Articoli di riviste sul tema "Nature Effect of human beings on"

Human beings are so fragile and impatient that they are easily subjected on emotional basis. It is in human nature that they empathise everything that emotionally attach with them. Emotion plays a vital role in the entire world of human relationship. It is not inept to note here that our thoughts are often forms the core of our actions. It reflects the framework of our psychology greatly. There are instances in the world of living where one work affects because of the mood of a person. Deliberately, the writers across the world develop and circle their thoughts around emotional balance of human beings in various points. They successfully stress the effect of a particular crisis and it’s outcomes on human mind. The present research paper deals with the effects of such crisis on the lives of human being who are deeply engulfed in their normal life. The study is a sincere endeavour to bring to the fore a serious effect of Nepali-a politically motivated-uprising on the common man living peacefully, amicably in harmony with nature.

Man-nature relationship is one of the central themes of great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota. This relationship is both analogous and Antithetical. Nature is source of life, knowledge and pleasure foe human beings. But at the same time it is cruel and angry giving pain and suffering to human beings. Similarly, man both loves and exploits the nature. On the one hand, they worship nature as god but on the other hand, they make it the source of earning deteriorating it. Instead of enjoying its beauty and positively using nature, human beings try to get maximum profit from nature irrationally utilizing it which causes adverse effects in the ecosystem and the whole universe. Many of his poems focus on mundane elements of the human and the natural world.

<p class="IIABSBARU">Currently the development of western science has been very advanced. However, the development of western science only concerns towards big profits without any consideration about the side effects of science development itself. The western science has marginalized the aspects of metaphysics and theology so that the western science arises materialistic characteristics for human beings, ecological damage, and disharmonic situations between nature and human. This writing discussed Ziauddin Sardar thoughts about Islamic science applying descriptive analysis approach. In Sardar’s thoughts, Muslim community must not follow western science; nevertheless, Muslim community may have Islamic science, having the Islamic characteristic and value. The characteristics of Islamic science cannot be separated from the ten parameters such as <em>tawḥīd, khilāfah</em><em>, ’ibādah</em>, <em>’ilm, ḥalāl, ḥarām, ’adl, ẓulm, istiṣlāḥ</em> and <em>diyā’</em>.</p><p class="IIABSBARU" align="center">***</p>Pada era sekarang ini perkembangan sains telah mengalami kemajuan yang sangat pesat. Namun kemajuan sains hanya mengambil keuntungan sebesar-besarnya, tanpa memikirkan dampak dari perkembangan sains itu sendiri. Sains telah memarginalkan sisi metafisika dan teologi sehingga sains Barat me­nimbul­kan sifat materialistis bagi manusia, kerusakan ekologi, dan ketidak­harmonisan antara alam dan manusia. Tulisan ini mengkaji pemikiran Ziauddin Sardar tentang sains Islam dengan pendekatan analisis deskriptif. Dalam pandangan Sardar, masyarakat Muslim tidak harus mengekor sains Barat, akan tetapi masyarakat Muslim bisa memiliki sains sebagai karakteristik sains yang bercorak dan bernilai Islam yakni sains Islam. Adapun karaketeristik sains Islam tidak lepas dari sepuluh parameter yang meliputi <em>tawḥīd, khilāfah</em><em>, ’ibādah</em>, <em>’ilm, ḥalāl, ḥarām, ’adl, ẓulm, istiṣlāḥ</em> dan <em>diyā’</em>.

<p class="IIABSBARU">Currently the development of western science has been very advanced. However, the development of western science only concerns towards big profits without any consideration about the side effects of science development itself. The western science has marginalized the aspects of metaphysics and theology so that the western science arises materialistic characteristics for human beings, ecological damage, and disharmonic situations between nature and human. This writing discussed Ziauddin Sardar thoughts about Islamic science applying descriptive analysis approach. In Sardar’s thoughts, Muslim community must not follow western science; nevertheless, Muslim community may have Islamic science, having the Islamic characteristic and value. The characteristics of Islamic science cannot be separated from the ten parameters such as <em>tawḥīd, khilāfah</em><em>, ’ibādah</em>, <em>’ilm, ḥalāl, ḥarām, ’adl, ẓulm, istiṣlāḥ</em> and <em>diyā’</em>.</p><p class="IIABSBARU" align="center">***</p>Pada era sekarang ini perkembangan sains telah mengalami kemajuan yang sangat pesat. Namun kemajuan sains hanya mengambil keuntungan sebesar-besarnya, tanpa memikirkan dampak dari perkembangan sains itu sendiri. Sains telah memarginalkan sisi metafisika dan teologi sehingga sains Barat me­nimbul­kan sifat materialistis bagi manusia, kerusakan ekologi, dan ketidak­harmonisan antara alam dan manusia. Tulisan ini mengkaji pemikiran Ziauddin Sardar tentang sains Islam dengan pendekatan analisis deskriptif. Dalam pandangan Sardar, masyarakat Muslim tidak harus mengekor sains Barat, akan tetapi masyarakat Muslim bisa memiliki sains sebagai karakteristik sains yang bercorak dan bernilai Islam yakni sains Islam. Adapun karaketeristik sains Islam tidak lepas dari sepuluh parameter yang meliputi <em>tawḥīd, khilāfah</em><em>, ’ibādah</em>, <em>’ilm, ḥalāl, ḥarām, ’adl, ẓulm, istiṣlāḥ</em> dan <em>diyā’</em>.

Assumptions about what it is to be human are implicit in most philosophical reflections upon ethical and epistemological issues. Although such assumptions are not usually elaborated into a comprehensive theory of human nature, they are nonetheless influential in beliefs about what kinds of problem are worthy of consideration, and in judgments about the adequacy of proposed solutions. Claims to the effect that one should not be swayed by feelings and loyalties in the making of moral decisions, for example, presuppose that human beings are creatures whose nature is amenable to guidance by reason rather than emotion and are creatures capable of living well when they act as impartially as possible. Analogously, claims to the effect that knowledge, to merit that title, should be acquired out of independent cognitive endeavour uncluttered by opinion and hearsay, suggest that human beings are creatures who can come to know their environment through their own unaided efforts. And claims to the effect that knowledge, once acquired, is timelessly and universally true depend upon assumptions about the constancy and uniformity of human nature across historical and cultural boundaries.

The environmental issues such as deforestation, climate change, ozone layer depletion, greenhouse effect and pollution of air, water and soil rises due to unethical activity of human beings and behaviour of humankind. Environmental degradation and the deterioration of human moral values are inter-connected with each other. So, environmental revolution required a transformation in human behaviour. Virtue ethics could be used as an instrument to develop a pro-environmental behaviour. Virtue ethics is primarily concerned with what kind of people we should be, what kind of characters we should have, and how we should act. This directly develops one’s moral character as well as pro-environmental character and behaviour, i.e., wisely use the natural resources; develop the habit to preserve the nature. Virtue ethics would be built to bridge the gap between human behaviour and the needs of environment. This paper emphasizes the implications of virtue ethics to bring changes in human character and behaviour to resolve the current environmental problems.

When Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher, declared some four decades ago that man makes himself, this assertion was based on Sartre's belief that human beings do not possess an essential human nature. Man's self creation had to do with his freedom to choose the roles that he played or could play, and their attendant effects on his attitudes and responsibilities. It said nothing about his freedom to alter his biological nature.

Although many studies have suggested that nature-based activities have a healing effect on human beings, there is little research on the underlying mechanism. This study investigated the role of nature connectedness in the relationship between the perception of nature and individuals’ physical and psychological health. We recruited essential workers who participated in disease prevention and control during the COVID-19 pandemic and their family members as the subjects for this study. The stress levels experienced by this group made them an ideal sample. The results of a survey-based study showed that nature-based activities had a positive effect on alleviating state anxiety levels. The results also showed that nature-based activities affected perceived restoration via the feeling of nature connectedness. This study examined the healing effect of nature-based activities that stimulate the five senses and nature connectedness and explored the potential of nature-based treatments for people experiencing high levels of stress.

