Introduction to Integrating Philosophy and Ecology: Biocultural Interfaces

Abstract

Part I of the book is organized under the perspective of a biocultural ethic that interrelate the Habits and Habitats with the identities and well-being of the co-in-Habitants to assess and reorient the ecological and social consequences of globalization. The interrelationships among the “3 Hs” of the biocultural ethic proposed by Ricardo Rozzi involve biophysical, symbolic-linguistic, and institutional-sociopolitical-technological domains, and have foundations three families of worldviews: (i) pre-Socratic and other non-mainstream Western philosophies, (ii) Amerindian and other non-Western ecological worldviews, and (iii) contemporary ecological-evolutionary sciences. Peter Vitousek and Kamanamaikalani Beamer present an intercultural, interdisciplinary dialogue that transits toward the practices involved in the development of the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, addressing the problematic, but unavoidable interactions between local and global habitats and habits today. In local–global dialectics, stewardship and dialogic partnerships bring twenty-first century ecologists, philosophers, and other professionals to work together with traditional communities both in remote places and in metropolises. Stuart (“Terry”) Chapin and his Alaskan collaborators combine traditional and scientific ecological knowledge to examine the close connections that Amerindian peoples habits have with their habitats. Daniel Simberloff shows, however, that today the local–global dialectic is problematic, and argues that introduced species and foreign cultures are not bad per se but rather by the fact that their presence replaces local biodiversity, and also culture. Susan Bratton describes tensions between native and foreign cultures and their interrelated changes in the habitats and habits in the context of environmental injustice. Irene Klaver proposes the concept of situational agency to interpret human habits and interactions with other human and more-than-human co-inhabitants in urban habitats.

Abstract

Part I of the book is organized under the perspective of a biocultural ethic that interrelate the Habits and Habitats with the identities and well-being of the co-in-Habitants to assess and reorient the ecological and social consequences of globalization. The interrelationships among the “3 Hs” of the biocultural ethic proposed by Ricardo Rozzi involve biophysical, symbolic-linguistic, and institutional-sociopolitical-technological domains, and have foundations three families of worldviews: (i) pre-Socratic and other non-mainstream Western philosophies, (ii) Amerindian and other non-Western ecological worldviews, and (iii) contemporary ecological-evolutionary sciences. Peter Vitousek and Kamanamaikalani Beamer present an intercultural, interdisciplinary dialogue that transits toward the practices involved in the development of the Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, addressing the problematic, but unavoidable interactions between local and global habitats and habits today. In local–global dialectics, stewardship and dialogic partnerships bring twenty-first century ecologists, philosophers, and other professionals to work together with traditional communities both in remote places and in metropolises. Stuart (“Terry”) Chapin and his Alaskan collaborators combine traditional and scientific ecological knowledge to examine the close connections that Amerindian peoples habits have with their habitats. Daniel Simberloff shows, however, that today the local–global dialectic is problematic, and argues that introduced species and foreign cultures are not bad per se but rather by the fact that their presence replaces local biodiversity, and also culture. Susan Bratton describes tensions between native and foreign cultures and their interrelated changes in the habitats and habits in the context of environmental injustice. Irene Klaver proposes the concept of situational agency to interpret human habits and interactions with other human and more-than-human co-inhabitants in urban habitats.