Philo

• Philosophical problems of how the world started and what it is made of were investigated in Miletus, Greece

  600 BCE
• Ioana


  A meeting place between the East and the West, Greek Philosophy has Oriental as well as Egyptian and Babylonian influences
• Paradigm shift


  Change in worldview, a change in how reality, truth, and facts are viewed
• Philosophers wanted to understand scientific progress by studying nature itself, and not by heeding to the dictates of the gods
• Lao Tzu


  Founder of Taoist school of thought, compared the Tao or The Way to water, heaven, emptiness of a vessel, color, music, flavor, and even to weakness
• Weakness can overcome strength as the earth's Softest substance (water), Hardest substance (rock), and Invisible Substance (air) can penetrate a wall
• Taoism


  Aims to be one with all things and to coexists with Heaven and Earth
• Chuang Tzu


  Most eloquent representative of the Taoist school, believed in nourishing nature, returning to destiny and enjoying nature, left transformation to things themselves
• Frameworks on nature


  • Anthropocentric model - Humans are essential & central to universe
  • Ecocentric model - Ecological or relational integrity
• Ecological positioning


  Occurs in the past, present, or future, and its environmental settings with regard to our identifications, relations, and attachment in, about,with, or for various natures
• Greenhouse gases


  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Methane
  • Fluoride
  • Nitrous Oxide
• Carbon footprint


  Indicator to understand environmental impact
• Carbon footprint categories

  • Construction
  • Household
  • Food
  • Clothing
  • Mobility
  • Manufacturing
  • Service
  • Trades
• Milesians


  Regarded nature as spatially without boundaries
• Anaximander


  Boundless, the evolution of the world begins with the generation of opposites in a certain region of nature
• Pythagoras


  Claimed that order, harmony, and beauty in nature are embodiment of the universe
• Biophilia


  Love of other living things
• Cosmophilia


  Love of other living beings
• Chinese view of the universe

  Continuous whole like a chain of natural consequences, Yin and Yang as primeval pair, all occurrences in the universe are results of transitional process
• Immanuel Kant


  Beauty is ultimately a symbol of morality
• Herbert Marcuse

  Humanity has dominated the nature, there can only be change if we will change our attitude toward our perception of the environment
• George Mead

  As human beings, we have not only rights but also duties
• National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 enforces the implementation, protection and conservation of our cultural heritage
• Environmental theories


  • Deep ecology
  • Social ecology
  • Ecofeminism
• Deep ecology


  Ecological crisis is a result of anthropocentrism, our controlling attitude extends to nature, advocate humanity to modify their anthropocentric attitude towards ecocentrism
• Social ecology


  Ecological crisis is a consequence of authoritarian social structures, calls for small-scale societies, which recognize that humanity is linked with the well-being of the natural world in which human life depends
• Ecofeminism


  Ecological crisis is a consequence of male dominance, freeing nature and humanity means removing the superior vs. inferior in human relations, there must be equality and fairness instead
• Freedom of the human person

  To be free is a part of humanity's authenticity, apart of our transcendence, freedom consists of going beyond situations whether physical constraint or economic struggles
• Aristotle on the power of volition


  Apart from will the imperative quality of judgement of practice is meaningless, only through will can its legislation be translated into action, the will of humanity is an instrument of free choice
• Moral acts


  Always particular acts, are in our power we are responsible for them
• Happiness of every human being's soul is in his or her own hands, to preserve and develop, or to cast away - Aristotle
• Intellectual freedom


  Human being is rational, reason is divine characteristic, reason, will, and action drive each other
• St. Thomas Aquinas on love and freedom


  Of all creatures of God, only humans have the unique power to change, and improve ourselves, and the things around us, we are moral agents, we are both the spiritual and body elements, the unity between both the spiritual and material elements helps us to understand our complexity separating us from animals, to be good or evil becomes an exercise of moral responsibilities, change cannot be accomplished by human beings alone but with cooperation from God, there is an infinite gap between humanity and God and only God can bridge this gap
• Fourfold classification of law

  • Eternal law
  • Natural law
  • Human law
  • Divine law
• Love


  The guiding principle of humanity toward his or her self-perception and happiness
• Spiritual freedom


  God's love and conscience result in actions, God's Love -> Conscience -> Action (Good or Evil)
• Jean Paul Sartre


  Human person is the desire to be God: the desire to exist as a being which has its sufficient ground in itself, emphasizes the importance of free individual choice, regardless of the power of other people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs, and decision
• Existentialism

  Existence precedes essence
• Thomas Hobbes


  Law of nature is a precept or general rule established by reason, a person is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his or her life or that which takes away the means of preserving the same, first law of nature is we should seek peace, second law of nature is mutually divest ourselves on certain rights, third law of nature is human beings perform their covenant made, the mutual transferring of these rights is called a contract and is the basis of the notion of moral obligation, the rational pursuit of self-preservation is what leads us to form commonwealth or state for the laws of nature, given the conditions for the establishment of society and government
• Types of commonwealth

  • Commonwealth by institution
  • Commonwealth by acquisition