DOCSLIB.ORG

A Metaphysical Approach to Environmental Sustainability- Alfred

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Metaphysical Approach to Environmental Sustainability- Alfred A METAPHYSICAL APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S PROCESS PHILOSOPHY By DYNESIUS NYANGAU C50/79646/2015 A Research Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy, University of Nairobi 2016 DECLARATION I declare that this research project is my original work and has not been presented for examination in any other university. __________________________ _______________________________ Sign Date Dynesius Nyangau C50/79646/2015 This research project has been submitted for examination with my approval as the university supervisor. ____________________________ _______________________________ Sign Date Dr. Patrick O. Nyabul Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies University of Nairobi ii DEDICATION To the late Professor Joseph Nyasani, in whose sense of duty I will ever remain, for his acerbic academic discernment, resolute inspiration and unflagging demonstration of the most philosophical audacity, charity and bounteousness in the face of great hardship. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I hold with esteem the input of Prof. Stephen Ifedha Akaranga, the Head of Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies for his specific contribution on methodology while working on this document. I remain indebted to my supervisor Dr. Patrick O. Nyabul for his dedication, continuous review and guidance throughout the study. I acknowledge with gratitude the input of Prof. Karori Mbugua and Prof. Solomon Monyenye who listened, critiqued, and helped me organize my thoughts before beginning to put down the proposal for this project. I thank my educators Dr. Francis Owakah and Dr. Oriare Nyarwath, whose constructive criticism and input helped shape up this work. I express gratitude to Dr. Joseph Situma whose support, critical review and active listening during the period of my research has been remarkable. I thank Dr. Wafula Muyila for his overwhelming input and the timed that he has invested in the review of this project. I acknowledge my father Sebastian Nyangau and my mother Pacifica Nyanchoka for their good will on me and for their commitment to give me their best as their son. It is through them that I came to be and learned to love. iv ABSTRACT This project looks at the various moral guiding principles and responses have been developed as an attempt to respond to existing environmental concerns. As a starting point it examines anthropocentrism, biocentrism and Ecocentrism. It avers that part of the reason why we experience environmental challenges is because of the divisions between humans and nonhumans created through anthropocentrism and between living and nonliving brought about by biocentrism. The project further observes that while ecocentrism has attempted to resolve the problem through the numerous ecocentric philosophies such as deep ecology, ecological models, eco-psychology, elemental philosophy, non-disjunctive approach, ecofeminism, transpersonal ecology and ecopsychology; there is still more that needs to be done in unifying this ecocentric theoretical approaches as an attempt to offer a theoretical solution to environmental sustainability. The objectives of the study are: to make a critical examination of Whitehead‘s Metaphysics; to demonstrate the implications of Whitehead‘s Metaphysics on environmentalism; and make inferences on how process philosophy may be applied to environmentalism. Due to the human impact on the environment through: carbon dioxide emissions, both industrial and agricultural, water vapor, overgrazing, and thermal pollution, diversion of fresh waters into oceans, affecting its salinity and freezing point, deforestation; the need to have further study on the justifications for environmental sustainability cannot be overemphasized. Humans are negatively changing both their environment and climate. This study departs from the point that despite the existing ecophilosophical approaches none of them on its own really achieves what ecocentrism set out to achieve which is having a sustainable environment. The study therefore seeks a whole inclusive metaphysical approach in addressing environmental sustainability efforts. In other words a metaphysical approach to environmental sustainability which is a postulation from Whitehead‘s process philosophy is an attempt by this study to find a unity of purpose by all ecological theories on environmentalism. In its findings therefore this study holds that in and through process philosophy, the study institutes a unity among equal beings that are unified by the elements that contribute into their make up in a metaphysical unity explained by the principles well demonstrated by process philosophy. A critical examination and study of Whitehead‘s process philosophy is therefore demonstrated as necessary in order to establish justification for the paradigm in which we will have a nature centered approach to the environment and hence achieving its sustainability. