Download or read book Preservation Versus the People written by Mathew Humphrey and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-08-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why should any society take the decision to devote scarce resources, as a matter of public policy, to preserving natural objects? This is one of the questions considered in the field of environmental ethics, and the thinking that has taken place in this discipline has been dominated by the 'ecocentric-anthropocentric' distinction. Answers focus on either 'intrinsic values in nature', or on the human welfare benefits that will accrue from preservationist policies. These two answers are generally taken to be both mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Ecocentric writers believe that their preferred environmental ethic transcends anthropocentrism, whilst those who cleave to a more 'ecological humanist' position, view the turn to ecocentrism as at best an unnecessary diversion or at worst as a thinly disguised expression of misanthropy. This book looks afresh at the question of justifying nature preservation as public policy and challenges the dominant ecocentric-anthropocentric dichotomy. It undertakes a detailed analysis of the ontology and ethics of ecocentrism, of social ecology - as a self-proclaimed new-humanist' form of ecological ethics - and of eco-Marxism - an example of an ecological philosophy that claims to 'transcend' the ecocentric-anthropocentric divide. This shows that there is an 'embedded humanism' within ecocentrism that provides the resources to move beyond the ecocentric-anthropocentric dichotomy. The analysis also shows, however, that this dichotomised framework distorts the understanding of substantive moral positions in the debate that has taken place between thinkers from different ecological schools. The failure of ecocentrism lies not in its substantive moral position, but in its attempt to render the justification for preservationism non-contingent. The insights drawn from the analytical sections are pulled together in the final chapter in order to suggest a basis for justifying nature preservation as a public policy that escapes the sterile, distorting ecocentric-anthropocentric dichotomy. The author claims that an argument from 'strong irreplaceability', compatible with both human-centered and nature-centered concerns, provides the strongest grounds for the justification of a public policy of nature preservation.

Download or read book Ecosystems and Human Well being written by Joseph Alcamo and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecosystems and Human Well-Being is the first product of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year international work program designed to meet the needs of decisionmakers for scientific information on the links between ecosystem change and human well-being. The book offers an overview of the project, describing the conceptual framework that is being used, defining its scope, and providing a baseline of understanding that all participants need to move forward. The Millennium Assessment focuses on how humans have altered ecosystems, and how changes in ecosystem services have affected human well-being, how ecosystem changes may affect people in future decades, and what types of responses can be adopted at local, national, or global scales to improve ecosystem management and thereby contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation. The program was launched by United National Secretary-General Kofi Annan in June 2001, and the primary assessment reports will be released by Island Press in 2005. Leading scientists from more than 100 nations are conducting the assessment, which can aid countries, regions, or companies by: providing a clear, scientific picture of the current sta

Download or read book Human Dependence on Nature written by Haydn Washington and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human Dependence on Nature: How to Help Solve the Environmental Crisis.

Download or read book Many Layers of Ecocentrism written by Abhik Gupta and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-17 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unveils the myriad streams of ecocentric thoughts that have been flowing through the human mind – in indigenous communities, in the wisdom of philosophers, in the creative expressions of poets and writers – sometimes latent, but sometimes more explicit. The strength of this book lies in the fact that it attempts to show that ecocentrism had not emerged suddenly as a distinct line of philosophical thought or found its place among the various normative approaches toward nature, but the seeds of ecocentrism had always been running through human societies. Thus, this book not only emphasizes the “unity of life” but also reveals the inherent unity of all hues of ecocentrism. The book adopts a multidisciplinary approach, which is essential to dwell on a topic like ecocentrism which permeates the domains of disciplines as disparate as science, philosophy, religion, normative ethics, myths and folklore, poetry, and literature, among others. Despite this eclectic approach, the book attempts to maintain continuity among the chapters and present these concepts in a simple form that will be easily accessible by readers from all conceivable backgrounds. This book would be useful to the students, researchers, and faculty from the fields of ecology and environmental science, philosophy, sociology, religious studies, and literature. It will also be an indispensable companion for all nature lovers, activists, and general readers interested in the emergence and evolution of environmental thoughts.

