and safe environment, with abundant habitat for nonhuman species and wild places in addition to livable human settlements. Second, this valuation of the natural world is not always, and maybe not usually, reflected in people's personal consumption practices or political choices. There seems to be, in other words, little if any causal relationship between environmental value orientations, awareness, and concern, on the one hand, and behavior, on the other. This chapter explores these questions, from the perspective of a social ethicist interested in the ways that values translate into action and as an environmentalist concerned with the gap between our theories (our “talk”) and our practices (our “walk”). The challenge of understanding and addressing the gap between ideas and action requires the contributions of ecological theologians and ethicists, just as it challenges them to reflect and act differently. While the gap will probably never be closed entirely, it must be acknowledged that today the divide between the value we say we place on nonhuman nature and the way we act threatens the survival of nonhuman and human worlds alike.Less
There is strong evidence in favor of two apparently contradictory truths. First, most people want a clean and safe environment, with abundant habitat for nonhuman species and wild places in addition to livable human settlements. Second, this valuation of the natural world is not always, and maybe not usually, reflected in people's personal consumption practices or political choices. There seems to be, in other words, little if any causal relationship between environmental value orientations, awareness, and concern, on the one hand, and behavior, on the other. This chapter explores these questions, from the perspective of a social ethicist interested in the ways that values translate into action and as an environmentalist concerned with the gap between our theories (our “talk”) and our practices (our “walk”). The challenge of understanding and addressing the gap between ideas and action requires the contributions of ecological theologians and ethicists, just as it challenges them to reflect and act differently. While the gap will probably never be closed entirely, it must be acknowledged that today the divide between the value we say we place on nonhuman nature and the way we act threatens the survival of nonhuman and human worlds alike.
Jan G. Laitos
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195386066
- eISBN:
- 9780199949656
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386066.003.0017
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This chapter explores the parameters of the natural resources that might be provisioned with a legal right, the justifications for such a right, and the limits that would follow if such a right were ...
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This chapter explores the parameters of the natural resources that might be provisioned with a legal right, the justifications for such a right, and the limits that would follow if such a right were created. Section A takes up the idea of environmental ethics, and applies its teaching to the idea that natural resources are capable of being protected by right of nonuse. It reviews the reasons rights creation has historically been human-centric, and then summarizes the countervailing argument advanced by environmental ethics, which is that there is intrinsic value in nonhuman natural entities. These objects morally and ethically also deserve legal recognition and protection. Section A then answers the questions: Can rights be granted to anyone other than humans? Which entities of nature can have rights? Should the focus be on the obligations of humans to nature, or on the original rights of nature? Section B considers the larger issue of how the law might create a right of nonuse, held by natural resources, consistent with established theories of political and legal morality.Less
This chapter explores the parameters of the natural resources that might be provisioned with a legal right, the justifications for such a right, and the limits that would follow if such a right were created. Section A takes up the idea of environmental ethics, and applies its teaching to the idea that natural resources are capable of being protected by right of nonuse. It reviews the reasons rights creation has historically been human-centric, and then summarizes the countervailing argument advanced by environmental ethics, which is that there is intrinsic value in nonhuman natural entities. These objects morally and ethically also deserve legal recognition and protection. Section A then answers the questions: Can rights be granted to anyone other than humans? Which entities of nature can have rights? Should the focus be on the obligations of humans to nature, or on the original rights of nature? Section B considers the larger issue of how the law might create a right of nonuse, held by natural resources, consistent with established theories of political and legal morality.
Belden C. Lane
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199755080
- eISBN:
- 9780199894956
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755080.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book offers a new way of looking at the Reformed tradition. The older, traditional view of the Swiss/Scots/New England heritage had emphasized its harsh Calvinism, focusing on divine ...
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This book offers a new way of looking at the Reformed tradition. The older, traditional view of the Swiss/Scots/New England heritage had emphasized its harsh Calvinism, focusing on divine transcendence, predestination, strict moral discipline, and a distrust of beauty and ritual. In contrast, this study looks at the historical development—from John Calvin to Jonathan Edwards—of a theology of beauty and desire, expressed in the metaphors of the world as a theater of God's glory and nature as a school of desire. In doing so, it lays a theological foundation for an environmental ethic based on the impulse of the world to reflect God's beauty. The author speaks of a “double irony” in the history of Reformed spirituality, showing Calvinists who traditionally have seemed so prudish and proper to also have been a people of passionate desire. Reformed Christians who have focused so often on divine transcendence are revealed as nature mystics, exulting in God's glory everywhere. Nature and desire are thus intimately joined in Reformed piety. Finally, the book combines a personal, autobiographical perspective with academic research, modeling the self‐implicating pattern of scholarship seen in the emerging field of spirituality. The main chapters deal with the historical and theological development of Reformed piety as it relates to the natural world. These are joined by personal essays that share the author's own experience as a Reformed Christian raised within a morally rigid theology of transcendence and predestination while seeking a God of wild splendor who exults in nature's beauty.Less
This book offers a new way of looking at the Reformed tradition. The older, traditional view of the Swiss/Scots/New England heritage had emphasized its harsh Calvinism, focusing on divine transcendence, predestination, strict moral discipline, and a distrust of beauty and ritual. In contrast, this study looks at the historical development—from John Calvin to Jonathan Edwards—of a theology of beauty and desire, expressed in the metaphors of the world as a theater of God's glory and nature as a school of desire. In doing so, it lays a theological foundation for an environmental ethic based on the impulse of the world to reflect God's beauty. The author speaks of a “double irony” in the history of Reformed spirituality, showing Calvinists who traditionally have seemed so prudish and proper to also have been a people of passionate desire. Reformed Christians who have focused so often on divine transcendence are revealed as nature mystics, exulting in God's glory everywhere. Nature and desire are thus intimately joined in Reformed piety. Finally, the book combines a personal, autobiographical perspective with academic research, modeling the self‐implicating pattern of scholarship seen in the emerging field of spirituality. The main chapters deal with the historical and theological development of Reformed piety as it relates to the natural world. These are joined by personal essays that share the author's own experience as a Reformed Christian raised within a morally rigid theology of transcendence and predestination while seeking a God of wild splendor who exults in nature's beauty.
