FROM LANDSCAPE TO ETHICSCAPE: Re-examination of Sense of Place Concept and Environmental Ethics. Marlon Patrick P. Lofredo

Transcription

1 FROM LANDSCAPE TO ETHICSCAPE: Re-examination of Sense of Place Concept and Environmental Ethics International Conference on Environmental Ethics and Energy Equity Beyond 2015 Chulolangkorn University, Bangkok Thailand Marlon Patrick P. Lofredo

2 1. Sense of Place and Environmental Ethics 2. Topophiliavs. topoantilepsye 3. From Landscape to Ethicscape PRESENTATION OUTLINE

3 1. Why the need for ethics? Inner goodness vs. need for ethical precepts Inner disposition for good vs. human disposition to evil Sense as cognitive expression of inner dispositions. Environmental ethics and the re-awakening of human sense

4 2. Sense of place as inner disposition towards the good. 3. Varied understanding and uses of the concept Anthropology: the symbolic relationship formed by people giving culturally shared emotional/affective meanings to a particular space of piece of land that provides the basis for the individual s and group s understanding of and relation to the environment (Setha Low).

5 Environmental psychology: the particular experience of a person in a particular setting (Fritz Steele). Geography: topophilia, the affective bond between people and place or setting and responses to such bond may be aesthetic, tactile, or emotional (Yi-Fun Tuan). Sociology: the people s subjective perceptions of their environments and their more or less conscious feelings about those environments (David Hummon).

6 4. Common ideas: relationship, experience, environment 5. Sense of place then is commonly understood as something that you establish, something that you do, something that happens to you, and something that is related to your surrounding or environment mostly affective. 6. Missing: cognitive dimension/property

7 1. Yi-Fun Tuan s topophilia sense of place a) Etymologically, it means love of place b) It does not capture the intuitive/cognitive property of the concept, only the affective is. c) Such affects the understanding and application of the philosophy of sense of place to particular discipline, like environmental ethics.

8 2. Sense of place topoantilepsye, in keeping with its etymological roots. a) Topoantilepsyeis a person s apprehension, comprehension, conception, understanding, notion, perception, realization, concept, or awareness of his environment which produces affective responses. b) In this case, one s relationship with his/her environment becomes a rational decision and affective response at the same time.

9 1. Ethics becomes effective if it can move from theory to praxis, that is, when it can be understood and applied in specific contexts, conditions, or situations -if it can move beyond rhetoric and discourse and shape public policy, mindsets/paradigms, and attitudes.

10 2. One cannot do what one cannot understand, one cannot appreciate what one cannot apprehend, on cannot care for anything if one cannot comprehend its value and meaning.

11 3. Topoantilepsyeas an ethical perspective allows a person to look at a landscape, understand the landscape, determines the meaning and value of the landscape to his integral development, appropriates a behavior in relation to the meaning and value, and shifts his/her paradigm to see a place where he/she can build a relationship guided by ethical principles an ethicscape.

12 4. An ethicscapeis a way of seeing the environment and any ecological system reinforced by topoantilepsye. It is a way of seeing or viewing with the eyes of ethics. 5. It is not merely an appreciation or loving of a place, or returning to one s roots, but humane way of viewing the environment as a result of a proper and right understanding, perception, conception or comprehension of the value and meaning of one s place/environment (topoantilepsye).

13 THANK YOU VERY MUCH!