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1Background to the Study ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the Research Problem ............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Objectives of the Study ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 Justification of the Study ............................................................................................................. 5 1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................. 5 1.6 Definition of Key Terms .............................................................................................................. 6 1.7 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.7.1. Deep Ecology ....................................................................................................................... 7 1.7.2. Ecological Models................................................................................................................ 9 1.7.3. Eco-phenomenology .......................................................................................................... 11 1.7.4. Elemental Philosophy ........................................................................................................ 14 1.7.6. Non-disjunctive Approach ................................................................................................. 18 1.7.7. Ecofeminism ...................................................................................................................... 20 1.7.8. Transpersonal Ecology ....................................................................................................... 23 1.7.9. Ecopsychology ................................................................................................................... 25 1.8 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................................. 28 1.9 Research Hypothesis .................................................................................................................. 32 1.10 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 32 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................................. 33 ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS AND PHILOSOPHY ........................................................................... 33 2.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 33 2.1 Environmental Crises ................................................................................................................. 34 2.2 Philosophical Worldviews and Environmental Crisis................................................................ 36 2.2.1 Materialism and Environmental Crisis ................................................................................... 39 2.2.1 Gnosticism and Environmental Crisis ..................................................................................... 41 2.2.3 Cartesian Dualism and Environmental Crisis ......................................................................... 43
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Life and Mind: from Autopoiesis to Neurophenomenology. a Tribute to Francisco Varela1
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 3: 381–398, 2004. C 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Life and mind: From autopoiesis to neurophenomenology. A tribute to Francisco Varela1 EVAN THOMPSON Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Science and the Embodied Mind, Department of Philosophy, York University (E-mail: [email protected]) Abstract. This talk, delivered at “De l’autopoi`eseal ` aneuroph´enom´enologie: un hommagea ` Francisco Varela;from autopoiesis to neurophenomenology: a tribute to Francisco Varela,” June 18–20, at the Sorbonne in Paris, explicates several links between Varela’sneurophenomenology and his biological concept of autopoiesis. Key words: autopoiesis, lived body, neurophenomenology, teleology, Varela Allow me to begin on a personal note. I first met Francisco Varela in the summer of 1977 at a conference called “Mind in Nature.” The conference wasorganized by my father, William Irwin Thompson, and Gregory Bateson. It took place in Southampton, New York, at the Lindisfarne Association, an institute founded by my father, and was chaired by Bateson, who was then serving as Lindisfarne’s Scholar-in-Residence.2 Iwas not quite 15-years old; Francisco was almost 32. At that time Francisco was known within the cir- cle of second-generation cybernetics and systems theory for his work with Maturana on autopoiesis and for his “calculus of self-reference” (Varela et al., 1974; Maturana and Varela, 1975; Varela 1975). But outside this circle he was known for an interview and a paper that had appeared about a year earlier in Coevolution Quarterly,awidely read intellectual journal of the American counterculture in the 1970s (Varela 1976a,b).
