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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ecology Philosophy'
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De, Laplante Kevin Leo. "Toward a general philosophy of ecology." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0023/NQ31151.pdf.
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Drinkwater, Christopher. "Ecology and postmodernity." Thesis, University of Leeds, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268672.
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De, Jonge Eccy. "Spinoza's metaphysics as the basis for a deep ecology." Thesis, University of Essex, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.343273.
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Steinbrecher, Stephanie A. "The Philosophy of Ecology in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/866.
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This thesis explores the possibilities for ecocritical study in fiction through John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Major ecocritical interpretation has yet to gain much traction in novels; by focusing on human nature, this form’s “anthropocentric” posture seems itself to be antithetical to ecocritical efforts, which aim to unseat humans as the center of the moral universe. However, by analyzing The Grapes of Wrath’s formal, narratorial, and thematic valences, I argue that principles of social justice concurrently imply environmental justice in the philosophical currents of the text. Tenets of deep ecology and Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” inform the novel’s overall environmental outlook. The key to my interpretation is the value of community at the center of Steinbeck’s world. To expand principles of the collectivism and compassion in the social community to include the broader ecological community, I focus on the narrative’s unique Judeo-Christian spirituality and humanistic discourse. Ultimately I identify cohesion in The Grapes of Wrath’s composition that makes a single narrative of both the natural and the human worlds, and that creates a moral universe that guides ethical behavior towards others, both human and non-human; in doing so, I argue Steinbeck’s novel both enacts and represents an ecologically minded ethic.
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Tatray, Dara Linda Miriam School of History & Philosophy of Science UNSW. "Rebuilding the foundations of deep ecology a nondualist approach." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of History and Philosophy of Science, 2006. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/25147.
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This work examines the representations of the Perennial Philosophy in the literature of the Deep Ecology movement, and the negative response of critics to the Self-realisation approach. It then goes on to suggest that a deeper engagement with the nondualistic doctrines Naess embraced could lift environmental philosophy out of the Cartesian framework in which it appears to be bogged down. Deep Ecology has been accused of being politically ineffective, and letting down the environmental movement, because it remains insufficiently engaged with debates concerning power, class, sex, and other hegemonies that occupy the minds of social ecologists, ecofeminists, and cultural studies theorists. I argue that Deep Ecology is not as ineffective as detractors claim, but that it remains philosophically undeveloped, and has not provided sound foundations for environmental ethics. The qualified nondualism I advance, based on Ved??nta, the work of David Bohm, and (to a lesser extent) Platonic thought, treats cosmos, society and the individual as intelligent creative systems in which the interrelated parts are expressions of a vital generative order to which each is actively related. The Self is a mirror of the cosmos, engaged in the process of becoming a more complete reflection of the totality. In all of this the nature of consciousness as vast creative intelligence is paramount, and freedom dominates the entire process from beginning to end. This thesis offers an opportunity to rethink ideas of value, moral considerability, and the nature of the empirical self, from a nondualistic perspective. It proposes that "intrinsic unity" might replace the community as the foundational moral concept for environmental ethics. In the process, emphasis shifts away from the objective sphere and settles firmly on the thinker and thought. Following Bohm and Krishnamurti, I argue that conditioned thought is the only barrier to (inner) freedom and creativity. Most important, the metaphysics of nondualism privileges processes of universal Self-realisation, and reveals the limitations of the empirical self. Understanding thought as a process then becomes something of a moral imperative.
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Martin, Vernon J. "Negotiating Environmental Relationships: Why Language Matters to Environmental Philosophy." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4409/.
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The medium of language is important to environmental philosophy, and more specifically, to the establishment and understanding of environmental relationships. The differences between animal and human language point to our unique semantic range, which results from our neuro-linguistic process of signification. An examination of the linguistic implications of the problem of nature and the tenets of semiotics challenges the idea of a clean word to world fit. Because signs are the medium in which meaning is constructed, questions about nature must in part be questions of language. Environmental discourse itself is bound up in sociolinguistic productions and we must attend not only to what language says, but to what it does. NEPA functions as a speech act that systematically invokes an ethical framework by which it colonizes the domain of valuation and fails to provide a genuine opportunity for non-commodity values to be expressed.
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Dinneen, Nathan. "Ranges of consideration: crossing the fields of ecology, philosophy and science studies." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3292/.
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Environmental issues are often complex with many different constituents operating according to a broad range of communication techniques. In order to foster negotiations, different perspectives need to be articulated in lucid ways sensitive to various viewpoints and circumstances. In my thesis I investigate how certain approaches to environmental discourse effect dialogue and negotiation. My first two chapters focus on environmental problems surrounding rangeland ecology along the U.S./Mexico border; whereas the last two chapters explore more theoretical conflicts concerning the philosophy of nature. Throughout the thesis I show the significance of nonhumans (prairie dogs, cattle, biological assessment sheets, environmental laws, etc.) in the human community. Only by considering the roles of nonhumans do we broaden and enrich the conversation between ourselves concerning environmental issues.
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Bradley, Joff Peter Norman. "Zerrissenheit and schizoanalysis : philosophy, pedagogy and media ecology in the Japanese context." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2016. http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/612205/.
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This thesis, as a work of applied schizoanalysis, focuses on the social, affective and pedagogical issues pertaining to communication technologies, and the breakdown and breakthroughs of individuals that use these technologies, particularly in educational institutions. Detailed attention is given to the nature of 'control societies’ (Deleuze, 1992) within Asian educational contexts. The core conceptualisation of the thesis is that the crisis in modern societies can be explained heuristically by utilising the notions of Zerrissenheit and schizoanalysis. The thesis argues that schizoanalysis can be used as a political and cultural tool with widespread application and relevance in exploring and explaining areas pertaining to education, language, communication and affect. Honing in on specific examples, the thesis explores the decline of writing, endemic passivity, detachment, and loneliness as striking forms of social schizophrenia in East Asia. Where applicable I use the concept of Zerrissenheit or torn-to-pieces-hood to test the interrogative power of this thesis as a schizo tool for explaining contemporary (a)social phenomenon. This thesis explicates upon and is informed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s individual and collaborative works, as well as the philosophy of Bernard Stiegler. This thesis contributes to the fields of continental thought and philosophy, and critical educational studies, by addressing the negative effects of technology and the proliferation of psychopathologies and maladies in Japan and further afield.
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Van, Zanten Joel A. "Foundations of Deep Ecology: Daoism and Heideggerian Phenomenology." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1249483297.
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Greaves, Thomas Guy. "The poverty of ecology : Heidegger, living nature and environmental thought." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2007. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1147/.