Every living being struggles for existence which but natural. However, Man is a thinking animal and therefore more than surviving on the basis of instincts he goes on analysing a situation and tries to confirm the cause of every phenomenon. To live is to struggle and to struggle does not mean any sort of misfortune. However, the fact that remains is that there are varieties in struggle. On the physical plane it is really unfortunate if the body constitution is not being normal and witnessed by others. But then when it comes to the mental plane, it is behind the screen and only those closely acquainted experience the effect of the shortcomings. Overall scenario is of some deficiency realized by one and all, with rare exceptions, if any. Those who are evolved beings do claim to be unaffected by the worldly affairs but then they are also not spared with regard to the uneasiness. In short, human existence is accompanied by sufferings and it can go without any debate. At the most we may claim that the tender or sensitive souls suffer more than any other type. By birth itself human beings are bound to experience the very need of companionship and a caretaker. As one advances in life, the need remains same but picks up a different configuration. With every phase somehow what remains common is the trust in God expecting him to be always accompanying us. Furthermore, as an add on effect, we also expect him to do justice by monitoring more of our intentions and subsequently actions. A naive mind goes with the available scriptures, word by word, expecting their performance to be cent percent. Much of the harm is done by the societal norms or conventions which have never undergone any revision. Only a meagre percentage of our population that claims to be atheistic is supposed to be exempted from such tensions. The genuine problem with people is not about the existence of God but nature of his functioning. This is because, at any rate, it does not coincide with our rather forced assumptions. Therefore it is wise to get into the historical details right from the creation so that the genuine concept can be understood and placed before the upcoming generation. This paper attempts to cover important philosophies related to this subject.

AbstractThinkers in the Zhànguó period of Chinese history debated intensely whether men were by nature “good” or “bad”. This debate has for many years been an important focus of sinological interest, but usually these properties were not attributed to men, but rather to so-called “human nature” (xìng 性) – thus, in effect, mirroring well-known (and problematic) “European” positions and discussions. The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to redirect attention to the original Zhànguó positions and to explore the reasons for their variance by offering novel and close historical readings of relevant passages, and on the other, to propose a viable historical reconstruction of the common anthropological assumptions underlying these positions by blending it with the traces of a dominant cognitive image present in the texts. This calls for a systematic rethinking of the role of hearts (in the plural), desires, and behavioural patterns in their interplay and as elements of a concept of the psychological build of human beings current in early China.