Download or read book Environmentalism And Political Theory written by Robyn Eckersley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-01-06 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents the consolidation of a new field of political enquiry that is becoming an increasingly important component of political studies throughout the world. Eckersley's interdisciplinary study builds bridges between environmental philosophy, ecological thought and political enquiry, using a range of new insights from environmental philosophy to outline a particular Green political perspective. Aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive examination of the impact of environmentalism on contemporary political thought.

Download or read book Reconciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity written by Laura Westra and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2012-05-16 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The ecological challenge demands a paradigm shift in our thinking about the human-environment relation. Reconciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity provides a ?state of the art? account of work on ecological integrity - and offers a compelling vision for the future.' Derek Bell, Senior Lecturer at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle ?A book of vast scope and richness ...If policymakers around the world took notice of this insightful set of messages, we would all live with greater happiness, health, and wellbeing, with a brighter future for our children and grandchildren.' Lawrence O. Gostin, O?Neill Professor of Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center ?This book attempts to do in theory what the world needs to do in practice. It is an ecological master plan that shows how we can not only survive but also flourish.' James P. Sterba, President of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division Ecosystems have been compared to a house of cards: remove or damage a part and you risk destroying or fundamentally and irreversibly altering the whole.Protecting ecological integrity means maintaining that whole - an aim which is increasingly difficult to achieve given the ever-growing dominance of humanity. This book is the definitive examination of the state of the field now, and the way things may (and must) develop in the future. Written and edited by members of the Global Ecological Integrity Group - an international collection of the world's most respected authorities in the area - the book considers the extent to which human rights (such as the rights to food, energy, health, clean air or water) can be reconciled with the principles of ecological integrity. The issue is approached from a variety of economic, legal, ethical and ecological standpoints, providing an essential resource for researchers, students and those in government or business in a wide range of disciplines.

Download or read book Human Value Environmental Ethics and Sustainability written by Mark Ryan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should we care about the environment because it is economically valuable or because nature has intrinsic value? This book gives a clear overview of some of the main theoretical problems within environmental ethics and offers definitive solutions and alternatives.

Download or read book Environmentalism and Political Theory written by Robyn Eckersley and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1992-04-14 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the most detailed and comprehensive examination to date of the impact of environmentalism upon contemporary political thought. It sets out to disentangle the various strands of Green political thought and explain their relationship to the major Western political traditions. Environmentalism and Political Theory represents the consolidation of a new field of political inquiry that is destined to become an increasingly important component of political studies and political reporting worldwide. An interdisciplinary study that builds bridges between environmental philosophy, ecological thought, and political inquiry, this book employs a range of new insights from environmental philosophy to outline a particular Green political perspective.

Download or read book The Politics of Nature written by Andrew Dobson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a uniquely comprehensive and balanced survey of current green political ideas. It analyses the ability of these ideas to provide plausible answers to fundamental problems in political theory, concerning justice and democracy, individual rights and freedom, human nature and gender. The authors, who come from a range of different disciplines, explore the relationship between green ideas and other traditions including liberalism, anarchism, feminism and Christianity.

Download or read book The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society written by Jules Pretty and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A monumental and timely contribution to scholarship on society and environments. The handbook makes it easy and compelling for anyone to learn about that scholarship in its full manifestations and as represented by some of the most highly respected researchers and thinkers in the English-speaking world. It is wide-reaching in scope and far-reaching in its implications for public and private action, a definite must for serious researchers and their libraries." - Bonnie J McCay, Rutgers University "This is the desert island book for anyone interested in the relationship between society and the environment. The editors have assembled a masterful collection of contributions on every conceivable dimension of environmental thinking in the social sciences and humanities. No library should be without it!′ - Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society focuses on the interactions between people, societies and economies, and the state of nature and the environment. Editorially integrated but written from multi-disciplinary perspectives, it is organised in seven sections: Environmental thought: past and present Valuing the environment Knowledges and knowing Political economy of environmental change Environmental technologies Redesigning natures Institutions and policies for influencing the environment Key themes include: locations where the environment-society relation is most acute: where, for example, there are few natural resources or where industrialization is unregulated; the discussion of these issues at different scales: local, regional, national, and global; the cost of damage to resources; and the relation between principal actors in the environment-society nexus. Aimed at an international audience of academics, research students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers, The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society presents readers in social science and natural science with a manual of the past, present and future of environment-society links.