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This thesis examines the question of living nature and its bearing on ecological thought in the light or the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. The difficulty of adequately thinking about living nature in the terms developed in Being and Time (1927) is taken as the starting point for the investigation. The thesis concentrates on Heidegger's thought in the period beginning with the 1929/30 lectures The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude and ending with the courses on Heraclitus in 1943 and 1944. In this 'middle period' Heidegger' attempts to fonnulate a phenomenology of animal life and then a thinking of the place of living nature in the 'history of being' which does not return to the vitalist principles with which he had previously broken. The thesis considers the extent to which these attempts to find another way to think about living nature are successful. To this end a variety of lecture and seminar courses together with manuscripts from this period are discussed, some of which have only recently become available, including the seminars on Nietzsche's second Untimely Meditation and Herder's Treatise on the Origin ofLanguage and the manuscripts Besinnung and Die Geschichte des Seyns. Contemporary responses to Heidegger's thinking of living nature and its relevance for philosophical ecology, including those of Jacques Derrida, Michel Haar, Giorgio Agamben and Michael Zimmennan are re-evaluated on this basis. -. :'. j,- Abstract - The guiding concept of the investigation is the notion of poverty, which plays a variety of roles in the context under discussion. In particular, the thesis presented in The Fundamental Concept of Metaphysics that the animal is 'poor in world', has been seriously misunderstood by many commentators. If the poverty in question is properly understood as a thesiS concerning the fundamental attunement of the encounter between Dasein and living nature, then we can see how this concept of poverty develops in various directions in the following years, informing Heidegger's understanding of the capabilities of living beings, of the 'earth', the silence of language and finally allows for the development of a thinking of freedom that is proper to the earth itself, rather than a development beyond the earthly. It is argued that the notion of poverty is an essential counter to a prevalent Spinozist and Nietzschean strain in ecological thought that thinks living nature on the basis of plenum or overflow and concedes no space for a true freedom of the earth.
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Wilson, Mark. "Beyond control : towards an ecology of uncertainty." Thesis, University of Cumbria, 2012. http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4371/.
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With specific reference to five discrete projects, this supporting text sets out to explain the methodologies, dynamics and rationale behind the installation-based and collaborative art practice of Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson, in relation to contemporary art methodologies and the chronologically parallel and equally emergent academic fields of Artistic Research and Animal Studies. The projects are represented by four monographs and one book chapter, each of which has its basis in a substantial art project involving a sustained period of interdisciplinary research and practice and involving one or multiple exhibitions. A series of research questions pertinent to the cross-disciplinary nature of my practice has been tested in respect of each project within the context of an overarching set of meta-questions pertinent to the practice as a whole. As my practice seeks to challenge assumptions, regarding for instance knowledge systems and representation it is the function of this text to present the projects in relation to knowledge production more widely, its currency, value and the basis upon which its value is estimated. I demonstrate how the dynamic of collaboration is integral to the principles of relationality embedded in the work and how those principles reverberate through our methodology and through the participation of the professionals, amateurs, and academics who contribute variously to the projects. Although working counter to subject-specificity as a matter of strategy, I discuss how certain subject-specific models (for example anthropological interview techniques and surveys, museum display, hunting etc.) are nonetheless appropriated and deployed in order to ground and inform critique. The latter and significant proportion of the text is devoted to providing a conceptually and materially descriptive summary of each project, clarifying project-specific research questions and propositions and detailing the relationship of each publication here included, to the research field(s) and the associated artworks.
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Sayers, Bonnie Blue Love. "The ecology of love| A transdisciplinary inquiry into the heart of matter." Thesis, California Institute of Integral Studies, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3743743.
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This dissertation presents an original contribution by defining love as an eco-systemic process with the potential to heal Earth’s ecological crisis. Something is considered systemic when it is spread throughout and affects a system as a whole. Considering the view that Earth is an interconnected system, I began to question the role of systemic processes in response to Earth’s greater problems, like climate change. A review of the literature revealed that love has not yet been explored as an eco-systemic process in relation to Earth’s complex crisis. I chose to address this gap in the literature by engaging a dialogue on the role of love in ecological healing.
The research is approached through an ecological, or systems, perspective. I developed three methodological tools to assist this inquiry process. The first is what I term the ecological conscience. This could be viewed as the lens of my inquiry and is defined in detail in my methods section. The second is transdisicplinary inquiry, a method of research specifically designed for systems studies. Individual disciplines are beginning to explore the topic of love in more detail—from the biological reactions of love in the body, to cognitive reactions of interpersonal relationships, to the cultural evolution of love. Each discipline presents a much-needed thread to our understanding of love, but it is important to weave these threads together as a whole. Transdisiciplinary research allowed this process to occur. Finally, I chose storywork methodology as a way to frame my findings on the ecology of love. The story is written as a creative dialogue between myself and the ecology of love and reflects the complexity of my findings in a more personal and emotional tone.
If something is systemic, its role is crucial to the health of the larger system. That love is appearing in so many disciplines reveals its systemic nature in life. Only by viewing the interconnections can we see how love plays a role in the ecological healing of Earth. This research presents a scientific view of what the poets, saints, and sages have been saying all along. Love matters, and it matters so significantly that its presence or absence influences the evolution of Earth as a whole.
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Howell, Edward Henry. "Modernism, Ecology, and the Anthropocene." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2017. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/460953.
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EnglishPh.D.
This dissertation studies literary modernism’s philosophies of nature. It examines how historical attitudes about natural environments and climates are codified in literary texts, what values attach to them, and how relationships between humanity and nature are figured in modernist fiction. Attending less to nature itself than to concepts, ideologies, and aesthetic theories about nature, it argues that British modernism and ecology articulate shared concerns with the vitality of the earth, the shaping force of climate, and the need for new ways of understanding the natural world. Many of British modernism’s most familiar texts, by E.M. Forster, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and H.G. Wells, reveal a sustained preoccupation with significant concepts in environmental and intellectual history, including competition between vitalist, holist, and mechanistic philosophies and science, global industrialization by the British Empire, and the emergence of ecology as a revolutionary means of ordering the physical world. “Modernism, Ecology, and the Anthropocene” uncovers these preoccupations to illustrate how consistently literary works leverage environmental ideologies and how pervasively literature shapes cultural and even scientific attitudes toward the natural world. Through the geological concept of the Anthropocene, it brings literary history into interdisciplinary conversations that have recently emerged from the Earth sciences and are now increasingly common in the humanities, social sciences, and in wider public debates about climate change. The dissertation’s first chapter, “Connecting Earth to Empire: E. M. Forster’s Changing Climate,” argues that E.M. Forster’s fiction apprehends the global implications of local climate change at a crucial time in environmental and literary history. By relating Forster’s Howards End and A Passage to India to his 1909 story, “The Machine Stops,” it attends to the speculative aspects of Forster’s work and presents Forster as a keen observer who foresaw not only the passing of rural England and the arrival of a new urban way of life, but environmental change on a global scale. Its second chapter, “The Call of Life: James Joyce’s Vitalist Aesthetics,” explores the connotations “life” gathers in Joyce’s early fiction and proposes a new reading of his aesthetics that emphasizes its ecological implications by pairing Joyce with his contemporary “modern” vitalism and current new materialisms. The third chapter, “Make it Whole: The Ecosystems of Virginia Woolf and A.G. Tansley,” revises critical conceptions of Woolf as an ecological writer and environmental histories of early ecology by showing how Woolf’s philosophy of nature and Tansley’s ecosystem concept run parallel and represent a shared intellectual project: advocating theories of form and of perception that navigate the tension between holist and mechanistic conceptions of nature and mind. A final chapter, “Landlord of the Planet: H. G. Wells, Human Extinction, and Anthropocene Narratives,” establishes Wells as an early environmental humanist whose ecological outlook evolved with his perception of the rapidly increasing pace of climate change and its threat to the human species. By digging into a rarely-read scientific textbook he co-authored, The Science of Life, this chapter analyzes how the natural world is managed in three Wellsian utopias and traces the development of his writing in concert with ecology.
