Ammar, Nawal, Gray, Allison. Islamic Environmental Teachings: Compatible with Ecofeminism?
2017, in John Hart (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 301–314
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
The ideologies and realities of Islam, environmental ethics, and eco-feminism are not opposed. There is a range of overlapping ideas and practices that suggest that Islamic teachings are compatible with the tenets of environmental ethics and ecofeminism. Through exploring the holy texts’ views on the treatment of Creation, including key issues of environmental degradation and the equality of women, as well as the intersections between these two issues, this chapter argues that the moral imperative of Islam is to protect and be just and merciful to God's Creation. However, this relationship is distorted in the context of a capitalist market and patriarchal culture, enabling a reading of Islam skewed toward inequality, domination, and exploitation. Therefore, while the stewardship of the environment and the wellbeing of women is in accord with Islamic ethics, this is overshadowed by sociohistorical conditions characterized by exploitation.Comment (from this Blueprint): A contemporary piece which looks to reconcile Islamic approaches to nature with ecofeminism.
Chimakonam, Jonathan Okeke. Ohanife: An Account of the Ecosystem Based on the African Notion of Relationship
2018, in Jonathan Chimakonam (ed.), African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation. Routledge
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation is about the unconcern for, and marginalisation of, the environment in African philosophy. The issue of the environment is still very much neglected by governments, corporate bodies, academics and specifically, philosophers in the sub-Saharan Africa. The entrenched traditional world-views which give a place of privilege to one thing over the other, as for example men over women, is the same attitude that privileges humans over the environment. This culturally embedded orientation makes it difficult for stake holders in Africa to identify and confront the modern day challenges posed by the neglect of the environment. In a continent where deep-rooted cultural and religious practices, as well as widespread ignorance, determine human conduct towards the environment, it becomes difficult to curtail much less overcome the threats to our environment. It shows that to a large extent, the African cultural privileging of men over women and of humans over the environment somewhat exacerbates and makes the environmental crisis on the continent intractable. For example, it raises the challenging puzzle as to why women in Africa are the ones to plant the trees and men are the ones to fell them.Comment (from this Blueprint): Moving from the general overview to a specific application of a particular concept from the Igbo tradition — 'Ohanife'. This reading provides an example of depth to balance the breadth of the others.
Girardot, Norman, Miller, James, Xiaogan, Liu (eds.). Daoism and Ecology: Ways within a Cosmic Landscape
2001, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
Until now, no single work has been devoted to both a scholarly understanding of the complexities of the Daoist tradition and a critical exploration of its contribution to recent environmental concerns. The authors in this volume consider the intersection of Daoism and ecology, looking at the theoretical and historical implications associated with a Daoist approach to the environment. They also analyze perspectives found in Daoist religious texts and within the larger Chinese cultural context in order to delineate key issues found in the classical texts. Through these analyses, they assess the applicability of modern-day Daoist thought and practice in China and the West, with respect to the contemporary ecological situation.Comment (from this Blueprint): An collection of essays which allows the reader to look in depth at any particular facets of Daoist ecology that might interest them.
Gorisse, Marie-Hélène. Jaina Philosophy
2025, in Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
The Jains are those who consider that the teaching of the omniscient Jinas is the expression of the eternal essential nature of the universe. The only extant teaching is that of Mahāvīra (traditional dates 599–527/510 BCE, in Magadha, South of modern Bihar), the last Jina of the current cosmic period. In their practice, Jaina renunciants follow a rigorous method towards salvation, in which a non-violent way of life, the renunciation from a worldly ego, the dissociation of self and non-self, and a gradual purification of the self towards unobstructed knowledge, become as many different facets of the same effort to access to a superior order of being in which each self manifests its true nature. This path came to involve structured monastic and lay communities; sets of practices—ritual and devotional acts, ascetic practices, rules of life; as well as conceptions of the world deposited in canonical and post-canonical corpuses, in systematic treatises, or in narrative literature. Jaina Philosophy is the set of philosophical investigations developed by thinkers as they appear in these different corpuses (Malvania & Soni 2007; Potter & Balcerowicz 2013, 2014). While several trends can be observed from the canonical period to modern thinkers via the mystics, the following principles are shared: Jaina metaphysics is an atomist and dualist conception of the world, it focuses on the nature of the self, on that of karmic matter, as well as on their principles of association. Jaina ethics consists of practices focused on non-violence, non-absolutism and non-attachment, which aim to disentangle the self and karmic matter and which help one to reach omniscience. Besides, Jaina philosophers are particular renown for developing a realist epistemology centered on “many-sidedness”. Jaina philosophy is composed in Ardhamāgadhī, Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī, Śaurasenī, Sanskrit, Apabhraṃśa, Braj Bhāṣā, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, to quote only the main languages. This entry provides Sanskrit terms only, because Sanskrit became the lingua franca of philosophical inter-doctrinal discussions in South Asia at the turn of the common era.Comment (from this Blueprint): Useful to assist in reading the primary source.