    [Show full text]
  • Of Mainstream Religion in Australia
    Is 'green' religion the solution to the ecological crisis? A case study of mainstream religion in Australia by Steven Murray Douglas Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University March 2008 ii Candidate's Declaration This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text. Steven Murray Douglas Date: iii Acknowledgements “All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of nature; but the man lost in selfish delusion thinks he himself is the actor.” (Bhagavad Gita 3:27). ‘Religion’ remains a somewhat taboo subject in Australia. When combined with environmentalism, notions of spirituality, the practice of criticality, and the concept of self- actualisation, it becomes even harder to ‘pigeonhole’ as a topic, and does not fit comfortably into the realms of academia. In addition to the numerous personal challenges faced during the preparation of this thesis, its very nature challenged the academic environment in which it took place. I consider that I was fortunate to be able to undertake this research with the aid of a scholarship provided by the Fenner School of Environment & Society and the College of Science. I acknowledge David Dumaresq for supporting my scholarship application and candidature, and for being my supervisor for my first year at ANU. Emeritus Professor Valerie Brown took on the role of my supervisor in David’s absence during my second year.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Syntheses and Surprises: Toward a Critical Integral Theory
    Of Syntheses and Surprises: Toward a Critical Integral Theory Daniel Gustav Anderson Abstract: The central concern of this article is how the search for formal structures with universal values functions ideologically, addressing Zizek’s claim that East-West syntheses may represent the dominant ideology par excellance of global capitalism. To this end, the article offers a Foucaultian genealogy of Integral theory, tracing its origins to the cultural and subjective contingencies of the British Empire, primarily in the work of Integral theory’s foundational thinker, Aurobindo Ghose. The article poses a primary critique of synthesis and evolution as mythological keys to Ultimate Reality which suggests that Zizek’s critique may have some validity, and offers the potential for a “critical integral theory” as an alternative. Situated in Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of becoming, and represented in the ideas and practices of a constellation of thinkers inclusive of Gurdjieff, Benjamin, and Trungpa, the article’s view of integration supports radical democracy as presented in the writings of Laclau and Mouffe as a model outcome for social and personal transformational practices. Keywords: ideology, integral, critical, becoming-other, transformational practice, Aurobindo, Deleuze, Guattari, Ziporyn, Tarthang, Trungpa, Benjamin, Gurdjieff, Laclau, Mouffe, Zizek Introduction In On Belief, Slavoj Zizek (2001) argues that the onslaught of the New Age ‘Asiatic’ thought, which, in its different guises, from the ‘Western Buddhism’ (today’s counterpoint to Western Marxism, as opposed to the ‘Asiatic’ Marxism-Leninism) to different ‘Taos,’ is establishing itself as the hegemonic1 ideology of global capitalism (p. 12). 1 A detailed examination of hegemony as a critical concept is beyond the scope of this paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Metaphysics Or Metaphors for the Anthropocene? Scientific Naturalism and the Agency of Things
    Open Philosophy 2018; 1: 191–212 Patrick Gamez* Metaphysics or Metaphors for the Anthropocene? Scientific Naturalism and the Agency of Things https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2018-0014 Received June 17, 2018; accepted July 31, 2018 Abstract: In this paper, I provide the outlines of an alternative metaphilosophical orientation for Continental philosophy, namely, a form of scientific naturalism that has proximate roots in the work of Bachelard and Althusser. I describe this orientation as an “alternative” insofar as it provides a framework for doing justice to some of the motivations behind the recent revival of metaphysics in Continental philosophy, in particular its ecological-ethical motivations. In the second section of the paper, I demonstrate how ecological-ethical issues motivate new metaphysicians like Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, Ian Bogost, and Graham Harman to impute to objects real features of agency. I also try to show how their commitments lead to deep ambiguities in their metaphysical projects. In the final section, I outline a type of scientific naturalism in Continental philosophy that parallels the sort of naturalism championed by Quine, both conceptually and historically, and suggest that it might serve our ecological-ethical purposes better. Keywords: speculative realism, vital materialism, environmental ethics, non-anthropocentrism, Bachelard, Althusser, Continental philosophy 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview The landscape of Continental philosophy has changed radically in the early 21st century. The last 15 years have seen a resurgence of speculative philosophy, rationalisms, and realisms of all stripes. We see this in the “new materialism” of Diana Coole and others, the Deleuzian realism of Manuel Delanda, the “object-oriented philosophy” of Graham Harman, and many others.