Temple University--Theses
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Antolick, Matthew. "Deep ecology and Heideggerian phenomenology." [Tampa, Fla. : s.n.], 2003. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000104.
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Hoffmann, Nigel, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, of Health Humanities and Social Ecology Faculty, and School of Social Ecology. "Goethe's notion of 'theory' : Goethean phenomenology as a new ecological discipline." THESIS_FHHSE_SEL_Hoffmann_N.xml, 1994. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/234.
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Around two hundred years ago Goethe made the statement: ‘Let us not seek for something behind the phenomena – they themselves are the theory’. This would appear to be the antithesis of the claim of certain contemporary schools of epistemological thought, that a ‘theory’ is a construction of the human mind. Yet Goethe’s scientific aims are resonant with a present day ecological need: to find a form of ‘nature study’ which springs from a desire to care for things rather than merely to explain them, which can help to create a harmony between human and non-human nature. Goethe’s approach is phenomenological in that it seeks to uncover things ‘on their own terms’; it is integral in that it embraces both art and science. A Goethean methodology is used to study four Australian native plants: Grevillea buxifolia, Scaevola remosissima, Banksia integrifolia and Kunzea ambigua. It is suggested that Goethe’s way of ‘nature study’ fulfils the contemporary need for a participatory knowing which is responsible for the thing being researched, and various possibilities are indicated for further research and application – in the biological sciences and in disciplines such as architecture, landscape design and environmental education.Master of Science (Hons)
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Humphrey, Mathew. "Re-framing justificatory discourse in the philosophy and politics of nature preservation : beyond the ecocentric-humanist divide." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285219.
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Russell, Rowland S. "The Ecology of Paradox: Disturbance and Restoration in Land and Soul." [Yellow Springs, Ohio] : Antioch University, 2008. http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=antioch1204556861.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Antioch University New England, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed November 11, 2009). "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England (2008)."--from the title page. Advisor: Mitchell Thomashow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-296).
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Marangudakis, Manussos. "Nature and power : a study of the social construction of nature in Eurasia from the Stone Age to the Hellenistic times." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ64615.pdf.
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Benton, Christine S. "Corridors in Conservation and Philosophy." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4346/.
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My thesis focuses on philosophical themes implicit in corridor conservation, using the Big Thicket National Preserve as an example. The way in which corridors, boundaries and communities are ambiguous, as both limits and connections, is dealt with. Corridor-patch matrices assemble ecological and human groups into temporary communities, often with conflicting interests. Such constellations foreground how a foreigner's boundary crossing is a notion important to both conservation and a philosophical study of being, seen as being always in relation with otherness. In this context, the notion of foreignness and Jean-Luc Nancy's idea of being-with is explored. Understanding the complex network of relations in which an entity exists leads to an awareness of its ambiguous nature. To facilitate judgment with such ambiguity, one needs a contextual understanding of a situation.
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Skakoon, Elizabeth M. Allen Barry. "The Recovery Project and artifactual ecology: a new direction for environmental thought /." *McMaster only, 2005.
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González, del Solar Sarría Rafael. "Mechanismic explanation in ecology." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/381073.
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La ecología es una ciencia importante, tanto desde el punto de vista práctico como desde el teórico, que recientemente a comenzado a atraer la atención de los filósofos profesionales. Con todo, la investigación sobre los fundamentos filosóficos de la ecología, en particular sobre sus prácticas explicativas, está aún poco desarrollada; y ello pese a que los propios ecólogos perciben que el debate sobre la explicación ecológica es importante. En esta tesis doctoral comparo las principales tesis ontológicas y epistemológicas de tres proyectos filosóficos que ofrecen un análisis de la explicación científica en términos de mecanismos, con la descripción de dos casos de explicación en ecología basados en mecanismos, tal como los entienden los ecólogos, los mecanismos de facilitación y la competencia ecológicas. Los ejemplos que analizo aquí provienen del campo de la sucesión ecológica, aunque tanto la facilitación como la competencia son interacciones muy extendidas en todo el ámbito de la ecología. Sobre la base de mi análisis, sostengo que si bien las contribuciones epistemológicas que los proyectos filosóficos estudiados han realizado al debate de la explicación científica son importantes, pero que aún hay mucho espacio para mejorar la caracterización de la naturaleza de los mecanismos ecológicos y de la explicación mecanísmica en ecología. Basado en el trabajo previo del filósofo sistemista Mario Bunge, propongo que los mecanismos ecológicos son procesos específicos que ocurren en sistemas y que las explicaciones mecanísmicas en ecología pueden asumir diversas formas, pero que consisten en descripciones de esos procesos en el marco de la descripción más general del sistema de interés.Ecology is a science of practical and theoretical importance that has recently begun to appeal to professional philosophers. Yet, work on the philosophical foundations of ecology, particularly on its explanatory practices, is still scarce, even though ecologists perceive the debate on ecological explanation as an important one. In this dissertation, I contrast the main theses of three different philosophical projects that attempt to account for scientific explanation in terms of mechanisms descriptions with two cases of ecological explanation based on mechanisms, as ecologists understand the term: the mechanisms of ecological facilitation and competition. The examples I study come from the subfield of ecological succession, though both facilitation and competition are widespread along the whole of ecology. Based on my analysis of those cases I argue that those projects have contributed important elements to the ontology and epistemology of scientific explanation, but that there is still room for improvement towards an adequate characterization of the precise nature of ecological mechanisms and mechanismic explanation in ecology. Following the lead of previous work by systemist philosopher Mario Bunge, I suggest that ecological mechanisms are specific processes in systems, and that, even though they may take different forms, mechanismic explanations consist in descriptions of those processes in the context of a description of the system of interest.
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Howland, Scott Charles. "Ontological Ecology: The Created World in Early Christian Monastic Spirituality." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1501073179289829.
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Measham, Thomas George. "Learning and change in rural regions : understanding influences on sense of place /." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20050421.162409/index.html.
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PASLARU, VIOREL. "ECOLOGICAL MECHANISMS IN PHILOSOPHICAL FOCUS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1195862599.
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Simus, Jason Boaz. "Disturbing Nature's Beauty: Environmental Aesthetics in a New Ecological Paradigm." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc11008/.