Download or read book Ecosociocentrism written by Gopi Upreti and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, on the subject of global environmental crisis and climate change that has threatened the very existence of humankind and the living system on planet Earth, claims that the current Anthropocene is the most dangerous era of environmental, and ecological crisis the planet Earth has ever witnessed. This book not only insightfully reflects upon the crisis manifested by climate change, breakdown of planetary ecosystem, extinction and annihilation of millions of species, acidification of oceans, desertification of productive lands, and toxic pollution attributing to the current dominant neoliberal economic model but also presents a new ethical development framework that recognizes and promotes the instrumental, relational and intrinsic values in the Earth system which form the basis for social and environmental sustainability. This is a useful book for all stakeholders involved in environmental protection, UN, and development agencies, INGOs, civil societies, NGOs, governments officials and professionals, media personnel, universities faculties, students, and researchers.

Download or read book The Ecocentrists written by Keith Makoto Woodhouse and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disenchanted with the mainstream environmental movement, a new, more radical kind of environmental activist emerged in the 1980s. Radical environmentalists used direct action, from blockades and tree-sits to industrial sabotage, to save a wild nature that they believed to be in a state of crisis. Questioning the premises of liberal humanism, they subscribed to an ecocentric philosophy that attributed as much value to nature as to people. Although critics dismissed them as marginal, radicals posed a vital question that mainstream groups too often ignored: Is environmentalism a matter of common sense or a fundamental critique of the modern world? In The Ecocentrists, Keith Makoto Woodhouse offers a nuanced history of radical environmental thought and action in the late-twentieth-century United States. Focusing especially on the group Earth First!, Woodhouse explores how radical environmentalism responded to both postwar affluence and a growing sense of physical limits. While radicals challenged the material and philosophical basis of industrial civilization, they glossed over the ways economic inequality and social difference defined people’s different relationships to the nonhuman world. Woodhouse discusses how such views increasingly set Earth First! at odds with movements focused on social justice and examines the implications of ecocentrism’s sweeping critique of human society for the future of environmental protection. A groundbreaking intellectual history of environmental politics in the United States, The Ecocentrists is a timely study that considers humanism and individualism in an environmental age and makes a case for skepticism and doubt in environmental thought.

Download or read book From Ego to Eco written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-11-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Ego to Eco – Mapping Shifts from Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism investigates philosophical, political, and aesthetic formations of ecocentrism, arguing that ecocentrism is a phenomenon that can be observed in a broad variety of national and historical contexts.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 3467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Second Edition, Four Volume Set addresses both the physiological and the psychological aspects of human behavior. Carefully crafted, well written, and thoroughly indexed, the encyclopedia helps users - whether they are students just beginning formal study of the broad field or specialists in a branch of psychology - understand the field and how and why humans behave as we do. The work is an all-encompassing reference providing a comprehensive and definitive review of the field. A broad and inclusive table of contents ensures detailed investigation of historical and theoretical material as well as in-depth analysis of current issues. Several disciplines may be involved in applied ethics: one branch of applied ethics, for example, bioethics, is commonly explicated in terms of ethical, legal, social, and philosophical issues. Editor-in-Chief Ruth Chadwick has put together a group of leading contributors ranging from philosophers to practitioners in the particular fields in question, to academics from disciplines such as law and economics. The 376 chapters are divided into 4 volumes, each chapter falling into a subject category including Applied Ethics; Bioethics; Computers and Information Management; Economics/Business; Environmental Ethics; Ethics and Politics; Legal; Medical Ethics; Philosophy/Theories; Social; and Social/Media. Concise entries (ten pages on average) provide foundational knowledge of the field Each article will features suggested readings pointing readers to additional sources for more information, a list of related websites, a 5-10 word glossary and a definition paragraph, and cross-references to related articles in the encyclopedia Newly expanded editorial board and a host of international contributors from the US, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom The 376 chapters are divided into 4 volumes, each chapter falling into a subject category including Applied Ethics; Bioethics; Computers and Information Management; Economics/Business; Environmental Ethics; Ethics and Politics; Legal; Medical Ethics; Philosophy/Theories; Social; and Social/Media

