Exam #3 Lit & Class Notes Flashcards
How does environmental philosophy relate to all other environmental disciplines?
it is the pillar of the environmental humanities and informs/undergirds all other discourses
Radical Ecology
- radical=to/from the root, grounding
- Analyzing the root of human experience
- only a fundamental social revolution/cultural transformation will help humans avert ecological disaster
- social ecology & deep ecology
Social Ecology (Bookchin)
- Inspired by Marx’s belief that wealth-generating institutions should be publicly owned
- Inspired by Kropotkin’s idea that cooperation and mutual aid are needed rather than competition
- you cannot address/solve environmental issues without addressing socioeconomic ones
- proposes free and harmonious societies without hierarchies that are founded on ecological principles
Deep Ecology (Naess)
- Inspired by Spinoza’s understanding of the universe; the interconnectedness of all thins
- Inspired by Buddhist ideals of attachment and being; our attachment to the current way of being is what causes suffering; nothing is static, everything is in process
- Influenced by spiritual and ecological principles
- highlights the interconnectedness of ecosystems, biodiversity, and complexity and the value of local economies and a decentralized government
Hardin’s “lifeboat ethics”
- ideas about carrying capacity and restricting personal freedoms for the “greater good”
- looks out for the individual but this is fundamentally flawed because humans are a social species
Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”
- when individuals have access to a public resource but only use this resource for their personal benefit this eventually leads to resource depletion
- acting individualistically rather than working together
Eco-aesthetics (Hepburn)
- Not only beauty and how it affects ecology but also how aesthetics are tied to the things we care about
- aesthetic perception of the natural world
Anthropocentric vs. Biocentric
- Human-centered versus Earth/planet centered
- Anthropocentric versus speciesist; Argument that humans can’t help being anthropocentric because it is in our nature/is our subject position
Speciesism/Species Bias (Routley)
- Human as apex of/outside of nature
-social and cultural prejudice against the more-than-human
Ecofeminism
- coined in Paris in the 1970s
- women and nature are oppressed together and through each other
- nature is often feminized and women are often naturalized
- both are treated as commodities and resources to be used for the benefit of others
What climate justice organization did Naess’s deep ecology inspire the creation of?
Earth First!
What did geologists’ official vote decide regarding the Anthropocene?
Despite the findings of the Environmental working group, geologists voted that we are not in a new epoch, but are still in the Holocene
Who wrote “The Ecology of Magic” and when was it published?
- Written by David Abram
- Published 1996
What is Abram’s Ecology of Magic about?
- the relationship between magic and medicine
- magic is also logical and can worth with science
- reorienting us in our senses
- we evolved in reciprocity with other life forms
- interconnectedness versus solipcism
- reciprocity versus instrumental use
- Circumambience of the environment; the whole world around us is alive
- Spider passage connects the microcosm to the macrocosm, uses biophilia to combat biophobia, uses the spider web as a metaphor for ecology, magic as corrective medicine; reciprocity as essential for health
Participatory Action Research
- using animals in research but not against their will; with their consent
- The Great Ape Trust