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An ecological paradigm shift from the "balance of nature" to the "flux of nature" will change the way we aesthetically appreciate nature if we adopt scientific cognitivism-the view that aesthetic appreciation of nature must be informed by scientific knowledge. Aesthetic judgments are subjective, though we talk about aesthetic qualities as if they were objectively inherent in objects, events, or environments. Aesthetic judgments regarding nature are correct insofar as they are part of a community consensus regarding the currently dominant scientific paradigm. Ecological science is grounded in metaphors: nature is a divine order, a machine, an organism, a community, or a cybernetic system. These metaphors stimulate and guide scientific practice, but do not exist independent of a conceptual framework. They are at most useful fictions in terms of how they reflect the values underlying a paradigm. Contemporary ecology is a science driven more by aesthetic than metaphysical considerations. I review concepts in the history of nature aesthetics such as the picturesque, the sublime, disinterestedness, and formalism. I propose an analogy: just as knowledge of art history and theory should inform aesthetic appreciation of art, knowledge of natural history and ecological theory should inform aesthetic appreciation of nature. The "framing problem," is the problem that natural environments are not discrete objects, so knowing what to focus on in an environment is difficult. The "fusion problem" is the problem of how to fuse the sensory aspect of aesthetic appreciation with highly theoretical scientific knowledge. I resolve these two problems by defending a normative version of the theory-laden observation thesis. Positive aesthetics is the view that insofar as nature is untouched by humans, it is always beautiful and never ugly. I defend an amended and updated version of positive aesthetics that is consistent with the central elements of contemporary ecology, and emphasize the heuristic, exegetical, and pedagogical roles aesthetic qualities play in ecological science.
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Rounsefell, Vanda Barbara. "From egocity to ecocity : an ecological, complex systems approach to humans and their settlements." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phr8595.pdf.
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Morris, S. P. "On Hunting: A Philosophical Case Study in Animal Sports." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1281447236.
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Okamoto, Paul Craig. "Architecture between the idea and the reality : a comparative study of ecological philosophy with the architecture of Paoli Soleri." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1987. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARCHM/09archmo41.pdf.
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Roche, David. "Biodiversity: Its Measurement and Metaphysics." University of Sydney. Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/819.
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Biodiversity is a concept that plays a key role in both scientific theories such as the species-area law and conservation politics. Currently, however, little agreement exists on how biodiversity should be defined, let alone measured. This has led to suggestions that biodiversity is not a metaphysically robust concept, with major implications for its usefulness in formulating scientific theories and making conservation decisions. A general discussion of biodiversity is presented, highlighting its application both in scientific and conservation contexts, its relationship with environmental ethics, and existing approaches to its measurement. To overcome the limitations of existing biodiversity concepts, a new concept of biocomplexity is proposed. This concept equates the biodiversity of any biological system with its effective complexity. Biocomplexity is shown to be the only feasible measure of biodiversity that captures the essential features desired of a general biodiversity concept. In particular, it is a well-defined, measurable and strongly intrinsic property of any biological system. Finally, the practical application of biocomplexity is discussed.
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Hendricks, Jonathan. "Playing-With the World: Toy Story's Aesthetics and Metaphysics of Play." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6709.
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Pixar’s Toy Story (John Lassiter, 1995) is not just a story about toys and the children that play with them, but a demonstration of how we interact with the world. This thesis looks at the way in which both main children, Andy and Sid, interact with their toys and how this interaction is one that is structured by way of what Martin Heidegger calls “Enframing.” In this modality of playing, toys and other things and entities in the world, and the world itself, appear to the children as on-hand resources for use at any time and can be molded, as if plastic, to fit their needs. I problematize this way of interacting with the world by looking at not only it manifests in Toy Story, but also in the process of the film’s production, Silicon Valley aesthetics, our reliance upon plastics, neoliberal capital in light of the “1099 economy,” and ecological ramifications of these practices as seen in the ecological registers. Through these metaphysics, we seek to mold the world in accordance with human-centered interests as we play within the world. My thesis also turns to understand how metaphysics has transformed over time so that we can work towards bringing forth a different way of relating to the world that is sustainable, ethical, and one of care. I argue for an understanding of things in the world likened to an interconnected and interdependent network that we are always connected to, and in an “interplay” with. I conclude the project by arguing for a possible turn to the writings of Alfred North Whitehead, Henri Bergson, and other philosophers who work in process metaphysics for a possible reinvigoration of “apparatus theory,” which has lost favor with many film scholars since the 1970s/1980s. I argue that a process framework could provide fresh light on the cinematic apparatus in light of digital at-home streaming services, as well as work towards revealing stronger interlinked connections between media, economics, ecology, geopolitics, etc.
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Duncan, Jo Fay. "Lines in the sand: North Stradbroke Island festivals 2011-2014: Chronicling a curatorial philosophy in response to ecology of change." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/206037/1/Joanne_Duncan_Thesis.pdf.
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Themes of mining, development and human impact on the environment involve issues facing much of the planet. This intensely local research study is a creative response to political, cultural, and environmental change in the Quandamooka. It outlines a template for curating ecological art which provides a detailed explanation of the nine principles that helped shape a series of island festival events and exhibitions, and in turn relationships, that connect the writer to the people, place and ecology of the Quandamooka. The outcomes speak to a much greater narrative about the restoration and rejuvenation of the land both ecologically and spiritually.
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Hasenbank, Marc. "Egg laying on patchy resources and the importance of spatial scale : a thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology & Biodiversity /." ResearchArchive@Victoria e-Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/1152.
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Williams, Justin W. "The Conceptual Autopoiēsis of Language-Habits and Language-Cultures that Orient Humans as Separate from Nature." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1538752/.
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In this dissertation I consider the nature of the relationship between orientation and language-habits in the context of environmental ethics. Specifically, I focus on the problem of orientation as a way of understanding the unabated trend of anthropocentrism in the dominant Western language-culture. Orientation operates as the attitudes, beliefs, and feelings in relation to something that we embody in our lived experiences. One way that we communicate our orientation in relation to the land is through our language-habits. In considering our language-habits, I conceptualize a process I call conceptual autopoiēsis. Conceptual autopoiēsis is the co-evolutionary coupling process of the language-habits and language-cultures of human orientation, which recreates the initial conditions of the reproduction of the specific concepts embodied in that given orientation, language-habit, and language-culture. I show how our orientation to the land is embodied in our language-habits and language-cultures. I show how orientation, language-habit, language-culture, and conceptual autopoiēsis all function as the environment from which we select the very conceptualization of our orientation and the language we use to do so. More specifically, metaphysical anthropocentrism is a kind of orientation that assumes a dualistic relationship to the land that perpetuates a disconnect from Nature that makes it impossible to have an ecocentric land ethic. I argue that in order to advance the language-habits and language-cultures that can cultivate a more ecocentric orientation capable of living in harmony with nature, we must first understand how the conceptual autopoiēsis of language-habits and language-cultures of the current Western orientation continue to orient us as separate from Nature.