A. Whitney Sanford
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813134123
- eISBN:
- 9780813135915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813134123.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This chapter demonstrates parallels between the pastoral paradigm of Vaishnava devotion and the neglect of agriculture in Western environmental thought. It explores how pastoralism and idealized ...
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This chapter demonstrates parallels between the pastoral paradigm of Vaishnava devotion and the neglect of agriculture in Western environmental thought. It explores how pastoralism and idealized landscapes can create an idyllic view of the natural world and obscures our debt to the earth for subsistence or our reciprocal obligations. For example, both the Braj pastoral and the trope of wilderness in environmental discourse in the United States romanticize the natural world and exclude the possibility of human intervention in the land. Vaishnava pastoralism and Western environmental thought both emphasize romanticized and urbanized views of the natural world that exclude labor, production, and violence. By exploring the role of agriculture in the context of religion, nature, and society, we can understand the persistence of certain stories.Less
This chapter demonstrates parallels between the pastoral paradigm of Vaishnava devotion and the neglect of agriculture in Western environmental thought. It explores how pastoralism and idealized landscapes can create an idyllic view of the natural world and obscures our debt to the earth for subsistence or our reciprocal obligations. For example, both the Braj pastoral and the trope of wilderness in environmental discourse in the United States romanticize the natural world and exclude the possibility of human intervention in the land. Vaishnava pastoralism and Western environmental thought both emphasize romanticized and urbanized views of the natural world that exclude labor, production, and violence. By exploring the role of agriculture in the context of religion, nature, and society, we can understand the persistence of certain stories.
Paul van Tongeren and Paulien Snellen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254255
- eISBN:
- 9780823260959
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254255.003.0016
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Can a hermeneutical approach be helpful to environmental moral philosophy? And if so, what— if any— would be the limits of this environmental hermeneutics? In order to answer these questions, the ...
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Can a hermeneutical approach be helpful to environmental moral philosophy? And if so, what— if any— would be the limits of this environmental hermeneutics? In order to answer these questions, the authors first introduce and summarize Bernard Williams’ criticism of “ethical theory” that, according to the authors, also applies to environmental ethics. Second, the authors point out why the limits of moral philosophy bring us to hermeneutics, in particular to hermeneutical ethics. In conclusion, the authors ask what the limits of this hermeneutics are, especially in the framework of a hermeneutical ethics of the environment.Less
Can a hermeneutical approach be helpful to environmental moral philosophy? And if so, what— if any— would be the limits of this environmental hermeneutics? In order to answer these questions, the authors first introduce and summarize Bernard Williams’ criticism of “ethical theory” that, according to the authors, also applies to environmental ethics. Second, the authors point out why the limits of moral philosophy bring us to hermeneutics, in particular to hermeneutical ethics. In conclusion, the authors ask what the limits of this hermeneutics are, especially in the framework of a hermeneutical ethics of the environment.
Oran R. Young
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035934
- eISBN:
- 9780262338899
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035934.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Another governance strategy features the development of principles and the coalescence of sets of principles into ethical systems (e.g. medical ethics, legal ethics). Principles provide normative ...
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Another governance strategy features the development of principles and the coalescence of sets of principles into ethical systems (e.g. medical ethics, legal ethics). Principles provide normative guidance meant to be applied thoughtfully to the complexities of specific situations rather than to be treated as fixed prescriptions to be complied with regardless of the circumstances at hand. A series of international conferences, starting with the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and running through the 2012 UN Conference on Environment and Development, have contributed to the development of a system of international environmental ethics. Prominent elements of this system include the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Principled governance is not meant to replace rule-making as the dominant approach to governance in largescale settings. But it has attractions as an approach to governance in complex systems where there is a compelling need to respond nimbly or agilely to changes that are nonlinear, often abrupt, and frequently irreversible.Less
Another governance strategy features the development of principles and the coalescence of sets of principles into ethical systems (e.g. medical ethics, legal ethics). Principles provide normative guidance meant to be applied thoughtfully to the complexities of specific situations rather than to be treated as fixed prescriptions to be complied with regardless of the circumstances at hand. A series of international conferences, starting with the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and running through the 2012 UN Conference on Environment and Development, have contributed to the development of a system of international environmental ethics. Prominent elements of this system include the polluter pays principle, the precautionary principle, and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. Principled governance is not meant to replace rule-making as the dominant approach to governance in largescale settings. But it has attractions as an approach to governance in complex systems where there is a compelling need to respond nimbly or agilely to changes that are nonlinear, often abrupt, and frequently irreversible.