Full TextIn contemporary, North American society, what it means to be ‘human’ is often taken for granted; in other words, ‘humanness’ is usually accepted as a readily knowable, uncomplicated and stable aspect of social reality. Ivone Gebara argues that because we believe that we already know the meaning of ‘humanness,’ reflecting on this notion often appears to be of little interest, need or value. “Since we imagine that everyone already knows what a [‘human’] is, we might have the feeling that we are wasting our time on notions that are already familiar, and that we ought to be seeking solutions to the urgent problems that [currently] face us” (Gebara, 1999: 67). Like Gebara, I argue that the concept of ‘human,’ is not ‘natural,’ stable or straightforward, rather it is a culturally-specific and historical invention, one intimately implicated within contemporary, environmental problems. In other words, although the category of human is often understood as readily comprehensible and fundamentally elevated above, and detached from, nature and ‘more-thanhuman’I beings, I maintain that the human subject is positioned within what I will term ‘the web of life,’ that is, the worldwide, ecological community which encompasses both human and more-than-human subjects. I believe the term, ‘becoming’ is a useful adjective to describe the human; becoming allows us to consider the human not as a natural or stable entity, but as one which is emerging and transforming in relation to environmental and social contexts. As a being situated within an ecological web of life, the human is not distinct from nature and more-than-human animals, but exists and changes in continuous relation to them. Long before the onset of European colonization of what is now considered North America, various dualisms permeated the European, historical imagination. Within this worldview, aspects of these dichotomies were understood to exist in fundamental distinction from one another; that is, not only were divisions of each dualism conceptualized as inherently disconnected and independent, but one aspect of each dichotomy was always understood as naturally and intrinsically superior to the other. Sallie McFague argues that the primary dualism within this imagination was the conceptualization of ‘reason’ and ‘nature’ as fundamentally distinct entities, in which reason was positioned in hierarchical relation to nature. However, this dichotomy has been broadened to represent, incorporate and interconnect with multiple other dichotomies, including, spirit/body, male/female, reason/ emotion, and human/nature (McFague, 1997: 88). According to McFague, “the [reason/nature] dualism illuminates most of the other dualisms: whatever falls on the top side of a dualism has connections with ‘reason,’ and whatever falls on the bottom side is seen as similar to ‘nature’” (1997: 88). In this sense, the projection of these constructions onto seemingly-different aspects of reality, including ‘different’ bodies, functioned to hierarchically organize both European society and the universe at large. It is important to recognize that because these dualisms were constructions of a very particular and ethnocentric group within European history, namely elite, white men, such subjects were also imagined to embody the superior aspects of various dichotomies; in other words, characteristics associated with reason were presumed to adhere to white, European males (McFague, 1997: 88). Within this imagination, the rational capacities and spiritual natures of white, masculine and European humans were imagined to prevent them from being confined by or to their bodies, or influenced by emotional or sexual responses. Importantly, because such racialized and gendered subjects were the only subjects envisioned to embody these and other superior dimensions of various dualisms, white, European men were positioned as the ideal modes of humanness within a great chain of being. In this sense, as the white, European masculine subject was assumed to embody humanness, subjects who were constructed to embody the opposing dimensions of these dichotomies were regarded as his nonhuman Others. Arguably, as the human was constructed to embody whiteness, masculinity and European ancestry, his Other may be regarded as the colonized, non-white woman. Through her gendered, racialized and cultural difference from the human, she was constructed to embody characteristics he did not. According to this dualistic relationship of interconnected difference(s), because she embodied matter, or solely bodily existence, she possesses neither inherent consciousness nor spirituality allowed by such consciousness. Because she was conceptualized as the Other to the sole, normative human, she was categorized as nonhuman. In this sense, it may be recognized how there has existed a significant, conceptual connection between non-white women and nature, as both were understood as nonhuman material beings in relation to the European, white man, who was presumed to embody true humanness. Through this ideology of the normative human subject, women and nature are conceptually demoted to a subordinate position because of what they are assumed to be (Primavesi, 1991: 142). However, this connection between nature and Aboriginal women is not only ideological: because both are regarded to exist in solely material form, and therefore to lack spiritual natures or capacities for consciousness, various manifestations of colonial violence against both nature and Aboriginal women have been historically disregarded, undermined or recognized as justified. This construction of the masculine human subject as the one who alone inhabits higher realms of reason and spirit served to legitimize and stabilize future social and religious structures of subordination and dominance. Women and nature have been placed under male domination and rule by the compelling and authoritative force of this prevailing ideology (Primavesi, 1991: 142-147). Within contemporary, North American academe, this historical, European construction of the human has been greatly interrogated, denaturalized and critiqued by postcolonial, critical race and psychoanalytic theorists, including Frantz Fanon and Sylvia Wynter, among many others. Within their theories, great energy is focused on how the articulation of humanness has, and continues to affect subjects who have been historically excluded by this rigid definition at the level of social, emotional, psychic and bodily realities. These theorists are correct in their assertions that the purpose of the human construction was to reduce the modes of being, embodied by nonwhite and non-European/nonwestern subjects, in order to elevate the mode of being embodied by their cultural Others. However, it must be recognized that there exists a subtle, but continued, hierarchical and dualistic relationship between human and nonhuman within these theories. Not only do human beings continue to be understood as stably and inherently different from nonhuman beings, principally animals, but human experiences of colonial violence, and therefore, human modes of being, are essentially recognized as more significant than the modes of being and lived realities of more-than-human beings. In fact, as the conflation of racialized humans with more-thanhumans is articulated as undermining the violence experienced by such human subjects, violence against animals and nature, in such forms as human invasion, objectification, exploitation and voracious consumption, is disregarded as violence per se. Gebara calls this trend an anthropocentric “hierarchicalizing of knowing [that actually] runs parallel to the hierarchicalizing of society, [which is] itself a characteristic of the patriarchal world” (1999: 25). In this sense, within such criticism, there is an attempt to destabilize one conception of the boundary between human and nonhuman, while a second human/nonhuman dualism is (re)produced and supported; ultimately, the traditional border, employed in colonial fantasies to distinguish what counts as (a) human and what does not, is kept intact. These attempts to distinguish the human, along with having a colonial genealogy, are built on the assumption of a distinct sphere in which humans act, and blind to ideas of significant interconnection and interdependence: dimensions of each dualism are considered not only unrelated to, but to actually oppose, one another. However, each element of social reality is constructed in relation to others; in other words, every aspect of each dichotomy involves a reference to that which is supposedly opposite, distinct from, or Other to, the primary category (See Hewitt Suchocki, 1982). In this sense, all aspects of the dichotomies require reference beyond them in order to develop as intelligible categories and, therefore, cannot be understood, or even exist, outside the relationships within which they are implicated (Hewitt Suchocki, 1982: 6—7). More importantly, there are material interrelationships that are not captured by these dichotomies. As an example we can think of contemporary environmental threats, such as global warming and Colony Collapse Disorder in North America, that illustrate how humans are not ultimately separate from nature, but dependent on it for our survival, and that ‘natural’ phenomena has the potential to powerfully and disastrously affect humans. In this sense, it must be recognized that there is danger within denial: by assuming that we are not part of nature, we ultimately deny the significance of ecological problems on their own bodies and lived realities. However, I think it necessary at this point to remark on the (neo)colonial anthropo-centrism within many conceptions of human/nature relationality. Similar to the consciousness of more-than-human animals, when ecological problems are recognized as problems per se, and especially, when such issues are recognized to transcend the human/nature divide and create an impact in the lives of humans, such problems tend to be understood in human terms. In other words, nature often becomes the subject of human attention, concern, and care when humans acknowledge the fact that we are intimately related to, and ultimately dependent on, the earth for our survival and wellbeing, and that by abusing and destroying nature and more-than-human subjects, humans ultimately bring about their own destruction. Although within such types of care, the interrelatedness among all beings within the web of life is recognized, such care for nature often develops because humans fear the effects of environmental disasters on our lives, and not because we genuinely care about the lives and wellbeing of Other creatures or the earth, in and of themselves. And even within environmental concerns, the recognition of the interrelatedness of all living subjects often leads to a hierarchy of environmental issues. Within conceptions of human/ more-than-human relations, there is often a hierarchy of environmental issues and social issues, including the (neo)colonial treatment of humans outside the dominant, white, European/western man as nonhuman, strengthening the conceptual disconnect between these human and more-than-human. These aspects of environmental interrelatedness must be regarded as not only anthropocentric, but violent, contemporary manifestations of the historically-dominant, European construction of the normative and viable human subject. In this sense, it is evident that a new consciousness must emerge. Humans must begin to recognize that, as Paula Gunn Allen states, “we are the land… the land and the people are the same… The earth is the source of being of the people and we are equally the being of the earth. The land is not really a place separate from ourselves… The land is not a mere source of survival, distant from the creatures it nurtures” (Allen, as quoted in Christ, 1997: 114). Christ employs the term ‘interdependence’ in order to characterize the connection between all beings in the web of life. Yet the word interdependence must be used cautiously, for although humans are dependent on nature, animals, plants and other more-than-humans, as well as other humans for our survival, the earth is not reciprocally dependent on humans. In fact, the presence of (certain) humans on the earth has historically prevented, and continues to threaten, the flourishing and wellbeing of Others, including both human and more-than-human beings within the web of life. In this sense, concepts such as interdependence undermine the reality of power relations that exist between and among different modes of being, including human relationships and those between humans and nature. For this reason, ecofeminists’ use the notion interdependence to illustrate that humans are not separate from, but intimately implicated within, the natural world. This concept helps to demonstrate that “‘human’ beings are essentially relational and interdependent. We are tied to [‘human’ and ‘more-than-human’] Others from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Our lives are dependent in more ways than we can begin to imagine on support and nurture from the web of life, from the earth body” (Christ, 1997: 136). Because the interdependent relation between human subjects and the earth is conceptualized as so intimate, human actions can have significant, and often disastrous effects on nature. However, the agency and power of nature in creating significant phenomena in the lived realities, societies and experiences of humans must also be recognized. This concept destabilizes colonial, western (and gendered) conceptions of the earth as a passive object, to be owned, harnessed, excavated and harvested in order to increase the economic and social flourishing of humans. In other words, the notion of interdependence demonstrates that humans are also affected by more-than-human lives, and that the earth is not a passive, receptive instrument to be exploited by and for human cultures. Examples such as decreased air quality and Colony Collapse Disorder illustrate the power of the earth to violently fight back against human abuse in order to protect itself. In order for a more life-affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge and, therefore, in order to ensure the survival of all beings within the web of life, what ultimately needs to emerge is a new conception of the relationship between human and more-than-human life. McFague proposes the notion of subject-subjects relations, which encompasses a radical and life-affirming way of transforming this hierarchical relationship. According to this model, human subjects must relate to nature as a subject. While recognizing their own intrinsic relation to Other subjects, grounded in their interconnection within the web of life, human subjects must recognize morethan- human subjects’ own intrinsic value and right to live, quite apart from human interests and lives. In other words, we must recognize the otherness of morethan- humans, yet simultaneously feel a connection and recognize an affinity with such subjects. This connection “underscores both radical unity and radical individuality. It suggests a different, basic sensibility for all our knowing and doing and a different kind of know-ink and doing… It says: ‘I am a subject and live in a world of many other different subjects’” (McFague, 1997: 38). According to McFague, this will involve “the loving eye [as well as] the other senses, for it moves the eye from the mind (and the heavens) to the body (and the earth). It will result in an embodied kind of knowledge of other subjects who, like ourselves, occupy specific bodies in specific locations on this messy, muddy, wonderful, complex, mysterious earth” (Mc Fague, 1997: 36). Practicing this type of relationship will implicitly and explicitly embody a radical challenge to what it has historically meant to be both a human and nonhuman subject. It will require an erosion of the imagined boundary, grounded in the perception of difference, between human and nature, and the other, interconnected dichotomies within the European, colonial, historical imagination. It will also involve re-valuing the both sides of classic western dualisms as significant and worthy in and of themselves. This type of relationship will necessitate the erosion of concepts such as intrinsic inferiority and superiority, and potentially end the embodied and lived power relations that such concepts sanction. Perhaps most importantly, the subject-subjects relationship will allow a new understanding of the relations between all beings within the web of life to emerge; the human, that is, the normative, white, European man of the (neo)colonial imagination, and the human of the human/nature dichotomy, and his wellbeing, subjectivity, knowledge and mode of being, will be displaced of from the dominant center. Beginning to recognize and relate to more-thanhumans as subjects will inevitably represent a strong challenge to the coherence of the traditional, anthropocentric, colonial paradigm. The fantasy of humans as the sole, normative subjects within the universe has historically, and continues to provide powerful senses of security and identity to many of us; we are therefore deeply attached to this conception of humanness. However, in order for a more life affirming, harmonious relationship between the natural world and human beings to emerge, we must begin to practice such models within all of our relationships, including relationships with more-than-human beings and other human subjects. Such an endeavor is crucial for the flourishing, and ultimately, the survival of all beings within the web of life. Bibliography Christ, Carol P (1997). Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. California, Massachusetts and New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing. Gebara, Ivone (1999). Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Hewitt Suchocki, Marjorie (1982). “Why a Relational Theology?” In God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology. New York: Crossroad Publishing, 3-11. McFague, Sallie (1997). Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Primavesi, Anne (1991). From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. i The term, ‘more-than-human’ will be used in place of the term, ‘nonhuman’ in certain areas within this paper. For a number of reasons, I believe the former term is more appropriate. Firstly, nonhuman carries connotations of difference from an explicitly human norm, and a related sense of deficiency and deviance. For this reason, I will employ nonhuman in areas in which I describe traditional, colonial human perceptions of more-than-humans. However, I believe that more-than-human conveys a sense that there literally exists significantly more than simply human realities in the world. More-than-human is also more comprehensive than related terms, such as animals or nature, as it can encompass many diverse expressions of realities, experiences and subject(ivitie)s that transcend traditional constructions of humanness.

There is a tendency to communicate with nature in human beings as a set of emotional experiences. This study investigates the impact of organic architecture in creating cultural spaces for children. The concepts of nature, naturalist architecture and children educational psychology, from the perspective of scholars and researchers in this area are investigated. The children’s perception of nature and their feelings were assessed and one hundred forty respondents among the instructors of cultural centres in different regions of Tehran have answered the questionnaires. To investigate the hypotheses, Univariate T - test and F - test were applied. The results showed that the stimulation of the natural environment has a positive and meaningful effect on curiosity, participation, and fantasy in children, while they show their impressions of nature indirectly. Therefore, designing applicable spaces according to children’s physics, using appropriate colours and furniture as well as more environmentally-related spaces, can have positive effects on social participation, intuitive and verbal skills of the children.