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Dillender, Amber Nichole. "The Integration of African Muslim Minority: A Critique of French Philosophy and Policy." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3073.
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ABSTRACT
The numerous images of violence perpetrated by radicalized followers of Islam, has highlighted the complexities surrounding assimilation and integration of Muslims in Western society. Since the guest worker recruitment from French African colonies initiated after World War II, France has been witness to the unanticipated development of permanent communities of African laborers, many of whom are Muslim. Despite consistent promotion of French monoculture and specifically the use of the assimilation model for integration, segregation of African Muslims has occurred. Through the construction of a single country case study, I explore integration issues surrounding the French Muslim minority communities. I seek to assess the occurrences of segregation among African Muslims, and theorize that process established by the French government for the assimilation and integration of African Muslims into French society has culminated in the formation of segregated African Muslim diaspora communities. This topic was chosen because I possess a general interest in the integration of Muslims into Western society. Due to the broadness of the Muslim population, and given their high visibility I narrowed my focus on African Muslims. Furthermore, this topic was chosen to determine the viability of the French case as an alternative to the failed policies of multiculturalism. Therefore, I examine the assimilation strategy of French Republicanism established in France by the French Revolution of 1789. This thesis is relevant given the rising visibility of Muslims throughout Western society. Furthermore, the increased visibility highlights the position of African Muslim communities in France. The evidence presented in my thesis demonstrates that the presence of segregated African Muslim communities is an unintended consequence of the historical development of French monoculture and colonialism. French assimilation of African Muslims is not a complete failure due to marginal successes of African Muslims in political and economic arenas. Furthermore, the segregation of African Muslims in France does not diminish the viability of assimilation strategy in the overall integration of Muslims into Western society, especially as politicians across the European continent denounce the failed policies of multiculturalism.
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McDonald, M. Christine. "Ecosystem resilience and the restoration of damaged plant communities : a discussion focusing on Australian case studies." Thesis, View thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:683.
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An examination was undertaken of the literature and restoration cases for 4 major Australian vegetation types (sclerophyll; rainforest; grassland; and wetland) to explore the proposition that ecological resilience may govern recovery after anthropogenic damage, and/or provide a fundamental guide and measure of success for ecological restoration. Also, primary data were collected from highly degraded sites (5 sclerophyll, 3 rainforest, and 4 grassy sites) to assess recovery after restoration treatment. These were supplemented with questionnaire data from practitioners working at a wider range of rainforest and sclerophyll sites, and reports from practitioners working on grassland and wetland sites. In all 4 vegetation types, species generally fell into two main groups : longer-lived 'resprouters' and shorter-lived 'obligate seeders'. But different resilience models were identified for the 4 vegetation types. The sclerophyll type exhibited higher in situ resilience but lower migratory resilience than the rainforest type, which was facilitated by flying frugivore dispersal to perch trees. Self-perpetuation was more tightly coupled with disturbance in the sclerophyll, grassland and wetland types than rainforest; and therefore 'designed disturbance' played a more obvious role in enhancing recovery within these types, than in rainforest. Results suggest that resilience (as both an ecosystem property and a theoretical concept) is fundamental to the practice of ecological restoration. Some prediction of resilience potential of particular degraded sites (and prediction of the degree and type of restoration subsidy needed) can be based on knowledge of : individual species' recovery mechanisms; resilience models for individual vegetation-types; and the site's colonisation potential and impact history
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Petersson, Åsa. "Djupekologi och grundekologi : Finns det någon skillnad?" Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Religion and Culture, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-8226.
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Uppsatsen tar upp Arne Naess djupekologi. Den undersöker djupekologins struktur och vilka krav som ställs på en teori för att den skall vara en djupekologi. Uppsatsen tar även upp skillnader mellan djupekologi och grundekologi på en praktisk nivå. Uppsatsen behandlar Warwick Fox kritik rörande djupet i djupekologin och Arne Naess svar på den kritiken. Författaren till uppsatsen finner att Fox kritik inte är helt träffande och att Naess svar på kritiken är för svag.
This paper discusses Arne Naess’ theory of deep ecology. It investigates the structure of deep ecology and what conditions a theory has to fulfil to be a deep ecology. The paper demonstrates differences between deep ecology and shallow ecology on a practical level. The paper presents a criticism put forward by Warwick Fox which focuses on the deepness of deep ecology, and an answer from Arne Naess on this criticism. The author of this paper finds Fox’ criticism not quite convincing, and that Naess’ answer is too weak.
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Bower, Matthew Scott. "Ecological Reconstruction: Pragmatism and the More-Than-Human Community." Toledo, Ohio : University of Toledo, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=toledo1271349036.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2010.Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: p. 80-87.
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Talley, Edith M. "Language, Technology and the “They Self”: How Linguistic Manipulation of Mass and Social Media Distract from the Authentic Self." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2014. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/honors_theses/58.
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This thesis examines German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s concepts of being and time, the role of language in being, and ways of authentic being through the lens of modern media practices in the Information Age. It relates Heidegger’s philosophy to the media ecology theory introduced by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s by exploring McLuhan’s themes of tribal, typographical and electronic man. In addition, this thesis considers the role of mass media in information dissemination. The goal of this report is to explicate the shaping effects of mass media, especially social media, on individual perceptions and societal culture and identify ways in which such shaping affects authentic ways of being.
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Rowland, Jennifer Joy. "Conceptual Barriers to Decarbonization in US Energy Policy." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2019. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1609068/.
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In order to meet emissions targets under the UN Paris Agreement, every nation must decarbonize its energy production. The US isn't reducing energy-related emissions fast enough to meet its targets for keeping overall warming under 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This constitutes a grave injustice to the most vulnerable populations of the world, who are suffering the ill effects of climate change already. The challenge of eliminating fossil fuels from the US energy system is not simply one of technological limitations, however. The aim of this dissertation is to provide an analysis of historical, political, and, most importantly, conceptual barriers to decarbonization of energy in the US. I believe not just our policies and our markets, but our thinking has to change if we are to avoid recapitulating the injustices of the fossil fuel energy system.
I argue that energy policy in the US over time has ossified around a narrow conception of energy as fossil energy—as a substance, rather than as a service. I call this the fossil conception of energy (FCE). I follow historical traces of the FCE in three key areas: political discourse in the US, the relationships between the US dollar and OPEC oil (a complex web called the petrodollar system), and domestic energy markets. Through William Freudenburg's "double diversion" framework for analysis of society-environment relationships, I argue that the FCE grounds a privileged discourse that legitimates the supremacy of fossil fuels and contributes to the maintenance of US hegemony worldwide. I propose that one possibility for rethinking energy may be found in systems thinking, which leads me to conclude that any energy system organized around capital will recapitulate many of the injustices of the fossil fuel system.
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Pereira, Paulo Henrique Araújo Oliveira [UNESP]. "Informação e ação moral." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/136000.
