Sustainability is becoming a much more common approach to many parts of society, a major one being urban planning. This technical and political process is concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment. Transportation networks, housing, and preservation and conservation of natural systems are all considered in urban planning. Though many ideas about sustainable living communities and urban planning have been proposed, most people are still hesitant to build a working model due to the expenses, change, and lack of interest in environmental health. This relatively new idea is still being developed and has much controversy around it, but there are ethical and biological theories that propose we should proceed in this direction of life. Holism suggests the idea of caring for nature as a whole, and it agrees with the ideas of biophilia and sustainability. Holism supports the idea that humans have an obvious biofilic nature, confirms the need for sustainability, and proves that environmental theories should be considered in urban planning and other development.
The biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in a book he published. He defines biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life." The term "biophilia" means "love of life." It was first used to describe the psychological attraction to vital and living things by Erich Fromm. Wilson uses the term to propose that human beings subconsciously seek a connection with the rest of nature. He proposed that there is a possibility that we have an affiliation with nature rooted in our biology. For example, people prefer ...
... middle of paper ...
...gress for the New Urbanism. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Grinde, Bjørn, and Grete Grindal Patil. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
"Holism - By Branch / Doctrine - The Basics of Philosophy." Holism - By Branch / Doctrine - The Basics of Philosophy. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2014.
Kahn, Peter H., and Stephen R. Kellert. Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2002.
"Learning from Nature Takes on New Import as We Pursue Mitigation." Learning from Nature Takes on New Import as We Pursue Mitigation. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Schmidtz, David, and Elizabeth Willott. Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works. New York: Oxford UP, 2012.
Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1984.
Solis, Hilda. “Environmental Justice: An Unalienable Right for All.” Human Rights 30 (2003): 5-6. JSTOR. Web. 13 February 2014.
I will begin this report with a summary of this great book and delve deeper into the thoughts that the literary family has of it. I will then go on to explain its importance in the development of environmental policy and impact, and end with my thoughts regarding the material and the interaction among social and environmental values and impacts presented by the author Michael Pollan.
Singer, Charles. The Visions of Hildegard Bingen. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 78 (2005): n. pag. National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jan. 2005.
Kohak, Erazim V. "Part II." The Green Halo: a Bird's-eye View of Ecological Ethics. Chicago,
Wilson articulates a well standing argument that was able to convince me, the reader, into believing that the decisions I make are based on my ancestral instincts when it comes to my environment, especially through my discipline of psychology, because of his well-formed explanation of biophilia and the savanna hypothesis, in relation to life and nature. As a reader, who comes from the discipline of psychology through social science, I understand that everything I read will not directly correlate my education when taken at face value. Wilson, however, does a miraculous job of entertaining the field of psychology through the idea of instinct and choice, through the love of life and nature. He is clear in his reasoning of explaining his argument of biophilia being instinctual by stating that “[I]t is not so difficult to love nonhuman life, if gifted with knowledge about it.
Schulman, Joshua M., and David E. Fisher. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 28 Aug. 0005. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Thiroux, Jacques P., and Keith W. Krasemann. Ethics: Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Analyzing human obligation pertaining to all that is not man made, apart from humans, we discover an assortment of concerns, some of which have been voiced by philosophers such as Tom Regan, Peter Singer and Aldo Leopold. Environmentally ethical ideals hold a broad spectrum of perspectives that, not only attempt to identify a problem, but also focus on how that problem is addressed through determining what is right and wrong.
This earth has so many wonderful things to offer, including what is still unknown. The responsibility to keep this earth safe lands in the hands of mankind. Humanity may not exist if the responsibility is ignored.. In the chapter “For the Love of Life,” published in the non fiction book The Future of Life (2002), naturalist and Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward O. Wilson discusses the effects the nature, including what is still unknown, has on the prosperity of mankind and argues that humanity has an obligation to preserve nature because of its genetic unity. Wilson supports his claim by justifying the reasons for conserving and preserving nature including how technology can never fully replace it, describing habitat preferences as a component of biophilia - which is explains human’s predisposition to love
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory “looks at children’s development within the context of the systems of relationships that form their environment.” (MORRISON, 2009) This theory describes multifaceted tiers within the environment, where each layer has a specific influence upon a child’s development.
As I’m a believer of all kind of organisms in the world are evolved by natural selection and adaption, I also believe the biophilia hypothesis when I first heard about it, which define as an innate emotion affiliation to focus on life and lifelike processes (Edwin O, 1984).
Therefore, as humans depend on nature, nature-culture dualism should be abandoned in favor of nature-culture monism which accepts the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world. Nature-culture monism also implies that nature can exists with the human, so, henceforth nature can be defined not as pristine “wilderness” but rather the “wildness” that all non-human living organisms possess (Beatley, 2011, p. 4). Thus, the failure of urban planning lies within its adherence to nature-culture dualism that fails to acknowledge humanity’s
Sylvan, R. and Bennett, D., The Greening of Ethics, Cambridge, U.K.: The White Horse Press, 1994.
* Shirk, Evelyn. “New Dimensions in Ethics: Ethics and the Environment.” Ethics and the Environment. Proc. of Conf. on Ethics and the Environment, April 1985, Long Island University. Ed. Richard E. Hart. Lanham: University Press of America, 1992. 1-10.
Ecologists formulate their scientific theories influenced by ethical values, and in turn, environmental ethicists value nature based on scientific theories. Darwinian evolutionary theory provides clear examples of these complex links, illustrating how these reciprocal relationships do not constitute a closed system, but are undetermined and open to the influences of two broader worlds: the sociocultural and the natural environment. On the one hand, the Darwinian conception of a common evolutionary origin and ecological connectedness has promoted a respect for all forms of life. On the other hand, the metaphors of struggle for existence and natural selection appear as problematic because they foist onto nature the Hobbesian model of a liberal state, a Malthusian model of the economy, and the productive practice of artificial selection, all of which reaffirm modern individualism and the profit motive that are at the roots of our current environmental crisis. These metaphors were included in the original definitions of ecology and environmental ethics by Haeckel and Leopold respectively, and are still pervasive among both ecologists and ethicists. To suppose that these Darwinian notions, derived from a modern-liberal worldview, are a fact of nature constitutes a misleading interpretation. Such supposition represents a serious impediment to our aim of transforming our relationship with the natural world in order to overcome the environmental crisis. To achieve a radical transformation in environmental ethics, we need a new vision of nature.