Transcendentalism is the way of learning and finding the good in oneself, but also in nature to see and imagine beyond one's mind. The Transcendentalists consists of great thinkers who philosophize about how people should live their lives centered around and how the natural world nature affects everyone. Transcendentalism has been expressed by many different known authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, and the modern Transcendentalist Annie Dillard; also the authors mentioned before would not agree with the issue of global warming. Emerson is a Transcendentalist because he believes more in what nature offers as opposed to the material things in life. Emerson was also known as the father of Transcendentalism.
His next collection of poetry May-Day and Other Pieces (1867) was followed by Society and Solitude (1870). Emerson next launched into his "Natural History of Intellect" series of lectures at Harvard University. “Mine are the night and morning, The pits of air, the gulf of space, The sportive sun, the gibbous moon, The innumerable days. I hide in the solar glory, I am dumb in the pealing song, I rest on the pitch of the torrent, In slumber I am strong” (Song of Nature 1-8). Whitman was an iconoclast, breaking new ground in abandoning rhyme and meter over the use of free verse, in opposition to the structured rigidity of the European poets of the time.
An idea that people of the Emersonian viewpoint shared was that “nature mattered because natural facts were expressions of enduring of the spiritual facts” (White, 32). Emersonians were avid believers in creationism. They also were of the mindset that humans could do no wrong when it came to nature. “When humans acted on nature, they did not defile it, they purified it.”(White, 35) Capitalism and further industrialization were big parts of the Emersonian view. They believed in progress and the environment would bend to the will of humans.
He writes, "There is yet no ethic dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it" (Leopold, 516). This is a problem for Leopold, for he strongly believes that human beings must take ethical responsibility for the effects they have on the land. He furthers his point by explaining that ethics have evolved to rest on the idea that ethics serve to prompt individuals to cooperate in an otherwise individualistic community. Therefore, it is through these ecological ethics alone that humankind can work together to alter their environmental state. Leopold goes on to explain that "a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it" (Leopold, 517).
Christie argues that we, as humans, took ourselves away from nature because we forgot about how important it was to us and we stopped caring about this beautiful part of life. As both authors give reliable reasoning’s about spirituality connecting to ecology, the idea of being attached to nature will be expressed clearly. Contemplative Ecology refers to a particular way of thinking about and engaging ecological concerns and refers to a particular way of thinking about spiritual practice, one that understands the work of transforming awareness as leading toward and including a deepened understanding of the intricate relationships among and between all living beings. “Contemplative practice meant opening oneself honestly to the whole of reality as it presents itself, and to the long, difficult process of relinquishing one’s attachment to the ego’s isolating and the alienating power.” (Blue Sapphire pg35) Christie meaning of this quote is that releasing your inner self and opening your mind will clear the true meaning of nature. “Other animals and the plants once shared a common language with human beings.
Critics over the years focused on this search for a hidden significance, and put forward their own interpretation of this "truth." The scarlet letter has thus been assigned almost as many different meanings as there are words beginning with the letter A in the English dictionary. Instead of offering my own A-word as a key to understanding Nathaniel Hawthorne's masterpiece, I would like to focus on the notion of symbol itself, and on the way the author organizes this search for a meaning. The narrator frequently uses this word throughout the romance, and its various occurrences enable us to shape a definition that corresponds to his personal use of symbols. From this starting point, I would like to show how Hawthorne stages the interpretative process within The Scarlet Letter, and how this provides keys for the reader on how to read them.
A main view of anthropocentrism is that nature serves only to serve mankind in any way possible. This idea has led modern society to exploit and plunder natural resources for the “betterment” of mankind. Because it values humanity with such high regard, anthropocentrism seeks to protect only the things that can directly benefit mankind, without leaving room for the things that can indirectly benefit man too. Anthropocentrism has extrinsic value for the world, meaning it sees the organisms and systems on earth as existing for the sole purpose of benefiting mankind. As human technology progresses on so does the damage this type of thinking can inflict upon the planet.
‘Natural Law is of no use when dealing with issues concerning the environment.’ Discuss. (35) Natural Law is an ethical theory first developed by Thomas Aquinas. It is an absolutist and deontological approach where humans use their reason to fulfil their purpose in order to achieve the ultimate good – eternal happiness with God in heaven. Nowadays, the environment has become a polemic issue, causing disagreement amongst many circles. A follower of natural law would say that the statement is flawed, and that the theory can be extremely useful when dealing with issues concerning the environment.
Explain the theory of duty in Kantian Ethics (25 marks) Kantian ethics is an absolutist theory as Kant claimed what is morally ‘good’ is constant and unchanging. Because of this, it can be a universal concept applied in different societies and cultures with the idea that an action should only be performed for duty’s sake. His approach was deontological because the idea of right or wrong was based on the action rather than the consequence, he believed that this was the only rational basis for morality and could be proven objectively, independent from emotion and opinion. As humans we have the innate ability to reason, something which we gained prior to any sensory experience in this world. This is an idea which is absolute and according to Kant, the way we decide the morality of an action.
Gandhi was neither super-human nor special or divine. Those that looked to him for direction really embraced and found strength in the idea that they were “human” just like him. Gandhi states that “Individual liberty and interdependence are both essential to life in society,” and he links these two ideas. Despite often being depicted as mutually exclusive, these two ideas are very much an integral part of the teachings that Gandhi tried to get his followers to understand and relate to. People, by their very existence, are meant to be free and maintain a level of individual liberty.