ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY
- a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the
natural environment and humans’ place within it.
AREAS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY:
1. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS - considers extending
the traditional boundaries of ethics from solely
including humans to including the non-human
world.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS - originated as a
reaction to an emphasis on merely aesthetics,
pursuing instead the investigation of the aesthetic
appreciation of natural environments.
3. ECOFEMINISM - links feminism with ecology. It
seeks to eradicate all forms of social injustice, not
just injustice against women and the environment.
4. ENVIRONMENTAL HERMENEUTICS - applies the
techniques and resources of the philosophical field
of hermeneutics to environmental issues. It
addresses issues of interpretation as they relate to
nature and environmental issue.
5. ENVIRONMENTAL THEOLOGY - uses the notion
to analyze what people regard as sacred and how
these images relate to religion and faith traditions.
Especially the sacredness of nature and earth
seems to characterize worldviews and values in
late modernity.
ENVIRONMENT-RELATED WORLDVIEWS
BIOCENTRISM
- an ethical point of view that extends inherent
value to all living things
- its thought is nature-based, not human based.
- promotes the preservation of biodiversity, animal
rights, and environmental preservation.
ECOCENTRISM
- a world-view which puts forward the value of the
ecosystems above all
- denotes a nature centered, as opposed to human-
centered, system values.
ANTHROPOCENTRISM
- a worldview that places the human being at the
center of everything, and as a result, nature and
ecosystems serve as sources of resources for
humans.
- interprets or regards the world in terms of human
values and experiences.
PHILIPPINE LAWS PROTECTIVE OF THE
ENVIRONMENT
Sec. 16, Art II, 1987 Philippine Constitution
- this provision mandates that the State shall
protect and advance the right of the people to a
balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the
rhythm and harmony of nature.
Republic Act No. 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste
Management Act of 2000)
- this law provides that it is the policy of the State
to adopt a systematic, comprehensive and
ecological solid waste management program which
shall
a) Ensure the protection of the public health and
environment
b) Utilize environmentally-sound methods that
maximize the utilization of valuable resources and
encourage resource conservation and recovery
c) Set guidelines and targets for solid waste
avoidance and volume reduction through source
reduction and waste minimization measures.
Republic Act No. 9275 (Philippine Clean Water Act
of 2004)
- policy of economic growth in a manner consistent
with the protection, preservation and revival of the
quality of our fresh, brackish and marine waters.
- to achieve this end, the framework and
sustainable development shall be pursued. As such,
it shall be the policy of the State to:
a) To streamline processes and procedures in the
prevention, control and abatement of pollution of
the country’s water resources;
b) To promote environmental strategies, use of
appropriate economic instruments and of control
mechanisms for the protection of water resources;
c) To formulate holistic national program of water
quality management that recognizes that water
quality management issues cannot be separated
from concerns about water sources and ecological
protection, water supply, public health and quality
of life;
d) To formulate an integrated water quality
management framework through proper
delegation and effective coordination of functions
and activities.
Republic Act No. 8749 (Philippine Clean Air Act of
1999)
- shall pursue policy of balancing development and
environment protection.
a) formulate a holistic national program of air
pollution that shall be implemented by the
government through proper delegation and
effective coordination of function and activities;
b) encourage cooperation and self-regulation
among citizens and industries through the
application of incentives market-based instruments;
c) focus primarily on pollution prevention rather
than on control and provide for a comprehensive
management program on air pollution.
Man as a Social Being
The human being is a social being. He/she is always
with his/her fellow human beings. Thus, it is said
that no human being is an island.
ACCORDING TO CONFUCIUS, man is always aware
of the presence of other people in his life. Man is
always conscious of the presence other human
beings.
The historical relation of man and other people or
of man and society is captured by the social
contract theory popularized BY THOMAS HOBBES,
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, AND JOHN LOCKE.
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
THOMAS HOBBES
- English Philosopher (1588-1679)
- conceives of a pre-society state of nature in which
strife and killing was the rule, and man's life was
poor, solitary, nasty, brutish and short. Quite
naturally, because man wanted to escape from the
condition, a relation was consequently built up
between human beings in the form of a social
contract.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
- Swiss Philosopher (1712-1778)
- asserts that society is a product of a contract
naturally made between human beings. Moreover,
Rousseau's pre-society state of nature was a free
world in which unlimited human bliss did not at first
motivate man to think in terms of a contract.
Gradually, when population increased and the
concept of personal property was gaining
recognition, in order to protect himself, man
voluntarily made the social contract. Individual will
be then, for collective good, made subject to
collective will.