This article argues that the artificiality of Hobbesian states facilitates their coexistence and eventual reconciliation. In particular, it is suggested that international relations may be characterised by an artificial equality, which has a contrary effect to the natural equality of human beings. Unlike individuals in Hobbes’s account of the state of nature, sovereigns are not compelled to wage war out of fear and distrust, but have prudential reasons to exercise self-restraint. Ultimately rulers serve as disposable figureheads who can be replaced by a foreign invader. Thus, this article highlights the implications of Hobbes’s views on sovereignty by acquisition, which allow for states to be decomposed and reassembled in order to re-establish lasting peace. It is concluded that these findings help to explain why Hobbes does not provide something akin to modern theories of international relations, as foreign affairs appear to be reducible to a matter of either prudence or political philosophy.

Few issues have been as divisive for the contemporary church as the doctrine of irresistible grace. In the debates surrounding this doctrine, there has been an overwhelming tendency for theologies of grace to focus on the effects that grace has on particular human beings. Alongside this tendency, there has arisen a danger that we forget that God’s grace is God’s grace; that it is God’s free, personal, and beneficent disposition and action. In this article, I turn to Karl Barth to consider a way forward for interpreting the irresistible nature of grace that does not focus on its effectuality but on its theocentric, participative, and covenantal character.

Artificial radionuclides are product of different human activities and their presence in the environment is negative side effect of civilization progress. They have been spread in the environment by events such as nuclear weapon tests, nuclear accidents and by deliberate and negligent discharge of radioactive waste from nuclear and other installation. Once released in to the nature, the artificial radionuclides start to circle in the same manner as naturally occurring ones, and finally they fall out from air and water onto the ground and build into the foodstuff and drinking water resulting in radiation doses to human beings. The short overview of presence of artificial radioactivity in human environment and its impact on human life is presented in this paper

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has emerged as the latest and serious public health threat throughout the world. In the absence of prevention and rehabilitation interventions, different countries have implemented shutdown and/or lockout policies to monitor the transmission of the epidemic, resulting of a significant reduction in anthropogenic activities. As a result, this kind of phenomenon is helped to inhibit the environmental degradation activity by reducing various pollutants from the air, water and soil. This condition provided ‘a once-in-a-lifetime’ chance for nature to evolve and recover. This paper discusses the nature of which in terms of its beneficial effect on water, air, the ozone layer, and waste deposition. Finally, the article also presents certain suggestive measures by highlighting the role of government, educational institutes, and a person as a whole in the sustenance of nature under pandemic. Based on the reported effect of the pandemic on the environment, it can be inferred that nature, with or without human intervention, can repair itself to some degree. However, human beings need to aware of saving and supporting to nature instead of involving in constant degradation.

Innumerable mountains, trees, rivers, lakes, flowers, leaves, animals, birds or humans are just part of this nature. Man has expressed his aesthetic experience through art. According to Rabindranath Tagore - “The artist is Prakriti Parmi. Therefore, he has a slave as well as a lover. "Artists bring out the tones prevailing in nature and their effect, making the subtle study of abstract expressive object effected by the diversity of its effects. In this way, pictures and life come alive with the attraction of colors. Color has an important place in human life. Human attraction to colors has never decreased. That is why, from primitive cave dwellers to modern humans, color has taken advantage in the development of beauty.The colors have immense power to evoke the mental emotions of human beings. This wonderful world of colors is seen from the color arrangement of rooms to the color scheme of flowers and plants in gardens. Our nature is covered with colors. Wherever our vision falls in nature, it is situated with some color. On the one hand, the inner life of man is derived from the result of the external world, on the other hand, according to his mentality, the human being accepts the outer world, so the vision and The creation (nature) cannot be divided. Our sensitivities and human consciousness are directly related to the combination of colors. असंख्य पहाड़, पेड़, नदियां, झीलें, फूल-पत्तियां, पशु-पक्षी अथवा मानव मात्र इस प्रकृति के अंग है। मानव ने अपनी सौन्दर्यानुभूति को कला के माध्यम से व्यक्त किया है। रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर के अनुसार - “ कलाकार प्रकृति पे्रमी है। अतः उसका दास भी है और प्रेमी भी। ” कलाकार प्रकृति में व्याप्त रंगतों को एवं उनके प्रभाव को फलक पर उतारते हैं, अमूर्त अभिव्यंजनावादी वस्तु का सूक्ष्म अध्ययन का उसके प्रभावों का तूलिकाघातों के वैविध्य से प्रभावपूर्ण बनाते हैं। इस प्रकार रंगों के आकर्षण से चित्र और जीवन सजीव हो उठते हैं। मानव जीवन में रंग का महत्वपूर्ण स्थान है। रंगों के प्रति मानव का आकर्षण कभी घटा नहीं है। इसलिए तो आदिम गुहावासियों से लेकर आधुनिक मानव तक ने सौन्दर्य के विकास में रंग का सहारा लिया है।रंगों में मानव की मानसिक भावनाओं को उद्वेलित करने की असीम षक्ति निहीत है। रंगों का यह अद्भुत संसार कमरे की रंग व्यवस्था से लेकर बाग-बगीचों में फूल-पौधों की रंग योजना तक में देखा जाता है। हमारी प्रकृति रंगों से सरोबार है। हमारी दृष्टि प्रकृति में जहां कही भी पड़ती है वह कोई न कोई रंग लिए स्थित है।एक ओर मनुष्य का आंतरिक जीवन बाह्य जगत के परिणाम से निष्पन्न्न होता है तो दूसरी ओर मनुष्य अपनी मनोवृत्ति के अनुसार बाह्य जगत को ग्रहण कर लेता है अतः दृष्टि व सृष्टि (प्रकृति) का विभाजन नहीं किया जा सकता है। हमारी संवदनषीलता और मानवीय चेतना का सीधा सम्बन्ध रंगों के संयोजन से है।

How may one imagine that the largest harm done to the environment is due to the act of humankind! Global warming is the outcome of environmental degradation of certain activities of human beings, who ostensibly portray themselves as guardians of the Earth. The activities are anti-nature resulting in global warming, which has adversely affected the lives of all human beings. These deleterious effects due to climate change, from a legal perspective, have arguably infringed the inalienable rights of all humans. Climate change is one of the most difficult challenges confronted by International Law; arguably, the larger part of the change is attributed to human activities, relevant Human Rights Law and principles could be used as tools to critique the activities and thus cope with the challenge - to contain climate change for the survival of all. The various human activities since the First Industrial Revolution in the 19th century have paved the way for the destruction of the earth. These activities include deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, the burgeoning global population, and manufacturing of luxurious items. All these human activities have indubitably, for the comfort of some compromised the natural legal rights of all. This study criticizes the aforementioned human activities with the aid of human rights law. It also provides some useful recommendations to deal with this quandary. Keywords: Human Rights, Human Activities, Climate Change, Global Warming, Liberal Critique, International Human Rights Law, International Environmental Laws.

Abstract. This paper discusses five areas where psychologists have roles in helping to address climate change, its effects on the planet and human beings, these five areas are as follows: (1) Changing human behaviors that are causing climate change. (2) Increasing human connection with nature in positive ways to heal both the planet and human beings. (3) Advising and assisting on leadership for good governance to protect the planet. (4) Providing support and psychological interventions for those affected by climate change. (5) Preparing for bad outcomes and helping adaptation and survival should these occur. This paper considers the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and how responses to it give insights for responses to climate change.

The relationship between nature and architecture is ancient and has differed in different architectural schools or urban cultures in order to achieve urban prosperity. Analysis of the concept of relationship comes through two main concepts: harmony and contradiction developed with the development of the concept of sustainable urban development. This overlap generated new trends in the field of urban design and environmental design together. Hence, the research aims to develop relationships at times in harmony and at times in contradiction according to a range of positive impacts on nature and the environment built on both negativity on the natural environment first, then on human beings secondly, then it examined the effect of one on the other, which appears outwardly, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in opposition, and combines them under the concept of inclusiveness in achieving goals of urban sustainability.