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O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar a relação entre informação e ação moral. A informação é aqui entendida como o substrato que pode ser empregado por agentes para desempenhar ações morais. A ação moral, por sua vez, expressa comportamentos de agentes humanos e/ou não humanos em suas relações individuais, coletivas e com o ambiente. Os problemas centrais que direcionam a presente reflexão podem ser assim enunciados: (1) qual é a relação entre informação e ação moral? (2) A relação informacional está necessariamente limitada ao domínio da razão? (3) Quais as vantagens e desvantagens de se investigar a relação entre informação e ação moral a partir de uma perspectiva não-antropocêntrica (ainda que necessariamente antropomórfica)? Para investigar esses problemas, vamos situá-los no contexto da Ética Informacional, que propõe subsídios teóricos para o estudo de temas da Ética relacionados às novas tecnologias da informação. Num primeiro momento, tecemos um panorama geral da abordagem Ética Informacional que adotamos como fundamento para a perspectiva Ética que pretendemos delimitar. A seguir, analisamos a hipótese da Filosofia Ecológica segundo a qual a percepção está diretamente ligada à ação, dispensando mediações representacionais abstratas na captação de informação: a informação ecológica é diretamente percebida pelo organismo e constitui um elemento essencial à percepção/ação. Embora a Ética não seja objeto de investigação da Filosofia Ecológica, analisamos a relação entre informação ecológica e ação moral inspirados em alguns de seus pressupostos com o objetivo de ressaltar a interdependência entre ação, complexidade e ambiente. Por fim, apresentamos elementos que poderiam auxiliar na elaboração de uma abordagem Ética Ecológica Informacional.
The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the relationship between information and moral action. Information is understood here as the substrate that can be used by agents to perform moral actions. Moral actions, in turn, express the conduct of human and nonhuman agents in their individual, collective, and environmental relations. The main problems that guide the present reflection can be indicated as follows: (1) What is the relation between information and moral action? (2) Must informational relations necessarily be limited to the domain of reason? (3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of investigating the relation between information and moral action from a non-anthropocentric (but still necessarily anthropomorphic) perspective? To address these problems, we will situate them in the context of Information Ethics, which provides a theoretical basis for the study of ethical issues related to the new technologies of information. Firstly, we provide an overview of the Ethical Information approach that we adopt as a foundation for the Ethical perspective that we intend to elaborate. We then analyze the hypothesis of Ecological Philosophy according to which perception is directly linked to action, independent of abstract representational mediations in the acquisition of information: ecological information is directly perceived by organisms, constituting an essential element in perception/action. Although Ethics is not directly an object of investigation of Ecological Philosophy, we use some of its tenets to investigate the relationship between ecological information and moral action, aiming to highlight the interdependence among moral agency, complexity, and environment. Finally, we present elements that could help with the constitution of an Ecological Informational Ethics approach.
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Pereira, Paulo Henrique Araújo Oliveira. "Informação e ação moral /." Marília, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/136000.
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Orientadora: Maria Eunice Quilici GonzalezBanca: Leonardo Ferreira Almada
Banca: Mariana Claudia Broens
Resumo: O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar a relação entre informação e ação moral. A informação é aqui entendida como o substrato que pode ser empregado por agentes para desempenhar ações morais. A ação moral, por sua vez, expressa comportamentos de agentes humanos e/ou não humanos em suas relações individuais, coletivas e com o ambiente. Os problemas centrais que direcionam a presente reflexão podem ser assim enunciados: (1) qual é a relação entre informação e ação moral? (2) A relação informacional está necessariamente limitada ao domínio da razão? (3) Quais as vantagens e desvantagens de se investigar a relação entre informação e ação moral a partir de uma perspectiva não-antropocêntrica (ainda que necessariamente antropomórfica)? Para investigar esses problemas, vamos situá-los no contexto da Ética Informacional, que propõe subsídios teóricos para o estudo de temas da Ética relacionados às novas tecnologias da informação. Num primeiro momento, tecemos um panorama geral da abordagem Ética Informacional que adotamos como fundamento para a perspectiva Ética que pretendemos delimitar. A seguir, analisamos a hipótese da Filosofia Ecológica segundo a qual a percepção está diretamente ligada à ação, dispensando mediações representacionais abstratas na captação de informação: a informação ecológica é diretamente percebida pelo organismo e constitui um elemento essencial à percepção/ação. Embora a Ética não seja objeto de investigação da Filosofia Ecológica, analisamos a relação entre informação ecológica e ação moral inspirados em alguns de seus pressupostos com o objetivo de ressaltar a interdependência entre ação, complexidade e ambiente. Por fim, apresentamos elementos que poderiam auxiliar na elaboração de uma abordagem Ética Ecológica Informacional.
Abstract: The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the relationship between information and moral action. Information is understood here as the substrate that can be used by agents to perform moral actions. Moral actions, in turn, express the conduct of human and nonhuman agents in their individual, collective, and environmental relations. The main problems that guide the present reflection can be indicated as follows: (1) What is the relation between information and moral action? (2) Must informational relations necessarily be limited to the domain of reason? (3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of investigating the relation between information and moral action from a non-anthropocentric (but still necessarily anthropomorphic) perspective? To address these problems, we will situate them in the context of Information Ethics, which provides a theoretical basis for the study of ethical issues related to the new technologies of information. Firstly, we provide an overview of the Ethical Information approach that we adopt as a foundation for the Ethical perspective that we intend to elaborate. We then analyze the hypothesis of Ecological Philosophy according to which perception is directly linked to action, independent of abstract representational mediations in the acquisition of information: ecological information is directly perceived by organisms, constituting an essential element in perception/action. Although Ethics is not directly an object of investigation of Ecological Philosophy, we use some of its tenets to investigate the relationship between ecological information and moral action, aiming to highlight the interdependence among moral agency, complexity, and environment. Finally, we present elements that could help with the constitution of an Ecological Informational Ethics approach.
Mestre
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Gandhi, Anandi. "Rethinking Relationships: A Critique of the Concept of Progress." Toledo, Ohio : University of Toledo, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=toledo1271348502.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toledo, 2010.Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Philosophy." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: p. 79-81.
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Bell, Nathan M. "The Green Horizon: An (Environmental) Hermeneutics of Identification with Nature through Literature." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2010. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30435/.
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This thesis is an examination of transformative effects of literature on environmental identity. The work begins by examining and expanding the Deep Ecology concept of identification-with-nature. The potential problems with identification through direct encounters are used to argue for the relevance of the possibility of identification-through-literature. Identification-through-literature is then argued for using the hermeneutic and narrative theories of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, as well as various examples of nature writing and fiction.
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Coyle, Kieran. "An investigation of the role of soil micro-organisms in phosphorus mobilisation : a report submitted to fulfil the requrements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phc8814.pdf.
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Burns, Michael Edmund Reid. "Co-evolutionary relationships between environmental ethics and environmental assessment." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52735.
