Reading Nature Religiously

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188
Author(s):  
Nancy Menning
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Lectio Divina ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Essential Aspect ◽  
Environmental Virtue ◽  
To Come ◽  
Spiritual Reading

Our ability to live well depends not only on what we do, but also on who we are. With respect to human-land relationships, we need to become more virtuous. And virtue is cultivated through practice. This paper transforms classical spiritual reading practices into a means of cultivating environmental virtue. Lectio divina is a longstanding practice for reading scripture religiously, motivated by a desire to come to a deeper understanding of and richer relationship with the sacred dimensions of experience. I describe an adaptation of lectio divina suitable for reading nature religiously and offer two illustrations. By reading nature religiously, we may develop environmental virtues, becoming more attentive, more thoughtful, more committed, more reverent, and more humble as we encounter the natural world. This model of a practice for cultivating environmental virtue enriches an essential aspect of environmental ethics, enhancing our prospects for attaining human and ecological flourishing.

A Priority and Application: Philosophy of Mathematics in the Modern Period

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Shabel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Mathematical Reasoning ◽  
Philosophy Of Mathematics ◽  
Mathematical Practice ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Pure Mathematics ◽  
Philosophical Account ◽  
Mathematical Ontology ◽  
To Come ◽  
Modern Mathematics

The state of modern mathematical practice called for a modern philosopher of mathematics to answer two interrelated questions. Given that mathematical ontology includes quantifiable empirical objects, how to explain the paradigmatic features of pure mathematical reasoning: universality, certainty, necessity. And, without giving up the special status of pure mathematical reasoning, how to explain the ability of pure mathematics to come into contact with and describe the empirically accessible natural world. The first question comes to a demand for apriority: a viable philosophical account of early modern mathematics must explain the apriority of mathematical reasoning. The second question comes to a demand for applicability: a viable philosophical account of early modern mathematics must explain the applicability of mathematical reasoning. This article begins by providing a brief account of a relevant aspect of early modern mathematical practice, in order to situate philosophers in their historical and mathematical context.

Orlando and the Politics of (In)Conclusiveness

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Allen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Politics ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Making Meaning ◽  
Active Reading ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender

In this chapter, Judith Allen explores a politics of inconclusiveness that, she argues, pervades Orlando. Attending to the patterning and gender politics of her chosen sentence, with its evocative lists and rhetorical repetitions, Allen highlights Michel de Montaigne’s influence on Woolf, and ranges from Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory to Gertrude Stein’s lists to examine the effects of Woolf’s refusal to come to a conclusion. With Montaigne’s question ‘Que sais-je?’ in mind, Allen identifies an essayistic, dialogic mode in Orlando resonant with the ‘wildness’ Woolf infused into this book. Allen thereby reveals something about Woolf’s writing that emerges in all the chapters: how it requires keen and active reading practices, asking readers to participate in making meaning, to move nimbly between minute detail and wide horizons of thought and vision, and to read on at least two levels at once.

Relationality, Reciprocity, and Flourishing in an African Landscape

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hannis ◽  
Sian Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Environmental Virtue ◽  
Environmental Virtue Ethics

The chapter considers the environmental ethics underlying certain practices and beliefs observed in the course of field research with primarily ||Khao-a Dama people in west Namibia. ||Khao-a Dama perspectives embody a type of “relational environmental ethics” that refracts anthropocentric/ecocentric dichotomies, and is characterized by respect for, and reciprocity with, agency and intentionality as located in entities beyond the human (ancestors, spirits, animals, healing plants and rain). The chapter connects this worldview with contemporary environmental virtue ethics, arguing that it is compatible with a theoretical framework of “ecological eudaimonism” as a fitting response to a complex contemporary world of “wicked” environmental problems.