Grix, Marco, Watene, Krushil. Communities and Climate Change: Why Practices and Practitioners Matter
2022, Ethics & International Affairs, 36(2): 215-230
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
Communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as reduced access to material resources and increased exposure to adverse weather conditions, are intimately tied to a considerable amount of cultural and biological diversity on our planet. Much of that diversity is bound up in the social practices of Indigenous groups, which is why these practices have great long-term value. Yet, little attention has been given to them by philosophers. Also neglected have been the historical conditions and contemporary realities that constrain these practices and devalue the knowledge of their practitioners. In this essay, we make the case for preserving a diverse range of social practices worldwide, and we argue that this is possible only by strengthening the communities of practitioners who enact them in the contexts in which they are adaptive. By concentrating on Indigenous communities, we show how focusing on practices can transform how Indigenous and other local communities are represented in global climate-change conversations and policy as a matter of justice. More specifically, we argue that practice-centered thinking and local practices provide critical insights for determining the extent to which climate policies protect and enable transformative change.Comment (from this Blueprint): This piece considers how to directly integrate Indigenous viewpoints into considerations of climate and ecological action, which is argued for as a matter of justice. Of particular interest for the purpose of this list is the consideration of 'practice-centred thinking'.
Humphreys, Rebekah. Philosophy, ecology and elephant equality
2020, Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling, 28 (11), 2020, 1-4
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Added by: Björn Freter, Contributed by: Rebekah Humphreys
Abstract: The considerable conservation research on environmental problems and climate change tends to focus on species “biodiversity” rather than individuals. Individuals of the same species get categorized as “wild” or “captive”, with the latter often omitted from conservationists’ concerns. But wild and captive animals, although they may require different treatment, have comparable interests as individuals. Equity requires taking this into account in conservation efforts.
Comment: Good for teaching issues concerning animal sentience, equality, conservation, preservation (particularly in relation to elephants), and environmental ethics and animal ethics issues more generally.
Hurley, Susan. Perception and Action: Alternative Views
2001, Synthese 129(1): 3-40
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Added by: Nick NovelliAbstract: A traditional view of perception and action makes two assumptions: that the causal flow between perception and action is primarily linear or one-way, and that they are merely instrumentally related to each other, so that each is a means to the other. Either or both of these assumptions can be rejected. Behaviorism rejects the instrumental but not the one-way aspect of the traditional view, thus leaving itself open to charges of verificationism. Ecological views reject the one-way aspect but not the instrumental aspect of the traditional view, so that perception and action are seen as instrumentally interdependent. It is argued here that a better alternative is to reject both assumptions, resulting in a two-level interdependence view in which perception and action co-depend on dynamically circular subpersonal relations and as a result may be more than merely instrumentally interdependent. This is illustrated by reference to motor theories of perception and control theories of action.Comment: A great introduction to motor theories of perception and a great challenge to the traditional view of the senses and actions. Would be a useful source in any examination of philosophy of perception.
Kelbessa, Workineh. Environmental Philosophies in African Traditions of Thought
2018, Environmental Ethics, 40(4): 309-323
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
Besides normative areas, African environmental philosophy should pay attention to the epistemological and metaphysical dimensions of the worldviews of the African people in order to understand the environmental attitudes and values in African traditions of thought. Unlike mainstream Western ethics, African environmental philosophy has renounced anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism, and ethnocentrism and recognizes the interconnectedness of human beings with the natural environment and its component parts. In African worldviews, the physical and the metaphysical, the sacred and the secular, the natural and the supernatural are interrelated. Human beings are part of the natural environment. African philosophers should continue to explore the potential for a strong African environmental philosophy in African traditions of thought that can contribute to the solution of current environmental crises.Comment (from this Blueprint): Kelbessa investigates the possibility of certain unifying, underlying features of an African Environmental Philosophy, drawing from a wide range of traditions. Kelbessa's argument emphasises the idea that there are environmental implications to the core metaphysical beliefs which characterise many African traditions of thought, and so advocates a turn away from considering African environmental philosophy exclusively with respect to normative, ethical features.
Kelbessa, Workineh. Women and the Environment in Africa
2018, in Jonathan Chimakonam (ed.), African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation. Routledge
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation is about the unconcern for, and marginalisation of, the environment in African philosophy. The issue of the environment is still very much neglected by governments, corporate bodies, academics and specifically, philosophers in the sub-Saharan Africa. The entrenched traditional world-views which give a place of privilege to one thing over the other, as for example men over women, is the same attitude that privileges humans over the environment. This culturally embedded orientation makes it difficult for stake holders in Africa to identify and confront the modern day challenges posed by the neglect of the environment. In a continent where deep-rooted cultural and religious practices, as well as widespread ignorance, determine human conduct towards the environment, it becomes difficult to curtail much less overcome the threats to our environment. It shows that to a large extent, the African cultural privileging of men over women and of humans over the environment somewhat exacerbates and makes the environmental crisis on the continent intractable. For example, it raises the challenging puzzle as to why women in Africa are the ones to plant the trees and men are the ones to fell them.Comment (from this Blueprint): A consideration of the relationship between ecology and gender within African traditions.
Kuokkanen, Rauna. Towards an “Indigenous Paradigm” From A Sami Perspective
2000, The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XX, 2: 411-436
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Added by: Kas BernaysAbstract:
The author discusses the need, significance and objectives of an "Indigenous paradigm" which is a way of both decolonizing Indigenous minds by "re-centring" Indigenous values and cultural practices and placing Indigenous peoples and their issues into dominant, mainstream discourses which until now have relegated Indigenous peoples to marginal positions. The author argues that the main objectives of such a paradigm include the criticism of Westem dualistic metaphysics and Eurocentrism as well as the return to the Indigenous peoples' holistic philosophies in research.Comment (from this Blueprint): A broad consideration of treating Indigenous philosophy, with an introductory focus on Sámi thought.
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