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Thesis (PhD) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The dissertation traces the development of environmental assessment and environmental ethics as these disciplines have evolved independently in response to the global environmental crisis. The aim is to determine the extent to which they can promote the integration of the dissociated objective and subjective spheres of human valuation of the environment. This is a necessary condition, it is argued, for arresting the pathology in the human-environment relationship. The study concludes that both disciplines were initially trapped in narrow, monistic approaches, which rendered them largely ineffective. However, their evolutionary advancement, and a common grounding in a radical conceptualization of sustainable development, greatly enhances their usefulness in environmental decisionmaking.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die verhandeling ondersoek die evolusionêre ontwikkeling van omgewingsimpakbepaling en die filosofie van omgewingsetika, na die ontstaan van die twee disiplines in reaksie tot die globale omgewingskrisis. Die studiedoelwit is om te bepaal tot watter mate hulle die integrasie van die gedissosieerde objektiewe en die subjektiewe sfere van menslikeomgewingswaardering kan bevorder. Daar word geredeneer dat sodanige integrasie noodsaaklik is om die patologie in die verhouding tussen die mens en sy omgewing te stuit. Die belangrikste gevolgtrekking is dat beide disiplines, tydens hulle aanvangsstadia, vasgeval was in 'n monistiese benadering wat hul doeltreffendheid belemmer het. Die onlangse ontwikkeling van omgewingsimpakbepaling en omgewingsetika, sowel as 'n gemeenskaplike uitgangspunt binne 'n radikale vertolking van volhoubare ontwikkeling, versterk grootliks hulle bruikbaarheid vir omgewingsbesluitneming.
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De, Villiers Tanya. "Complexity and the self." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52744.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis it is argued that the age-old philosophical "Problem of the Self' can benefit by being approached from the perspective of a relatively recent science, namely that of Complexity Theory. With this in mind the conceptual features of this theory is highlighted and summarised. Furthermore, the argument is made that the predominantly dualistic approach to the self that is characteristic of the Western Philosophical tradition serves to hinder, rather than edify, our understanding of the phenomenon. The benefits posed by approaching the self as an emergent property of a complex system is elaborated upon, principally with the help of work done by Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Paul Cilliers. The aim is to develop a materialistic conception of the self that is plausible in terms of current empirical information and resists the temptation see the self as one or other metaphysical entity within the brain, without "reducing" the self to a crude materialism. The final chapter attempts to formulate a possible foil against the accusation of crude materialism by emphasising that the self is part of a greater system that includes the mental apparatus and its environment (conceived as culture). In accordance with Dawkins's theory the medium of interaction in this system is conceived of as memes and the self is then conceived of as a meme-complex, with culture as a medium for memetransference. The conclusion drawn from this is that the self should be studied through narrative, which provides an approach to the self that is material without being crudely physicalistic.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis word daar aangevoer dat die relatiewe jong wetenskap van Kompleksiteitsteorie 'n nuttige bydra kan lewer tot die eeue-oue filosofiese "Probleem van die Self'. Met die oog hierop word die konseptueie kenmerke van hierdie teorie na vore gebring en opgesom. Die argument word gemaak dat die meerendeels dualistiese benadering van die Westerse filosofiese tradisie tot die self ons verstaan van die fenomeen belemmer eerder as om dit te bemiddel. Die voordele van dié nuwe benadering, wat die self sien as 'n ontluikende (emergent) eienskap van In komplekses sisteem, word bespreek met verwysing na veral die werke van Sigmund Freud, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett en Paul Cilliers. Daar word beoog om In verstaan van die self te ontwikkel wat kontemporêre empiriese insigte in ag neem en wat die versoeking weerstaan om ongeoorloofde metafisiese eienskappe aan die self toe te ken. Terselfdetyd word daar gepoog om geensins die uniekheid van die self te "reduseer" na 'n kru materialisme nie. In die finale hoofstuk word daar gepoog om 'n teenargument vir die voorsiene beswaar van kru materialisme te ontwikkel. Dit word gedoen deur te benadruk dat die self gesien word as deel van 'n groter, komplekse sisteem, wat die masjienerie van denke en die omgewing (wat as kultuur gekonseptualiseer word) insluit. Insgelyks, in die teorie van Dawkins word die medium van interaksie in hierdie sisteem gesien as "memes", waar die self dan n meme-kompleks vorm, en kultuur die medium van meme-oordrag is. Daar word tot die konklusie gekom dat die self op 'n narratiewe manier bestudeer behoort te word, wat dan 'n benadering tot die self voorsien wat materialisties is, sonder om kru fisikalisties te wees.
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Bolduc, Jean-Sébastien. "Epistémologie historique de l'étude du comportement animal." Thèse, Dijon, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/3257.
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Dans cette enquête nous entreprenons d’explorer la notion de comportement animal telle que l’exprime une discipline contemporaine, l’écologie comportementale. Afin de procéder à l’examen d’une notion aussi complexe, positionnée dans un contexte étroit, nous développons et utilisons un outil d’investigation : l’épistémologie historique. De façon générale, cet outil consiste à intégrer en une seule démarche les perspectives d’investigation diachronique et synchronique sur un même thème. Ainsi, pour procéder à l’examen de la notion de comportement animal, nous puisons d’abord dans l’histoire récente de l’écologie comportementale. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à sa filiation avec l’éthologie classique et, après avoir reconstitué la trame historique qui unit les deux disciplines, nous procédons à leur comparaison. Cette seconde étape de notre épistémologie contribue à mettre en évidence plusieurs différences critiques dans la conception du comportement animal qu’endosse chacune des disciplines. Ces distinctions, en faisant ressortir la spécificité de l’écologie comportementale, nous permettent ensuite de nous intéresser à la notion de comportement animal à travers les approches principales que cette discipline mobilise. Ultimement, nous élaborons deux définitions de la notion de comportement animal. La première reflète le statut ontologique du comportement dans la discipline, alors que la seconde correspond à la conception qui se dégage de la pratique des écologues.In this inquiry I undertake to explore the notion of animal behaviour as it is expounded in a contemporary field of inquiry: behavioural ecology. In order to carry out an analysis of such a complex notion, localized in a very narrow context, I design and use a specific tool of investigation called “historical epistemology”. Simply understood, this tool consists in the integration of diachronic and synchronic perspectives of investigation into a single approach to investigate a circumscribed theme. So, in order to proceed to the analysis of the notion of animal behaviour, I first draw into the recent history of behavioural ecology. I take special interest in its filiation with classical ethology and, after having reconstructed the historical frame that links the two fields together, I proceed to compare them. This comparison, the second step of my epistemology, is used to highlight the characteristics of the animal behaviour conceptions put forward by the two scientific disciplines. These distinctions, bringing to the fore the specificity of behavioural ecology, then allow me to scrutinize the notion of animal behaviour as it is instantiated in the main approaches mobilized by the discipline (especially what I identifies as the “phenotypic adaptationist”, the “phenotypic structural”, the “comparative” and the “by reduction” approaches). Last, I design two definitions of the notion of animal behaviour. The first one reflects the ontological status of the notion in this field of investigation, whereas the second corresponds to the conception underlying behavioural ecologist practices.