The Dialectical Links Between Environmental Ethics and Sciences

1998 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Ricardo Rozzi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Reciprocal Relationships ◽  
Misleading Interpretation ◽  
New Vision ◽  
The One ◽  
Radical Transformation

Ecologists formulate their scientific theories influenced by ethical values, and in turn, environmental ethicists value nature based on scientific theories. Darwinian evolutionary theory provides clear examples of these complex links, illustrating how these reciprocal relationships do not constitute a closed system, but are undetermined and open to the influences of two broader worlds: the sociocultural and the natural environment. On the one hand, the Darwinian conception of a common evolutionary origin and ecological connectedness has promoted a respect for all forms of life. On the other hand, the metaphors of struggle for existence and natural selection appear as problematic because they foist onto nature the Hobbesian model of a liberal state, a Malthusian model of the economy, and the productive practice of artificial selection, all of which reaffirm modern individualism and the profit motive that are at the roots of our current environmental crisis. These metaphors were included in the original definitions of ecology and environmental ethics by Haeckel and Leopold respectively, and are still pervasive among both ecologists and ethicists. To suppose that these Darwinian notions, derived from a modern-liberal worldview, are a fact of nature constitutes a misleading interpretation. Such supposition represents a serious impediment to our aim of transforming our relationship with the natural world in order to overcome the environmental crisis. To achieve a radical transformation in environmental ethics, we need a new vision of nature.

scholarly journals Globalisation and its impact on the creation of sustainable points of purchase

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 04011
Author(s):  
Daniela Kollarova
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Chain Stores ◽  
Retail Chain ◽  
Functional Layout ◽  
Retail Chains ◽  
To Come ◽  
Retail Shop

In the second half of the 1990s, important global traders began to come to the Slovak market, changing the functional layout of the towns and cities by building large-scale stores, bringing new formats and forms of selling to retails, as well as thoughtful external and internal shop designs. More than twenty years have passed since then, however, internationalmarketers continue to shape the Slovak retail market, this time through a sustainable architecture of shops and logistics centres, responsible product assortments, reduced food waste, separating and reducing paper or plastic packaging and batteries, changing the employees´ clothing for garments from organic cottons, and so on. They have namely realized that the environment is more affected than protected as a result of globalization, and it is therefore necessary to take measures to protect the natural world with regard to permanently sustainable principles. The object of our research is the shopping setting in retail stores of selected worldwide retail chains operating in Slovakia, i.e. all elements of the retail shop and its operation (its design, layout, goods presentation, staff and customers), in the context of sustainability. We are looking for answers to the questions of which selected global retail chain stores working in Slovakia and by implementing of which specific measures they build sustainable points of sale. In the process of elaborating the paper we used as sources of information relevant publications, proceedings of scholarly papers, as well as studies available at the Internet sites of specialized journals. At elaborating the sources, we applied standard scientific methods: researching, description, analysis, and deduction.

scholarly journals Eudaimonism about Virtue and Qualified Agent Right Action: Some Prospects for Environmental Virtue Ethics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Duncan Christian Martin
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Right Action ◽  
Environmental Virtue ◽  
Concrete Action ◽  
Environmental Virtue Ethics ◽  
The Right ◽  
Action Guidance

<p>In this thesis, I aim to show that virtue oriented approaches to environmental ethics are in a position to provide satisfying answers to two central ethical questions: “What kind of person should I be?”, and “What should I do?” I argue that two such approaches – Rosalind Hursthouse’s environmental virtue ethics and Philip Cafaro’s account of environmental vice – provide insights about how we ought to be with regard to the environment, in terms of character and attitudes. I then defend Hursthouse’s account of right action against several objections. First, I respond to the worry that a shortage of environmental exemplars might count against Hursthouse, by showing that non-virtuous agents can conceive of what to do by seeking to avoid acting from environmental vices. Second, I respond the worry that her account of right action fails to generate the right result for non-virtuous agents in some cases, by showing that such cases can be accounted for by appeal to the distinction between action guidance and action assessment. Third, I consider the worry that her theory will fail to provide concrete action guidance. Theories which seek to provide concrete action guidance in all contexts face serious problems of their own, I respond. Further, I maintain that Hursthouse is not ruled out from providing the sort of action guidance her critics are interested in.</p>

scholarly journals Experiential education against environmental denial in environmental ethics education: a case study

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109
Author(s):  
Tomaž Grušovnik ◽  
Ana Arzenšek
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Experiential Education ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Ethics Education ◽  
Natural World ◽  
University Level ◽  
The University ◽  
Positive Results

Recent research shows that ‘environmental denial’ (the denial of anthropogenic impact on the natural world) plays an important role in environmental education. The difficulty in changing our detrimental habits stems from the fact that identities in our societies are bound up with consumerist practices. Because we cannot simply give up practices that shape our identity, environmental education has to fi nd ways of substituting unhealthy habits with environmentally acceptable ones. One method of achieving this is through experiential education based on experiences with the natural world and their importance for identity formation. The paper presents a case study involving experiential education in environmental ethics, implemented at the university level. Findings show that the implementation of experiential education technique (fi eld trip) yielded positive results in connection with students’ overcoming of environmental denial and consequential change of their environmental outlook.

