Chp 7: Enviro Philosophy

Question 1

When was the first bioluminescent plant engineered and what was it made from?

Answer 1

• 1980s
• Firefly (luciferase) gene and a tobacco specimen

Question 2

Synthetic Biology

Answer 2

manipulation of organisms to promote novel features

Question 3

Botanical Nanobionics

Answer 3

embedding microscopic particles into plant cells which then transform into vegetable light sources, natural infrared devices, and green sensors

Question 4

Environmental Philosophy

Answer 4

• Emerged in the late 60s early 70s
• interrogates concepts of nature, human-environment interactions, and ecological problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, etc.
• Believes transformation of our thinking about the natural world can promote positive environmental values, beliefs, and actions

Question 5

Who is Richard Sylvan and what did he do?

Answer 5

• Australian Logician
• called for radical philosophical framework involving people’s relationship to the environment
• believed ecological issues cannot be addressed as long as the human is invested in purely human concerns
• decentralizing humankind

Question 6

Species Bias (Routley)

Answer 6

• social and cultural prejudice against the more-than-human
• examines our moral duty to nature and the inherent worth of the environment

Question 7

Moral Duty (Sylvan)

Answer 7

the responsibility to act in accordance with ethical obligations to the environment

Question 8

Inherent Worth (Brennan and Lo)

Answer 8

the value of nature in its own right beyond its usefulness to humans

Question 9

How does Zimmerman classify environmental philosophy?

Answer 9

• nature has inherent worth
• humans have moral duties to animals, plants, and ecosystems

Question 10

How does Sarkar classify environmental philosophy?

Answer 10

Investigates questions of biodiversity, climate change, ecological integrity, sustainability, and non-human life in terms of moral duty, intrinsic value, human-nature reciprocity, etc.

Question 11

Green Islam

Answer 11

• Adam as khalifa: guardian of the planet
• khalifa=stewardship, tawhid=unity, balance, and harmony, akhirah= the hereafter
• each human generation should maintain the well-being of land by avoiding resource depletion and biological degradation
• 1000+ religious boarding schools in Indonesia have implemented eco-friendly waste, water, and energy practices
• Eco-pesantren: reinterprets the mainstream Islamic ideas in terms of contemporary ecological sustainability

Question 12

What are the 4 main specializations of environmental philosophy?

Answer 12

• environmental ethics
• radical ecology
• ecofeminism
• eco aesthetics

Question 13

Environmental Ethics

Answer 13

• assigns moral status to nature and devises frameworks regarding what constitutes a life within limits of the biosphere
• discerns between good/right and bad/wrong environmental behaviors
• eco-virtue as a means to becoming ecologically good, conscious, and responsible

Question 14

Radical Ecology(Sylvan)

Answer 14

only a fundamental social revolution/cultural transformation will help humans avert ecological disaster

Question 15

Ecofeminism

Answer 15

• the natural world is a feminist concern
• the domination of women is closely linked to the domination of nature
• patriarchy as an ideology that separates sense of self from all life rather than connecting it
• Embodied materialism

Question 16

Eco-aesthetics

Answer 16

• aesthetic perception of the natural world
• Hepburn (1963) said through direct experience the environmental spectator is transformed into an ecological agent
• meaning is independent of an artist/designer
• natural objects/landscapes are not intentionally framed/positioned
• cognitive (scientific knowledge=appreciation) versus non-cognitive (experience & imagination are enough for appreciation)

Question 17

Eco-phenomenology

Answer 17

how human beings discover meaning through interaction with the environment

Question 18

Australian Bush Fire Season 2019-2020

Answer 18

• 26 million acres burned
• 28 people killed
• 1 billion animals killed

Question 19

What did Arme Naess coin in 1973?

Answer 19

shallow and deep ecology

Question 20

Shallow Ecology (Naess 1973)

Answer 20

emphasizes short term changes within developed nations that are preoccupied with pollution and resource consumption

Question 21

Deep Ecology (Naess 1973)

Answer 21

reconfigures Western worldviews
- highlights the inter-relatedness of ecosystems, biocentrism, diversity, and complexity
- recognizes the value of local economies and a decentralized government
- anti-class

Question 22

Embodied Materialism

Answer 22

reasserts the value of compassion and empathy while cautioning against the Western dualisms of reason-emotion, cognition-feeling, and knowledge-embodiment that position the body perilously in opposition to the mind

Question 23

Key Texts in Environmental Philosophy

Answer 23

• Walden by Thoreau (1910/1854)
• A Sand County Almanac by Leopold (1949)
• Silent Spring by Carson (1962)
• Tragedy of the Commons by Hardin (1968)
• The Population Bomb by Ehrlich (1968)
• Environmental Ethics (1979): The first academic journal in the field

Question 24

Holmes Rolston III

Answer 24

• advocated for an ethical framework informed by the latest ecological understandings
• scrutinized the relationship between environmental ethics and ecological sciences arguing for a transdisciplinary approach

Question 25

Hardin’s “Ethics of a Lifeboat” (1974)

Answer 25

• the idea that land available to each nation globally has a finite carrying capacity
• in order to preserve the safety margin of a given country’s lifeboat, no additional passengers (from other countries) should be allowed to board
• good governance avoids the lifeboat situation scenario entirely

Question 26

Buddhist Environmental Ethics

Answer 26

• Buddhist doctrines do not set human beings in opposition to nature but instead highlight the capacity of humankind to act compassionately toward other living beings
• kamma (consequences), samsara (endless cyclicality), dukkha (bodily pain, psychological anguish, and unrealilzed desires)

Question 27

Biospherical Egalitarianism (Naess)

Answer 27

the equal right to prosper across species and organisms

Question 28

Ecosphy (Naess)

Answer 28

• philosophical framework in which ethical action is informed by Earth wisdom/ecological harmony

Question 29

Anarcho-primitivism

Answer 29

• questions the purpose of civilization and forwards rewilding (returning people/places to their natural/feral state
• call for technology to be abandoned and group subsistence to be adopted

Question 30

Ecology of Freedom (Bookchin, 1982)

Answer 30

• human domination over nature arises from social inequalities; the answer to this problem is social ecology

Question 31

Social Ecology (Bookchin)

Answer 31

• proposes a free and harmonious society without hierarchies and domination focused on ecological principles
• concerned with ecological problems arising from deeply rooted social issues

Question 32

Vegetal ethics

Answer 32

• grapples with plant focused questions of breeding technology, agricultural robots, genetically modified varieties, and lab experimentation
• plants as valuable sentient beings

Question 33

Food ethics

Answer 33

questions of food consumption, policy, and systems

Question 34

Ocean Fertilization

Answer 34

bolstering the ocean’s iron content to increase phytoplankton production to decrease CO2

Question 35

Distributive Justice

Answer 35

equitable distribution of the advantages and disadvantages of climate policy

Question 36

Anthropocene Feminism

Answer 36

draws attention to the ways feminism can provoke different perspectives on the Anthropocene

Question 37

Chinese Yijing Aesthetics

Answer 37

• connects the emotional world to external objects and scenes
• promotes emotional identification with the more-than-human world in a time of global crisis
• Xiamen Island Ring Road greenbelt is an example
• Walking paths allow pedestrians to appreciate sculptures, exercise areas, and coastal habitats at close range and provide viable habitat for the many bird species that migrate through the area