Projet réalisé dans le cadre d'une cotutelle avec l'Université de Bourgogne (Dijon, France)
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Benavente, Gabriel. "Reimagining Movements: Towards a Queer Ecology and Trans/Black Feminism." FIU Digital Commons, 2017. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3186.
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This thesis seeks to bridge feminist and environmental justice movements through the literature of black women writers. These writers create an archive that contribute towards the liberation of queer, black, and transgender peoples.
In the novel Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler constructs a world that highlights the pervasive effects of climate change. As climate change expedites poverty, Americans begin to blame others, such as queer people, for the destruction of their country. Butler depicts the dangers of fundamentalism as a response to climate change, highlighting an imperative for a movement that does not romanticize the environment as heteronormative, but a space where queers can flourish.
Just as queer and environmental justice movements are codependent on one another, feminist movements cannot be separate from black and transgender liberation. This thesis will demonstrate how writers, such as Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, and Janet Mock, help establish a feminism that resists the erasure of black and transgender people.
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Courter, Andrew M. "The Ecological Christology of Joseph Sittler." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1554981790012285.
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Bouchon, Marika. "'Nexial-topology' situation modelling : health ecology and other general perspectives." Thesis, View thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:3698.
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ABSTRACT: This research generated a formal method for global ‘situation modelling’ of near-critical and critical phenomena. The new paradigms and the construction of mental reality or social spaces do not explain the damaged world we leave to our children and the degeneration of health. The ‘physical’ was explored experimentally through the reputed imperfection of the body in daily living and the ecology of its health. An ‘integral’ methodology allowed combining this with a study of general perspectives in many fields. This theoretical and empirical study was framed according to a third-order logic: (1) The variety and inconsistency of perspectives on the unclear notion of ‘health’ required a generalist (meta-)classification or organising principle applicable in particular to health. The method of ‘perspectival analysis’ is based on the field- and domain-specific vocabularies, number of categories, and image types used in formulating explanation/ experience in each framework, in both scientific and human domains. This theoretical study was (2) grounded in a ‘radical empirical’ study of the effects of nutrition and healing techniques on a low-grade chronic syndrome (not life threatening but connected to stress, inflammation, swelling, tissues wasting). A ‘local-case’ experimental research design (representative of an aspect of health), and new topographic ‘gauging’ techniques were devised to observe small spatial changes (positioning, distortion, distribution). The results and concrete/ practice models led to the same conclusion as the abstract study: all our perspectives on health, body and space, have some underlying systemic form, and have in common two unifying frames – duality and polarisation –, characteristic also of point-set theory derived frameworks. Using them allows ‘circumnavigating’ the essential of all possible perspectives, without becoming lost in their details. However, they leave non-local effects, anomalies (or ’bad behaviour’) and periodical instability unexplained. (3) These were investigated by studying behaviour (irrespective of whether internal or external), and ‘not well understood’ induced health manifestations, and by mapping their topologic properties of small deformation through (a) a ‘local’ cognitive consideration of experience construction, the research process itself, and the intellectual skill of model-making, (b) etymologic studies to track forward semantic developments and perspectival shifts and inversions, (c) a graphic study of the universal symbolic forms in models, traditions, and dreams, tracing them back to ‘world-origin’ models (appearance/occurrence), and shape-icons (mental, cultural), such as tree, ladder, mountain or vortex-vertex spiral.
This thesis examines health disturbance, physical distortions and cultural deformations, their usual descriptions as timed changes, and shows how two fundamental parameters of direction and motion (or movement, energy, 'Wind') define geometries of binding, or directional activation (or active projection). These culturo-mental geometries produce generic images of locally induced phenomena, and represent boundary phenomena globally as 'natural' in the spatial-physical world, and as 'hidden' or latent in the human world. Their downside is to introduce systematic instability in our expressions, models of culture/civilisation, as well as in health manifestations. All these are found to be rooted in modelling styles derived from the 'local' geometry of observing – framing – a field in 'perspective', mostly based on vision, audition, and skin surface (touch). These geo-Metries are used to explain and justify in particular the instability and recurrent crises of health in chronic syndromes and ageing, and the ‘badly behaved’ health of childhood and adult females (eg consequences of pregnancy). The conclusion imposed itself that the ‘physical world of humans’ is shaped through critical response and boundaries, and it appears that physical integrity, including sound health, sanity and even safety, cannot be preserved but by conscious alert attention or voluntary practice or effort (eg ‘workout’). Some experiences recounted in this work (some from the literature) led to an opposite presupposition. Three possible logics rule deployments of perspective into flat, spherical, and hyperbolic geometries (a known basis of mathematics). Which is used depends on the ‘local’ state of criticality (sense of urgency, emergency, pressure) of the observing body-brain-‘system’. It correlates with this universally assumed vertical axis, with the exclusive use [instruments too] of the senses of the head and of ‘skin-encapsulated’ derived systemic definitions of ‘the world’ and ‘the observer’ (self or body). These allow localising and attributing properties to one or the other or their combination. However, they can also be considered as undifferentiated properties, ‘non-local’ but governing, of the ‘physical world of humans’ as it is apprehended in daily living, manifesting in a surface-related sense of swelling and gravity. A simple form of geometric topology ‘without hole’ (without discontinuity), here introduced through two cognitive experiments, animations, and images, can describe this. The method of ‘nexial-topology’ produces an ‘animated imaging’ that can be used to model (but not ‘represent’ in word, number, or realistic/ naturalistic images) the situation reaching ‘critical boundary’. It then shows auto-reinforcing self-organisation and auto-destruction in ‘passing’ it. Yet, it can also be used as a ‘native gauging’ expressed in gesture or body posture, related to intuition, instinct, and the rare ‘thinking in image’. As such, it describes approaching ‘critical boundary’ (versus ‘reaching’) as auto-limiting. A crucial finding is that ‘spontaneous’ behaviours (non-induced, non-intended) can ensure the integrity of health under operation in most conditions, and stop extremes. Yet, they are usually deemed meaningless, random or useless, and are systematically suppressed by enculturation and prevented by civilised lifestyles. ‘Nexial-topology’ gives a clear meaning to them, and can model the ‘ease’ of health and of daily living. It gives access to more basic options, with wider effects, more immediate than all our solutions, often ignored because too obvious. For example, ‘global warming’ could be addressed as a non-local property and a deployment into crises to ‘stop’, rather than separate problems of water, resources, heated behaviour, inflammatory and ‘water diseases’.
KEYWORDS: Interdisciplinary research, cross-disciplinary methodologies, modal logic, fundamental problem, general relativity, localisation, physicalism, geometric quantization, occurrence, appearance, extension, projection, attribution, distributed, anthropic principle, anthropomorphism, unified, unbounded, left, right, spiral, viral, genetic drift, natural, life, human nature, human pressure, limit, extreme, threshold, validity, value, critical decision making, apperception, child cognition, sense, semantic drift, Four Elements, symbolic inversion.
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