scholarly journals Rewilding, "the Hoop," and Settler Apocalypse

The Trumpeter ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-146
Author(s):  
Bruno Seraphin
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Columbia Plateau ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Environmental Thought ◽  
To Come

This paper presents an ethnographic account of a grassroots network of mostly white-identified nomads who travel in the northwest United States’ Great Basin and Columbia Plateau regions. Living mostly on National Forest land, this movement of “rewilders” appropriates local Indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge in order to gather and replant wild foods in a seasonal round that they refer to as the “Sacred Hoop.” I discuss the Hoop network in order to explore the environmental ethics of a group that is at once strikingly unique and also an embodiment of the problems of settler colonialism within the broader environmentalist movement. I begin by introducing the group's ecologies and ethics, and subsequently move into an examination of the multiple and sometimes-contradictory lines of apocalyptic narrative logic at work in Hoopster discourse. I assert that the Hoopsters’ conflicting accounts of the Anthropocene, and the temporality of its disasters, are a manifestation of their ongoing work grappling with their own racial positionality. Despite the Hoopsters’ uncompromising critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and environmental exploitation, they struggle to come to terms with their role in ongoing colonialism and the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. In this way, the Hoopsters echo the troubled narratives at work in broader North American environmental thought, which consistently reveres the idea of Indigenous cultures while failing to enter into solidarity relationships with contemporary Indigenous communities and their efforts toward decolonization.

scholarly journals Kant and the Laws of Nature

Philosophy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Massimi
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Reflective Judgment ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
To Come ◽  
Theoretical Philosophy

Immanuel Kant’s complex and nuanced view on the laws of nature has been at the center of renewed attention among Kant scholars since the late 20th century. Kant’s view is one of the best examples in the Early Modern period of the philosophical view of nature as “ordered” and “lawful” that emerged with the scientific advancements of the 17th and 18th centuries. Building on the extraordinary success of Isaac Newton’s mechanics and optics, but also on the burgeoning chemistry of Stephen Hales in England and Herman Boerhaave and Pieter van Musschenbroek in the Netherlands, among many others, Kant’s lifelong engagement with the natural sciences (broadly construed) influenced and fed into his mature Critical-period philosophy. Explaining why laws of nature seemingly govern the natural world (as much as the moral law regulates the realm of human freedom and choice) is key to Kant’s transcendental philosophy. Kant seems to embrace a coherent account of what it is to be a law, in moral philosophy and in theoretical philosophy. When it comes to theoretical philosophy (and in particular, to Kant’s philosophy of nature, which is our topic), the main question is how it is possible for us to come to know nature as ordered and lawful. Where does the lawfulness of nature come from? In the Critique of Pure Reason and in the Prolegomena, Kant held the view that our faculty of understanding is the primary source of nature’s lawfulness because the a priori categories of the understanding “prescribe laws to nature”—that is, they play the role of constitutive a priori principles for our experience of nature. Yet, already in the first Critique, and even more so in Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant stressed the importance of the faculty of reason, first, and the faculty of reflective judgment, second—with their regulative principles—in offering a system of laws necessary for our knowledge of nature. The crucial distinction between constitutive principles of the understanding versus regulative principles of reason and reflective judgment leads, in turn, to a series of further distinctions in Kant’s philosophy. For example, it leads to the different status of laws in the physical sciences and in the life sciences, which in turn became the battleground for the debate concerning mechanical explanations versus teleological explanations.

Does the Universe Suggest Design, Purpose, Goodness, or Concern?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Random Fluctuation ◽  
Design Purpose ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Claim ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Universe

This chapter tackles the question of whether or not the natural world presents us with a picture empty of purpose or good or evil or concern. No empirical evidence can entirely refute the claim that random fluctuation is the complete truth about the origin of all things, but it follows that this is not a scientific claim. Therefore it is a question of forming a reasonable judgement. It appears that the natural world has a depth and richness that exceeds what would be necessary for thinking brains to come to be realized in it. Also, notwithstanding the pain of the world, it is a project that merits our engagement and commitment, and occasionally the transcendent breaks in. We are not competent to make an overall judgement, but we can join in with the creative process of the world and find our role.

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