This study aims to show the fictional and philosophical engagement of Aldous Huxley and Somerset Maugham in unveiling human behavior in relation to capital. Huxley in his sarcastic essay Selected Snobberies has described the nature, utility, types and sources of snobbish attitude in people. Most often snobbery stems out from an individual’s socio-economic situation and his consumerist nature. In the short story The Ant and the Grasshopper, Somerset Maugham has deconstructed the age old story of Aesop that is universally used worldwide to teach children the basic morality and work ethics. He reveals the peculiar desire of human beings to indulge in consumption in contrast with learned behavior of self-denial. This study focuses on the degenerative tendency that is outgrown in human nature through the analysis of George Ramsay from Maugham’s The Ant and the Grasshopper. In addition, this study analyses the changing nature of the idealistic tenets pertaining to the changing mode of time and situation. The binary existence of ethical tenets and the allurement of the consumerist world leads to question the value of its palpability, its effect on making people happy or snobbish. Now the fundamental question is how far a human being is capable of learning self-denial. Considering the reality of truth as not one and universal but multifaceted as Chakraborty (2020) claims, both Huxley and Maugham in these two literary pieces are interestingly inquisitive of the modernist ethics and redefine the means of success.

In this article, I examine a persistent set of concerns regarding the political party system in Myanmar that I read as emerging in response to a Theravāda Buddhist-grounded conception of human nature as inherently self-centred, biased, and morally ignorant. Although these critiques come from political actors anchored in different ideologies and situated in different historical periods (including the early twentieth-century politician U Ba Khaing, contemporary military leaders, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy), I argue that the resonance of their critiques with this understanding of human beings has imparted a consistent disciplining and delegitimising effect on opposition and minority parties. However, the same conception of human nature has led other Burmese political commentators (including the independence hero General Aung San and the nineteenth-century minister U Hpo Hlaing) to construct opposing arguments that present collective, participatory political action or engagement as the necessary response to human moral deficiencies. Putting these arguments in conversation helps to reveal the disciplining aspects of the critiques of parties and offer alternative justification – still in accordance with this conception of human nature – for a robust and inclusive party system.

Environmental sustainability focuses on protecting environmental resources such as water, land, forests and biodiversity, among others. The relationship between human beings and nature is essential. Human beings need a healthy productive life without undermining the environmental needs of present and future generations. Social communities ought to develop their economy making intellectual decisions pertaining to the management of their natural resources so as not to compromise the needs of future generations. The study sought to establish the effectiveness of the approach used in teaching environmental education in secondary schools in Kenya by investigating the cognition of first year university students about environmental concerns and their effects. Qualitative research methodology was used. The techniques used to generate data were interviews and audio-recording. Findings revealed that respondents lacked cognition about how human beings negatively affect the environment and the challenges experienced by them as a result of the negative effects. The approach used in teaching environmental education in secondary schools in Kenya is not effective. It goes against the principle of using the preventive approach to protect the environment through education. It is essential to develop appropriate policies and reform the curriculum in basic education to enable learners to move from nature appreciation and awareness to education for an ecologically sustainable future. Environmental Education can be used as a context of integration for learning with other subjects including English Language Teaching.

paper uses a completely innovative point of view to analyze The Change of Zhou - a comprehensive ancient Chinese philosophical work, which is composed of well-known Book of Change and its philosophical commentaries, so called The Commentaries of Change. The chapters of The Commentaries of Change like ?Jicizhuan?, ?Tuanci? and ?Xiangci? are quoted in this paper and their meaning is explained, which is important for understanding the ancient Chinese cosmological concept of ?the Unity of Heaven and Man?. According to the Chinese perception of the Universe - Heaven, Earth and man are holistically connected and interdependent. Man is considered to be responsible for all his actions and it is emphasized that even the most trivial human activity causes the changes in the whole cosmic order. A human being is born not to indulge in carefree pleasures, but to choose himself a goal of spiritual growth i.e. self-cultivation through the stages of honest man (junzi), and wise man (shengren). He should also endeavor to establish and maintain harmony with nature and thus have a beneficial effect on all the beings and things in nature.

The change of the idea of nature (cosmos) in the sense attributed to knowledge resulted in a change from organic nature understanding to mechanical nature understanding. Until the 17th century, humanity aimed to understand the order of nature and live in harmony with it. Science carried out for this purpose; He acted with the principles of wisdom and virtue in order to understand the precious nature. For those times, science was a work on "discovering the secret of the natural order". This made the attitude of the scientists of the period an environmental (ecological) attitude. In the study, three main parameters were emphasized in the emergence of the understanding of mechanical nature. The first of these is humanism, which is one of the main elements on which modernity is based. This idea developed the understanding of putting man instead of god at the center of the universe, and man, who is the determinant of everything, had the right to unlimited use of nature. The relationship between society and the cosmos has changed, with human being placed in the center within the framework of the modern worldview and developing an understanding that can control nature. With the phrase "knowledge is power", quoting Bacon, having this power was seen as having the power to solve all the secrets of nature and to bring it under human domination. The effect of positivism and capitalism in the change of knowledge and understanding of nature about nature has also been the other parameters discussed within the framework of the study. In this context, the semantic change that knowledge has undergone has also abolished an organic understanding of science, and science has turned to the aim of acquiring knowledge that can solve the secrets of nature and dominate it with the power gained by human beings. With this change, the society acted very bravely at the point of exploitation of natural resources. But man's relationship with nature brought his own disaster at the last point. Keywords: Sociology of knowledge, Sociology of science, Society, Organic nature, Mechanical nature

In the essay, I offer multli-factor approach to the analysis of nature condition and the impact of human activity on the environment. Its detrimental effect on flora and fauna of the Earth is exemplified, the consequences of the effect are analyzed, measures are offered to prevent ecological disaster and the possible human population extinction. Language problems are considered from the angle of language purism as one of the patterns of Human-Language interaction that has a long history and demonstrates the multitude of positions that at times turn out opposite. The paper evaluates language purism in general, discusses closely connected issues of bilingualism, and insists on the necessity of status and structural change of educational programs that focus on nature and language.

Environmental issues such as deforestation, climate change, ozone layer depletion, greenhouse effect, and pollution of air, water, and soil are among the most difficult to address. These are the results of human beings’ immoral actions. Humans are the most powerful living beings on the planet, and they have abused their physical and mental abilities to fulfill their greed rather than their needs, resulting in environmental destruction. They have abused nature and exploited it for their own economic gain, giving them control over it. Furthermore, environmental degradation and human moral decline are intertwined, necessitating a moral revolution to reform human conduct for the sake of society, with a focus on Aristotelian Virtue Ethics rather than consequentialist or deontological ethics. The main focus of Aristotelian Virtue Ethics is, on what type of persons we should be, what kind of characteristics we should have, and how we should act. This leads to the development of one’s character and environmental attitudes; resulting in the smart use of natural resources and, more particularly, the preservation of the natural environment, ensuring environmental sustainability.

This survey was aimed at introducing the effect of light organochlorinated compound emissions on the environment, particularly on water, air, soil, biota and human beings. The characteristics and advantages of liquid phase catalytic hydrodechlorination as a technology for degrading these chlorinated compounds is also outlined and the main catalysts used in the hydrodechlorination process are described. Special emphasis is placed on palladium catalysts, their activity, the nature of active species and deactivation. The effect of several parameters is introduced, such as HCl, solvent, base addition and type of reducing agent used. The main results of kinetic studies, reactors used and the most important survey conclusions are presented.

Development and spread of digital technologies over all spheres of public life boost formation of a new civilizational paradigm. The very logic of political, economic and cultural processes is changing under the influence of digital technologies. The main categories of culture are undergoing transformation as a result of the rapid rearrangement of the entire way of life. In some societies, the technological component has already begun modifying the civilizational values. Various digital products acquire subjective characteristics and, among other things, influence certain cultural categories overcoming their own “natural” boundaries (in the sense of being within the framework of traditional concepts of human nature), and embrace the entire space of the technosphere. The challenges in communication and cooperation, rivalry and competition between humans and artificial subjects of various kind, be they androids or operating systems, proceed from the field of sci-fi predictions to the social and cultural spheres, turning them into the subject of legal regulation. Thus, human nature is changing: humans integrate technologies into the methods of communication, living their own corporeity and turning themselves from Homo sapiens into “inforgs” and cyborgs. At the same time, the sociocultural space is rapidly expanding primarily in two directions: firstly, spreading into a virtual, digital area and, secondly, integrating artificial subjects into human culture. Such convergence causes tectonic changes in society, even without so much as prospects for a literal, physical expansion of horizons, which should soon be disclosed to humanity in connection with a new round of global plans for outer space exploration. However, so far, the multilevel deployment of the Ecumene does not effectively contribute to solution of global problems. Instead, these problems multiply, acquire an even larger scale and superimpose on one another, posing challenges to humanity, the price of which is the survival of civilization and human beings themselves. Is it possible that its essence lies in a parasitic nature destructive to everything around it? Will human beings, thanks to new opportunities, be able to preserve the best of themselves, getting rid of their own toxic origin? Or is the destructive charge so strong that the cumulative effect, enhanced by technologies, will destroy humanity and its dreams? Nowadays, the minds of politicians and scientists, artists, writers and filmmakers are occupied with these questions. The following article analyzes the ideas, expressed by great thinkers and supported by examples from modern movies and TV series, on the scenarios of the human future in terms of our ambiguous nature.