JOHN LOCKE
- English Philosopher (1632-1704)
- also claims that the pre-contract state of society
was the state of nature in which peace and
harmony prevailed and every man was born free.
There was a natural order that guided man's
actions, but no sanction existed for the punishment
of any violation of any natural law. This brought
about the social contract and the society.
According to Aristotle, man is a social being. This
means that human beings are naturally directed
into forming groups because of their need for
subsistence. Human beings need society for the
attainment of their optimum happiness and where
they can work and enjoy their lives. Society allows
human beings to be moral and practice human
virtue. Human beings as embodied subjects are
born in a pre-existing social condition.
TYPES OF SOCIETY
PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
- characterized by having limited forms of
production, limited division of labor and limited
social stratification. It has three kinds;
1. HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETY
- the longest running type of society - it occupies 90%
of human history. The use of simple tools to hunt
animals and gather vegetation is the feature of this
society. In this society, human beings consisted of
small groups, did not establish permanent houses,
and were very dependent on the natural resources
and features of the environment. The
domestication of fire is considered the greatest
advancement of this society.
2. HORTICULTURE AND PASTORAL SOCIETY
- characterized by domestication of animals and
cultivation of plants. Here, human beings used
hand tools to cultivate crops. They produced more
goods which allowed them to do other things, and
started trading with other societies. Moreover,
inequality started to appear as some people
acquire more possession than others.
3. AGRARIAN SOCIETY
- characterized by development of new materials
and methods for cultivating plants and animals.
This yielded to more products and food supply.
Accumulation of wealth and property becomes the
priority. Slavery emerges as a result of social
stratification.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
- followed the pre-industrial society. This society
provided more and better opportunities. In this
society, technologies were developed that
harnessed new forms of energy. Free public
education was established which escalated literacy.
The ease of speed and travel and communication
dramatically increased. Health practices were
enhanced. Organization of governments was
improved as formal systems and structure were
established. The invention of steam engine marked
the arrival of industrial society.
POST-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
- followed the industrial society. It is characterized
by its orientation towards knowledge and service.
Education and technology become very important
in this society. Human relationships are now mostly
mediated by computers.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
- The establishment in a society that makes the
society function.
- They work as the backbone of a society. Without
the social institutions a society cannot achieve
fulfillment in terms of economy, academy or
relationships.
FAMILY
- The oldest and most basic social institution.
- Aside from performing the reproductive or
procreation function, provides for the biological
and psychological needs of its members, cares for
the sick and the old members, and safeguards
inheritance, property, and economic gains of its
members.
- The passing on of values, traditions, customs, and
practice is also entrusted to the family.
CHURCH
- Refers to an assembly of people bound together
by the profession of the same faith, worshipping
together, committed to the practice of a set of rites
and rituals under the rule of a legitimate leader.
- Serves to enforce morality and rules of conduct
for the spiritual well-being and enrichment of its
members.
SCHOOL
- Responsible in inculcating knowledge and
developing the skills of the young members of the
society. It likewise enforces morality and right
conduct.
STATE
- An independent, self-sufficient society which is
politically organized under a government and
directed by an authority.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONFUCIUS
- The human being is a social being. He/she is
always with his/her fellow human beings. Thus, it is
said that no human being is an island. This idea was
captured by the Chinese philosopher Confucius in
his principle of Ren/Jen. REN/JEN, according to
Confucius, signifies our awareness of the presence
of other people in our lives. We are always
conscious of the presence other human beings.
- Ren/Jen, however, is more than that. IT IS THE
PRINCIPLE OF MORAL ACTION. This means that the
origin of our actions must always be our fellowmen.
Putting it differently, our actions must always take
into consideration the presence of other people.
- Ren/Jen. IT IS THE PRINCIPLE OF MORAL
JUSTIFICATION. The rightness or the wrongness of
our actions is to be judged whether it hurts or it
promotes other persons.
- Aside from the insight on Ren/Jen, Confucius
claims that the human as a social being implies that
he/she lives in a society – that he/she is a member
of a society.
-Being a member of the society, the human being
has tasks or responsibilities. These duties or
responsibilities of the human being in the society
are found in his/or her social names. SOCIAL
NAMES refer to the names that the human being
has as a member of the society, like father, mother,
brother, sister, teacher, student, leader, and
follower.