Download or read book Ontology and Closeness in Human Nature Relationships written by Neil H. Kessler and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-10 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ontology and Closeness in Human-Nature Relationships, Neil H. Kessler identifies the preconceptions which can keep the modern human mind in the dark about what is happening relationally between humans and the more-than-human world. He has written an accessible work of environmental philosophy, with a focus on the ontology of human-nature relationships. In it, he contends that large-scale environmental problems are intimate and relational in origin. He also challenges the deeply embedded, modernist assumptions about the relational limitations of more-than-human beings, ones which place erroneous limitations on the possibilities for human/more-than-human closeness. Diverging from the posthumanist literature and its frequent reliance on new materialist ontology, the arguments in the book attempt to sweep away what ecofeminists call “human/nature dualisms. In doing so, conceptual avenues open up that have the power to radically alter how we engage in our daily interactions with the more-than-human world all around us. Given the diversity of fields and disciplines focused on the human-nature relationship, the topics of this book vary quite broadly, but always converge at the nexus of what is possible between humans and more-than-human beings. The discussion interweaves the influence of human/nature dualisms with the limitations of Deleuzian becoming and posthumanism’s new materialism and agential realism. It leverages interhuman interdependence theory, Charles Peirce’s synechism of feeling and various treatments of Theory of Mind while exploring the influence of human/nature dualisms on sustainability, place attachment, common worlds pedagogy, emergence, and critical animal studies. It also explores the implications of plant electrical activity, plant intelligence, and plant “neurobiology” for possibilities of relational capacities in plants while even grappling with theories of animism to challenge the animate/inanimate divide. The result is an engaging, novel treatment of human-nature relational ontology that will encourage the reader to look at the world in a whole new way.

Download or read book The Intrinsic Value of Nature written by Leena Vilkka and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is intrinsic value? What is the origin of value? Are people always superior to nature? This book is a philosophical analysis of the human relationship to the non-human world. It is a pioneering study of the philosophy of nature-conservation in relation to the discussion of intrinsic value. Vilkka develops a naturalistic or naturocentric theory of value that is based on ethical extensionism and pluralism. Vilkka analyzes natural values and environmental attitudes: zoocentrism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism. This book forms a taxonomy for nature having intrinsic value. The theory of intrinsic value is based on naturocentric and naturogenic values. The book questions the thesis of weak anthropocentrism that denies the existence of naturogenic values. In Vilkka's theory, animals and nature are the origin of value. She defends the existence of zoogenic and biogenic values in the non-human world and discusses the possibility of ecogenic value, nature as a whole having value independent of human or animal minds. Vilkka analyzes the goodness and rights of nature, the problem of priorities, and ecological humanism. A naturocentric recommendation is that the well-being of animals and nature should have priority over human values at least in some real decision contexts. Ecological humanism recommends an attitude of respect for people, animals, and nature. The book includes an extensive glossary, index, and bibliography.

Download or read book The Right of Nonuse written by Jan G. Laitos and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Right of Nonuse provides a fresh and remarkably different perspective on the real causes of the ills plaguing the world's resources and environment. It re-examines the very nature of nature, and from this new perspective, argues that what is needed is for humans to grant to natural resources a legal right to be left alone - a right of nonuse. In the process, it explores the following questions: Why do natural resources continue to be depleted and removed at an alarming rate? Why are species becoming extinct at a pace that may be unprecedented? Why does the environment continue to be polluted? Why do the weather and climate seem to be changing? Perhaps most important, why have laws, legal institutions and governments been unable to address and correct these problems? Jan Laitos reviews the history of our relationship with the natural environment and develops new ways of thinking about nature and its protection. Instead of proceeding with human-based goals, Laitos argues that we should protect environmental resources for their own intrinsic value. Instead of giving humans more and more rights to clean up the environment, and to halt resources depletion, a right of nonuse held by the resource itself should be created. Natural resources have always possessed this parallel nonuse function, and society should recognize and legitimize it.