The field of psychology in general, and clinical psychology in particular, has historically focused on the things that go wrong in human behavior and functioning. Similarly, evangelical theology has traditionally highlighted the problem of sin and its wide-ranging consequences for human beings. Not surprisingly, this state of affairs has led to integrative efforts that concentrate on the darker side of human nature and tend to neglect what is admirable and noble in human nature. A case is made in this article that a more complete view is needed that celebrates humans’ positive features as creatures who bear the image of God, while simultaneously recognizing the pervasiveness of sin and its effects. After reviewing the one-sidedness of past integrative efforts, we suggest several possibilities for relating the image of God to findings within positive psychology, before concluding with some cautions for this new endeavor.

Islam prohibits human beings from destructing the environment which can provide detrimental effects on their lives and other creatures. The primary sources of Islamic teachings are Al Qur’an and Al Hadist as well as ijtihad (Fiqh). Fiqh as an Islamic jurisprudence is applied based on the development of the community in the context which derives from the authentic dalils from Islamic sources. In the Fiqh, so-called Fiqh Siyasah, the government plays a vital role in designing policy to align with and capitalize on environmental sustainability. So does Fiqh of the environment. It describes how Islam governs environmental management, so that it can be maintained and preserved from the destruction which can be harmful to human beings and other creatures in this world. This article aims to elaborate some Islamic principles concerning the guidance of environmental management issues which have to be followed by human beings to preserve their dignity and integrity as well as to protect nature and other creatures as a sign that they are indeed the best creation of all.

Much recent anthropological theory demonstrates a concern to defend indigenous ontologies against allegedly singular and oppressive colonial or modernist settlements. These Western settlements are said to rely upon conceptual separations such as that between nature and culture or between nature and beliefs. Such conceptual separations are held to be at the heart of the malign effects that Western modernity is perceived as creating as they are relentlessly imposed upon non-Western indigenous peoples. De la Cadena, for example, argues that a distinction between (scientific) truth and (cultural) belief has been at the heart of modernist projects to disallow or marginalise the everyday and ritual relations with non-human ‘earth beings’ (such as living sacred mountains) that she describes as being central to Latin American ‘indigenous’ ways of being. The moves to protect the tubuan, a ritual figure and non-human actor held to be of great importance by many of Tolai people in Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain Province, could easily be read through this framing, in which a modern Western ontology imposes a separation between a ‘natural’ order and ‘cultural beliefs’, which are relegated to a secondary order of importance. Although this framing looks very much like the perspective sometimes adopted by certain Tolai, it is far from the only perspective that can be advanced. In particular, this framing tends to most often be strongly rejected by those who are severely critical of the emerging postcolonial indigenous elite in Papua New Guinea. In simply advancing a framing that celebrates non-human agency as a rejection of colonial ontological imperialism, anthropology risks not only deliberately flattening out the ethnographic richness of the shifting perspectives of the people we work with but, in particular, silencing subaltern perspectives in a world of rapidly increasing socio-economic inequality.

Keeping aside discussions about theories of depiction of photography and the epistemic value of photography from the viewer’s perspective, I reconsider this techne from the photographers’ entire act of photographing. It presents the quest of the possibility to regain the world by the art of photography, especially in a situation where human consciousness of the living environment is overwhelmed by the photographic effects. The nature of the current technological environment—while disguising the manifestation of pure humanity, in the sense that it is the externalization of technology due to human nature—is completely destructive. Today, trying to save or regenerate philosophy should be nothing more than seeking a way for human beings to refuse being incorporated as an automaton in an endless track of automated reproduction processes. As one of those who wish to find a way to reconstruct the relationship between humans and nature or to reveal that human existence can only be established in such correlation, I seek a way of breathing human freedom, momentarily disputing this automated living and social environment. In other words, to regain or to play the art of photography, to unsettle what usually works as concrete support for the cognitive transformation making us unconsciously think of the technological environment as something inevitable and natural. It would be presenting a temporary retreat and a more positive way forward.

Numerous countries actively consider the human settlement environment and have implemented rural governance strategies to ameliorate the living conditions of rural dwellers. The construction of a rural human settlement environment is an important goal of China’s rural revitalization strategy and improving farmers’ well-being is a key element of China’s policies on agriculture, farmers, and villages. However, whether a rural human settlement environment enhances farmers’ well-being remains untested. By adopting the method of random stratified sampling, this study investigated 1002 farmers inside and outside six nature reserves in Liaoning, China. OLS and ordered probit regression models were used to assess the impact on the well-being and the satisfaction of farmers with their settlement environment around nature reserves from three aspects: the natural ecological environment, the hardware facility environment, and the daily governance environment. The results of this study proved that the construction of a human settlement environment can significantly boost the well-being of farmers. Moreover, the satisfaction towards the natural ecological environment, hardware facility environment, and daily governance environment exerts a substantial impact on the well-being at the significance level of 1%, with a positive sign, showing a stable enhancement role. Among them, the satisfaction with the hardware facility environment was the most essential for improving happiness, with a coefficient of 0.126. A heterogeneity analysis suggests that the positive effect of satisfaction with the human settlement environment on farmers’ well-being within nature reserves was more significant in the natural ecological environment, with a coefficient of 0.244; the hardware facility environment had the greatest positive effect on the well-being of farmers outside nature reserves, with a coefficient of 0.224; and the daily governance environment had a greater enhancing effect on the well-being of farmers both inside and outside nature reserves. Based on these results, it is recommended that governments encourage farmers around nature reserves to participate in wildlife accident insurance, strengthen ecological environmental protection, and enhance the hardware facility environment. Furthermore, local governments should disseminate knowledge of human settlement management to farmers and improve the efficiency of human settlement environment management at the grassroots level. Finally, governments should prioritize human settlement environment development and identify the farmers’ needs of human settlement environment to enhance their well-being.

The present age is the time for increasing environmental awareness and paying attention to the role of human connection with nature which can improve the quality of human life as well as preserving nature. Many factors contribute to the success of environmental projects, programs and the conservation of natural resources. Manpower is one of the most important ones and given the effect of human beings on their environment, in general, one of the most important measures to solve environmental problems is the development of natural resources and the promotion of public culture in this field, which, in turn, requires education about man's connection to nature and the environment. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the components affecting design in order to develop awareness and gain experience from nature. The present project is an educational-cultural complex with the approach of developing awareness and gaining experience from nature, which is formed with the aim of fulfilling two main missions: 1. Sensitizing people to nature and finding a view seeking the meaning of nature and natural phenomena 2. Raising the level of environmental literacy of people through education and preventing the indiscriminate destruction of the environment. This descriptive-analytical study addresses issues such as identifying design components in order to develop knowledge and gain experience from nature, investigating the relationship between humans and nature using the observation technique, field and library studies, methods of promoting and teaching environmental issues, sustainable architecture and green architecture, design bed studies, how the project is formed and the presentation of the physical plan. As a result, after identifying design components in order to develop knowledge and gain experience from nature, we achieve the necessity to build a cultural-educational complex in line with the research objective, and also the results show that environmental awareness and education have a direct and indirect effect on urban livability components of sustainability.

Contemporary Western thinkers recognise the destructive effects of long-standing attitudes of mastery over nature and the dualistic and hierarchical thinking that informs them. Heraclitus’ metaphysical position is ideal for reframing these traditional stances for several reasons: first, Heraclitus’ concept of identity is dynamic and relies on a sophisticated understanding of opposites that recognises ambiguity; secondly, his philosophical position produces a model of truth as multiple rather than univocal; and finally, in Heraclitus’ self-making kosmos, human beings are not separate from the processes of physis but inextricably entangled in them. Heraclitus’ philosophy offers relevant avenues for reimagining contemporary philosophical issues, particularly theories of identity, the multiplicity of truth, and the proper ethical human relation to nature.

