THE DEMOCRATIC ROOTS OF OUR ECOLOGIC CRISIS: LYNN WHITE,BIODEMOCRACY, AND THE EARTH CHARTER

Although Lynn White, jr. is best known for the critical aspects of his disputed 1967 essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” this article combines archival research and findings from his lesser‐known publications in an attempt to reconcile his thought on democracy with the Earth Charter and its assertion that “we are one human family and one Earth Community with a common destiny” (2000, Preamble). Humanity is first and foremost, White believed, part of a “spiritual democracy of all God's creatures” in which humans and nonhumans should treat each other with mutual compassion and courtesy. It is argued that the Christian, animal‐inclusive “biodemocracy” envisioned by White is both compatible with, and potentially in conflict with, the tenets of the Earth Charter. This article also considers further implications of these findings for the larger fields of ecotheology and religion and ecology.     

PROCESS ECOLOGY: STEPPING STONES TO BIOSEMIOSIS

Many in science are disposed not to take biosemiotics seriously, dismissing it as too anthropomorphic. Furthermore, biosemiotic apologetics are cast in top‐down fashion, thereby adding to widespread skepticism. An effective response might be to approach biosemiotics from the bottom up, but the foundational assumptions that support Enlightenment science make that avenue impossible. Considerations from ecosystem studies reveal, however, that those conventional assumptions, although once possessing great utilitarian value, have come to impede deeper understanding of living systems because they implicitly depict the evolution of the universe backward. Ecological dynamics suggests instead a smaller set of countervailing postulates that allows evolution to play forward and sets the stage for tripartite causalities, signs, and interpreters—the key elements of biosemiosis—to emerge naturally out of the interaction of chance with configurations of autocatalytic processes. Biosemiosis thereby appears as a fully legitimate outgrowth of the new metaphysic and shows promise for becoming the supervenient focus of a deeper perspective on the phenomenon of life.     

Fitting Ethics to the Land: H. Richard Niebuhr's Ethic of Responsibility and Ecotheology

Much of ecotheology and environmental philosophy has moved deductively from theological and ethical constructs to questions of how we should relate to the natural world. Such approaches are limited in their ability to guide us toward appropriate environmental action for they do not necessarily fit the way the natural world actually functions. Niebuhr's ethic of response, on the other hand, begins with the concrete situation and is inherently ecological for it focuses on interrelationships in an on-going community. It is inductive in character and open to being informed by new findings in the natural and social sciences; thus it is exceptionally well suited to environmental problems, which involve complex scientific, social, and economic questions.     

天·地·人──谈《易传》的生态哲学

《易传》把天地自然界看成是有生命的存在,而人的生命正来自于这个自然界。自然界不仅是人的生命存在的根源,也是人的生命意义和价值的根源。人在获得自然所提供的一切生存条件的同时,更要“裁成”“辅佐”自然界完成其生命意义,才能实现人与自然的和谐相处,达到“天人合一”的最高境界。     

Ethics and science: Educating the public

This article looks at the public debate which took place in the first half of the twentieth century and has repercussions to the present day. It was about the ethical stance of scientists, and how science should be organized. In particular, it examines the positions taken by Professor F. Soddy, F.R.S. and Nobel Laureate, who stressed the responsibility of scientists for the uses made of their research, Professor Michael Polanyi, F.R.S., who emphasised the obligation of scientists to the truth and the essential role of morality in the organization of science, and Professor J.D.Bernal, F.R.S., who insisted that science was practised for utilitarian reasons and should be consciously developed for the good of society.     

Is Virginia for lovers? Geographic variation in adult attachment orientation

People often use relationships to characterize and describe places. Yet, little research examines whether people’s relationships and relational style vary across geography. The current study examined geographic variation in adult attachment orientation in a sample of 127,070 adults from the 50 United States. The states that were highest in attachment anxiety tended to be in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast region of the United States. The states that were highest in attachment avoidance tended to be in the frontier region of the United States. State-level avoidance was related to state-level indicators of relationship status, social networks, and volunteering behavior. The findings are discussed in the context of the mechanisms that may give rise to regional variation in relational behavior.     

“Melancholic? Naturally!”: Impulses for Cultural Transformation from Queer-Ecological Worldmaking,Activism, and Art in a Western Context

Abstract

Although ecological grief is a common psychic response to socioecological losses, there are no shared spaces to engage with it in Western cultures—a symptom of the problematic way they conceive Nature as external and subordinate to humans. Seeking subversive impulses for paradigmatic transformation, this research centers queer-identifying eco-activists and -artists, and their practices of queer-ecological worldmaking. Arts-based research and interviews reveal the potential of melancholic grieving to create an understanding of interdependencies with the more-than-human world, as well as communities for healing. Impulses toward a joint liberation entail the extension of empathy and agency to the more-than-human world.