- According to Confucius, if your name is a father,
then it is your duty to live and act as a father to
your children; if your name is a teacher, then it is
your duty to live and act as a teacher to your
students; if your name is a son, then it is your duty
to live and act as a son to your father and mother;
and so on and so forth.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF EMMANUEL LEVINAS
- we human beings do not really know how to love
ourselves for the simple reason that we do not
know really what is too much and what is too little
for ourselves. We do not really know what is
enough for us. The word “enough” is in the
Webster’s Dictionary but it is not really present in
the human vocabulary. For this reason, human
satisfaction or contentment appears to be almost
impossible to achieve. As such, love that begins at
home, usually ends at home.
- claims that we will learn how to love ourselves
only if we have learned how to love other people.
LOVE THEM FIRST, ONLY THERE WILL WE BE ABLE
LEARN HOW TO LOVE OURSELVES.
- In the first-place responsibility is essentially not
for us. It is for the other people. In the words of
Levinas: “I understand responsibility as
responsibility for the other, thus, as responsibility
for what is not my deed, or for what does not even
matter to me; or which is precisely does matter to
me, is met by me as face. Usually, one is
responsible for what one does oneself.
DEATH
- From the legal-medical perspective, death is the
irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory
functions or the irreversible cessation of all
functions of the entire brain, including the brain
stem. A person shall be medically and legally dead
if either:
1. an absence of natural respiratory and cardiac
functions and, attempts at resuscitation would
not be successful in restoring those functions. In
this case, death shall be deemed to have
occurred at the time these functions ceased; or
2. an irreversible cessation of all brain functions;
and considering the absence of such functions,
further attempts at resuscitation or continued
supportive maintenance would not be successful
in resorting such natural functions.
RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE
- death is the transition-a shift from earthly life to
the life after.
EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVE
- death is the transition from “being to “non-being”
that terminates all the possibilities of a temporal
beings.
BUDDHIST’S PERSPECTIVE
- death is the cessation of the connection between
our mind and our body. Death occurs when the
subtle consciousness finally leaves the body to go
to the next life. Our body is like a guesthouse and
our mind like the guest; when we die our mind has
to leave this body and enter the body of our next
rebirth, like a guest leaving one guesthouse and
travelling to another. The mind is neither physical,
nor a by-product of purely physical processes, but - we have no objective knowledge about death,
is a formless continuum that is a separate entity we basically understand that we certainly will die.
from the body. When the body disintegrates at As beings in the world, thus, existing, we know that
death the mind does not cease. It is this mind from existence we will move to non-existence.
which, when thoroughly purified, transforms into - Existence implies non-existence. Birth implies
the omniscient mind of a Buddha. death. We understand this because of what we see
in the world. In the world, we see the rising and the
setting of the sun, the blossoming and the
MARTIN HEIDEGGER ON DEATH
withering of a rose; we hear the playing and fading
- man is what he makes of himself. As such, he has away of a piece of music, the crying and the
overflowing potentialities and possibilities which laughing, we see the birth and the death of human
are not merely given to and enforced by the world beings like us.
to him, but are to be decided, pursued, actualized,
- death is a possibility that will surely come. It is a
and realized by him.
“not yet” that will surely befall us. Death, therefore,
- as long as he exists, there is always something is a certainty. We will surely die.
yet to be settled in him by him. There is always
KINDS OF BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH
something out there to be done in him by him.
AUTHENTIC BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH
- Death is a possibility because, like all other
possibilities, it’s happening lies in the future. - The authentic being-towards-death is an
Moreover, death is a unique possibility because in individual who does not waste time to make
it man gains his wholeness. This does not mean, himself what he wants to be. He is always on the go.
however, that all die fulfilled for many who already If he has a job to do today, he does it today.
passed away remain unfulfilled. INAUTHENTIC BEING-TOWARDS-DEATH
- In death, everything in man is settled – - an individual who is always wasting his time. If he
everything is finished. Thus, death is man’s final has a job to do today, he leaves it for tomorrow.
act or the final event in man as a being-in-the-
world.
- In death, his possibilities end. Thus, death is the
impossibility of all other possibilities.
- Death is AN OWN-MOST EXPERIENCE. Man does
not experience death but witness the death of
other people.
- Death therefore is A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
Being so, then man does not know and has no way
of knowing what the dying person encounters – he
has no way of knowing what the dying person
suffers.
- Death is also NON-RELATIONAL. While man is a
being-in-the-world, he is related or connected, in
one way or another, with other people. In death,
however, man becomes totally alone. His relation
with other people is totally gone or severed.
- It is non-representable because an individual can
never represent another individual in the latter’s
death. There is no such thing as death by proxy.