COVID-19 has proved to be a threatening pandemic for all human beings. Cases of COVID-19 reported globally till 13th April 2020 are 17, 73,084, out of which 1, 11,652 have died. While in India, greater than 9000 positive cases and 308 deaths are reported. People in many countries, all over the world, are locked down to their houses, and policies are implemented to avoid the spread of corona virus. But looking at this scenario, in other perspective reveals different knowledge. As, the roads are not crowded, and the malls, transport, institutes, and industries are closed, there is significant improvement in the climate. The present study intends to review these positive changes in climate, and the lessons human should learn from the pandemic, COVID-19. The data related to the effect of human interactions on nature, and the results of lockdown was collected from international newspapers, scholarly articles from peer reviewed journals, and WHO database. The data showed that, after lockdown, there is improvement in the quality of air, the green house gas emission has significantly reduced, and amount of industrial wastes poured in rivers has dropped down, making the water clearer. The nature heals itself, with less human interactions, and worsens with more. So, we must make policies not to damage it further, with our interactions.

Narrative is an important means of structuring and giving meaning to experience. While the resulting framework is incomplete because human beings choose only particular aspects to remember, narratives often persist and influence behaviour, often to poor effect. Considering this, the example of the Luo of Kenya is a cautionary one, particularly given African neopatrimonial understandings of state and society. Luo lore establishes the group as once elite and now in abject poverty, victim of a powerful and jealous Kikuyu enemy. This article explores the nature of this elite status, and the means by which group members have responded to particular indicators at the expense of others. This re-examination invites questioning of Luos' conclusion that they were, as respondents say, ‘put out in the cold' from a position of prominence, a stance that has helped shape Kenya into ethnic rather than policy interests.

As a subset of political theory, postcolonial critique exists to examine the fundamental disparity in the asymmetrical power relations between the actors involved in colonial and imperial interaction. Part of this examination includes the assumption that the totalizing nature of imperial practice and its effects are necessarily problematic. This paper examines the notion that there can be a ‘universal history’ for human beings, as sketched in the political writings of Immanuel Kant. In addition, the historical context of Kant’s political theory, centered within 18th century European imperialism, forms a substantial portion of the examination. The paper begins with a consideration of the friction between Kant’s ideas of human freedom and natural necessity. Kant’s solution to this conflict is to sketch a model of historical development that is then applied universally to human beings and human societies. This paper considers Kant’s writings, in their historical context, in order to evaluate the degree to which Kant is subject to the problems inherent to the discourse of imperialism.

The evolution of media system had an impact on human forms of communication and the relationship between human beings and reality (Schmidt,2013). In addition, the relationship between the media and human beings has undergone changes. Human beings have become an instrument of the media, rather than its goal, which is opposite to deontological ethics based on the respect of human dignity. After transition from communicativeness to mediality, one can talk about the mediatization of mind, which consists of the development of new tools: computers (Hudzik, 2018) and technocentrism (Krämer, 1989). The medial turn means that the form is more important than the content, which is reflected in the media aesthetics, also called (after the media turn occurred) the aesthetics of excess. (Lipovecki, Seroa 2013). The author explains the medial turn phenomenon and explores the nature of the corresponding media aesthetics. A descriptive method is used. Given that visual culture is widespread, due to the development of technologies and possibilities of manipulating and using different effects, the focus of media contents is more on the image, which goes in favor of the hypothesis that contemporary society is the society of images, not of the text (Mirzoef, 1983). This is also the main hypothesis in the paper, which is confirmed in the conclusion.

The author claims that the concept of human rights arose on European soil as a result of certain cultural, political, and economic factors. Its primary base is formed by Christian ideas, secularized with the dissolution of feudalism and the spread of capitalism. In particular, this concept synthesized the Christian ideas of God’s likeness of man and the omnipresence of God: being god-like, man, like God, may be present in all things, though not in all at once. The main beneficiary was the bourgeoisie, who used personal rights to destroy feudal institutions, political rights to establish control over the state, and economic and social rights to mitigate class contradictions and distract their opponents. The religious origin of rights is the key to understanding their important features such as the absence of logical basis for human rights; helplessness of the law in front of acts that undermine the foundations of order and are marked as acts of self-realization; extraordinary diversity of rights, etc. There are several directions of human rights criticism (conservative, moderateliberal, Marxist and Christian). All of them assume that human rights neither adequately reflect human nature, nor take into account some of its aspects. Indeed, man is not only an individual seeking to choose, but also a member of a collective who needs a recognition (conservatism); a being alienated from labor and racial life (Marxism); a believer seeking to avoid sin (early Christianity) and obedient to divine will (Islam); a being who suffers from constant suffering and seeks to be saved from it (Buddhism); a victim of civilization, oppressed by the flow of information and the need for constant choice This inadequacy entails a destructive effect: the concept of rights creates a monochrome picture, on which, the human existence is reduced to act of will; gives rise to logical contradictions; destroys reality, monopolizing the axiological basis of cooperation; is used as a tool of submission and domination; creates an absolute justa causa; alienates from existence and forms the basis for other levels of the mythological structure. The history of human rights is not complete: It seems that today humanity is on the eve of fundamental transformations, whose content and final result are difficult to predict.

These days environmental issues are among the most commonly reported ones in the world. The dangerous effects of the environmental problems, which are as old as the history of humanity, began to be felt more profoundly after the Industrial Revolution. In former times the environmental problems were felt only at a local level with the destruction of forests in order to facilitate hunting places and clear lands for farming areas. After the Industrial Revolution the extent of the problem rose and reached the catastrophic disaster level with the extensive fossil fuel use. Nowadays, when environment problems come into question, many people prefer using the term environmental disaster in place of the term environmental problems. This term, environmental disaster, may be remarkable enough to discern the severity of the problem. The role of literature in reaching the public cannot be denied. Ecocriticism tries to make use of this ability of literature in setting forth and expressing environment problems. Since both fictional and non-fictional literature can reach many people, the works which concern with the environmental problems may be beneficial to raise awareness and contribute to inform many people all over the world about the severity of these problems. Creating awareness is an important issue since many people are not aware of the fact that the nature is destroyed by humans, and they neglect that the harm to nature causes the harm to humanity concurrently since there has always been an indissoluble bond between ecosystem and humans. Humans cannot be dissociated from the natural world. In this study, some brief information about human related environment disasters, social organizations which were established to fight for the rights of nonhuman beings in nature, the function of literature in creating awareness among human beings, the efforts of creating ecological reading and the emergence of ecocritical literary criticism will be given. After discussing Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s contribution to nature writing and Romanticism briefly, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” will be evaluated from an ecocritical perspective.

Inclined towards consumerism, modern patriarchal society suffers from denaturalisation which reflects itself through the processes of natural oppression and animal exploitation. Logic of domination upon which patriarchy acts and by which it imposes a superior attitude over nature and nonhuman species, destroys internal values that animals and nature possess, which are not recognized at the capitalist stage where value is regarded through the prism of instrumentalism. This paper aims to disclose the opposite practice which employs the ethics of care and partnership with nature and its elements, through the postulates of ecofeminism oriented towards the life-affirming principle, not the destructive force that patriarchy is prone to. By analysing different ecofeminist approaches, this paper reveals the importance of nature and animals as a unique potential and subjectivity, with a right to freedom and existence. In view of maintaining biodiversity, the animal is redefined from the absent referent, that is, inferior and subdued phenomenon endangered by the masculine hegemony, into a siginificant constituent of human reality by introducing the language of empathy and moral responsibility with the capacity to build a close relationship with the environment from the angle of ecofeminism. It is important to develop ecological consciousness, and accept the time flow needed for renewal of nature, by understanding the importance of the natural surroundings in which man is only a small particle. In such a language, the culture of meat eating has an alternative in the form of vegeterianism, whereas animal and nature become part of moral community, so that hunting, and laboratory exploitation of animals, as well as the use of natural resources are reduced to necessity, not the indispensable. Meat consumption is an attack on animals and an act of support to consumer culture, whereas the refusal of meat is an act of defiance to patriarchal power in the contex of ethics towards nature and its living beings. A conclusion is reached through argumentation that ecofeminism sees the practice of animal killing as justified only in special/extreme cases, that is, in situations when it is necessary to save human lives, or when the terrain does not offer other options for human diet. On the other hand, the exclusion of animals from laboratory practices is considered desirable for two reasons: firstly, because animals can feel pain due to their neural structures in the brain, and secondly, because there is no guarantee that a good effect of research on animals will give good results in humans. Following Ynestra King who claims that there is no hierarchy in nature, and that man is not imposed as a superior being over other species by any laws of nature, a conclusion is reached that man has no right as a rational and conscious being with a highly de- veloped system of communication to use that position as an argument or an excuse for demonstrating his agression towards animals which have an equal right to live and be free. The system of nature is declared a sacred space in the value system of ecofeminism in which the life of each individual being is invaluable. Man as a spe- cies has the greatest impact on nature, environment and diversity and, at the same time, he is the only one who can assist nature in the act of renewal, by limiting his appetites so as to sustain the world of nature, including animals as valuable species in it. Protection of animals is; therefore, needed in all segments – they should not be regarded as guinea pigs, meat or trophies, but looked upon as specific beings with their needs and instincts.

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) is a successful method for indoor air purification, especially for removing low-concentration pollutants. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) form a class of organic pollutants that are released into the atmosphere by consumer goods or via human activities. Once they enter the atmosphere, some might combine with other gases to create new air pollutants, which can have a detrimental effect on the health of living beings. This review focuses on current developments in the degradation of indoor pollutants, with an emphasis on two aspects of PCO: (i) influence of environmental (external) conditions; and (ii) catalyst deactivation and possible solutions. TiO2 is widely used as a photocatalyst in PCO because of its unique properties. Here, the potential effects of the operating parameters, such as the nature of the reactant, catalyst support, light intensity, and relative humidity, are extensively investigated. Then the developments and limitations of the PCO technique are highlighted, especially photocatalyst deactivation. Furthermore, the nature and deactivation mechanisms of photocatalysts are discussed, with possible solutions for reducing catalyst deactivation. Finally, the challenges and future directions of PCO technology for the elimination of indoor pollutants are compared and summarized.

Today physical, biological and social worlds develop increasingly quicker and in a more complex way that includes the phenomena of metamorphoses. Traditionally, they were considered as determined mainly by external factors, i.e. the forces of nature. Contemporary metamorphoses seem to become of a complex man-made nature. Compared to traditional metamorphoses with rigid and predictable results, contemporary metamorphoses of societies can produce both negative and positive consequences, which proves the non-linear dynamic picture of the world. There is also a traumatic tendency - when something is metamorphosed into nothing. Due to digitalization, nothing becomes more complex and pure from cultural and humane characteristics, thus, revealing new expressions of the death of the social: humans are metamorphosed into digital beings. Metamorphization of society can produce common goods as a side effect of the bad. The author argues that the formal-rational, pragmatic transformations of society and nature, like the scientific and technological innovations of mercantile type, deform and dehumanize life-worlds. The global traumatization in the form of liquid catastrophes permanently changes the living and non-living nature, structure of soil, water and air, desocializes human relations, facilitates transformations of something into nothing, people into non-people, places into non-places, things into non-things. However, people as reflexive actors can turn metamorphoses into things-for-man. To start this process, it is necessary to change the pragmatic monodisciplinary principles of science by the interdisciplinarity ones to ensure a humanistic turn in science and technologies.

Regardless of the development of human society and the introduction of new technologies (information, information-telecommunication), a person is mainly a biosocial being. Besides significant social characteristics and virtues, the main feature of each person is belonging to a large self-sufficient system. Thus, human beings differ from other species since they can exist in nature while creating their own culture and living conditions by means of mental and physical work. With the course of time and the emergence of innovations, the environment where people live undergoes global changes. The speed and extent of technological impact on the environment cannot be assessed due to many factors, including the multiplicative negative effect on the environment caused by products of modern civilization. In this regard, such science as ecology has become especially relevant. Environmental knowledge is vital to make the dream of many generations of thinkers come true and create a decent human environment ensuring the harmony of people and nature. Ecology helps analyze the impact of human life on the environment. The study of ecology cannot be conducted only at the level of the scientific community; each person should know its elementary problems and ways to build their personal life to effectively promote the harmonious development of society. Therefore, this article addresses the problem of environmental education, including the use of modern achievements, such as information, information and telecommunication technologies. The formation of environmental consciousness is necessary so that global problems are not regarded as mythical threats.

Philosophical anthropology is a tradition that is as old as philosophy itself, so much so that it might be said to be indistinguishable from philosophy itself. Philosophical anthropology, extending as it does from Socrates to Sartre, best describes the work of V.Y. Mudimbe. Anthropology, broadly conceived as the science that studies human origins, the material and cultural development of humanity (philosophical anthropology concerns itself with human nature, particularly what it is that distinguishes human beings from other creatures and how philosophy allows human beings to understand themselves), is always Mudimbe’s first line of philosophical inquiry. It is certainly Mudimbe’s interest in anthropology that allows him to conduct his investigations into Africa, its modes of thinking, and colonialism and its continuing effects on the continent. Writing on the latter issue in The Invention of Africa, Mudimbe, with his customary deftness of mind, argues that colonialism and its aftermath cannot by itself account for the continent’s extant condition: “The colonizing structure, even in its most extreme manifestations . . . might not be the only explanation for Africa’s present-day marginality. Perhaps this marginality could, more essentially, be understood from the perspective of wider hypotheses about the classification of beings and societies.”[ Making sense of Africa, in Mudimbe’s terms, must begin with a hypothesization that explicates how “beings and societies” come to be classified, the anthropological undertaking par excellence, which also requires a study of the forces that construct, implement and maintain these classifications.

This paper considers the interrelation and coexistence between human and nonhuman in nature in William Blake’s (1757-1827) Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience (1789-1794). The paper looks at his poems in the light of ecocentrism, especially the theories of Lawrence Buell (1939- ) and Ashton Nichols (1953- ), who articulate ecocentrism as a word which expresses the interconnection between human and nonhuman in nature and environment. The word, ecocentrism, denotes nature and environment as the central and essential parts of the world to represent them as a web or system wherein all members and parts, including human and nonhuman, are related and connected to each other so closely that they cannot exist and live separately and lonely. By human, it refers to who is a creature in the web, who links to other creatures and entities so closely that he cannot be isolated from them. The linkage and coexistence are the matter which can be viewed in some of the poems of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake watches environment and nature carefully, and in some of the poems of two mentioned collections such as “The Echoing Green,” “Nurse’s Song,” “Holy Thursday,” “The School Boy,” to name just a few, he illustrates a situation of life in which human has close relation and connection to other creatures. According to Blake, human and nonhuman have such a vital relationship so that no one can live without the others. All creatures and beings in an organism have an effect on each other, and they are interrelated. The paper shows interconnection and coexistence between human and nonhuman in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience due to portrayal and representation of nonhuman creatures in the world. It defines some nonhuman terms such as nature and environment and then focuses on the interrelation and coexistence between human and nonhuman in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in accordance with ecocentrism.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the arguments present in Humanae Vitae which found positive resonance in the writings of women adopting the papal teaching on the nature of human sexuality and sexual ethics. According to some women, in particular the new feminists, the logic of the papal teaching concerning contraception contributes to promoting the dignity and rights of women as well as responsible parenthood. In their view, contraception does not contribute to women’s rights. Instead, it rather exacerbates the imbalance between men and women as well as sanctions the man’s irresponsible and hedonistic attitude towards a woman. Using contraception is in a deep sense anti-ecological. It is both disrespectful of the nature of woman’s fertility and destructive of relations within the family. The responsible parenthood defined by the papal teaching and by his commentators (both men and women quoted in the article) means taking responsibility for one’s sexual acts and their possible effects. The analyzed authors claim that by defending the nature of love, the nature of human beings, and the nature of the objective moral order, the encyclical Humanae Vitae defends women by defending their nature against the arbitrariness of men or society.

In 1961 Philippe Jaccottet wrote: "The best answer to all kinds of questions is the poem’s very absence of a response". In keeping with the elusive nature of the world, abandoned by the gods and by God, the poem remains mysterious, thus trans-lating as well as preserving the inexhaustible richness of Nature and human beings. So the poet not only accepts such a precarious situation, but learns from it. Nevertheless, when someone dear dies, the poet tends to deny the absence of the loved one and revolts against it, since there no longer are any signs of presence: merely incomprehensible absence. Yet he chooses to bear witness, even if he remains ignorant and weak. In effect, this is a duty: poetry provides a link which enables the separation to avoid becoming a definitive absence. Words are repairing shuttles.