    [Show full text]
  • Ontology and Ethics at the Intersection of Phenomenology and Environmental Philosophy*
    Inquiry, 47, 380–412 Ontology and Ethics at the Intersection of Phenomenology and Environmental Philosophy* Iain Thomson University of New Mexico The idea inspiring the eco-phenomenological movement is that phenomenology can help remedy our environmental crisis by uprooting and replacing environmentally- destructive ethical and metaphysical presuppositions inherited from modern philosophy. Eco-phenomenology’s critiques of subject/object dualism and the fact/value divide are sketched and its positive alternatives examined. Two competing approaches are discerned within the eco-phenomenological movement: Nietzscheans and Husserlians propose a naturalistic ethical realism in which good and bad are ultimately matters of fact, and values should be grounded in these proto- ethical facts; Heideggerians and Levinasians articulate a transcendental ethical realism according to which we discover what really matters when we are appropriately open to the environment, but what we thereby discover is a transcendental source of meaning that cannot be reduced to facts, values, or entities of any kind. These two species of ethical realism generate different kinds of ethical perfectionism: naturalistic ethical realism yields an eco-centric perfectionism which stresses the flourishing of life in general; transcendental ethical realism leads to a more ‘humanistic’ perfectionism which emphasizes the cultivation of distinctive traits of Dasein. Both approaches are examined, and the Heideggerian strand of the humanistic approach defended, since it approaches the best elements of the eco-centric view while avoiding its problematic ontological assumptions and anti-humanistic implications. I. Introduction: Uncovering the Conceptual Roots of Environmental Devastation What happens when you cross phenomenology with environmental philoso- phy? According to the editors of Eco-Phenomenology: Back to the Earth Itself, you get an important interdisciplinary movement.
    [Show full text]
  • Environmental Philosophy: Beyond Environmental Ethics
    Environmental Philosophy: Beyond Environmental Ethics Mark Colyvan* Abstract: There are many interesting philosophical issues associated with the science and policy of conserving our natural environment. Despite much of the philosophical work being passed off as environmental ethics, it is clear that the issues in question go well beyond anything that can reasonably be thought of as belonging to environmental ethics. A great deal of the philosophical work required involves epistemology and decision theory. Moreover, this is no mere terminological issue. Misconstruing the nature of the issues in question, and the tools available to deal with them, can result in sub- optimal environmental outcomes. Once we disentangle the various philosophical issues in question, the proper role of environmental ethics, and environmental philosophy more generally, becomes clearer. The central focus of environmental ethics ought to be that of how to implement ethical environmental strategies in the face of uncertainty—uncertainty both about how the world is and about the relevant values. But the proper representation of the uncertainties in question is the business of epistemology, and the proper framework for making the decisions in question is the business of decision theory. Thinking that either of these latter issues falls within the purview of environmental ethics is a dangerous mistake. Environmental ethics concerns itself with ethical issues arising from the relationship between humans and the natural environment. Of particular interest are ethical considerations in relation to human efforts to conserve the natural environment. Some of the key environmental ethics issues are whether environmental value is intrinsic or instrumental, whether biodiversity is valuable in itself or whether it is an indicator of some other value(s), and what the appropriate time scale is for conservation planning.
    [Show full text]
  • Print Layout 1
    LivingLit 04 8/30/04 5:45 PM Page 158 158 The Cultural Phenomenology of Literature by William Irwin Thompson Introduction First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me back to York for this conference, for this is a particularly appropriate time for me to return. If I were still on the faculty at York, this would be the year of my compul- sory retirement, so I look upon this as my Last Lecture or Swan Song. It is doubly appropriate for me to give this lecture here, for it was in this very room in 1971 when I was an Associate Professor of Humanities that I organized a conference entitled “Thinking on a Planetary Scale,” to which I invited the global theorist Bucky Fuller, the ecological archi- tect Paolo Soleri, and Richard Falk, Professor of International Law at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. The conference was my eVort to express to my colleagues that business as usual was not enough and that we were living through a radical juncture in history in which a new planetary culture was emerging, a culture that was distinct from the internationalism that had characterized the world-system since the end of World War II.1 Wissenschaft und Wissenskunst Since B. W. Powe has asked us in this conference to think about the meaning of literacy in an electronic age, let me take a moment to address myself to this, the central question of our gathering. In my own writings of the time when I was here at York – in works such as At the Edge of History and Passages about Earth – I tried to use the structure of Romantic “Poems of Description and Meditation,” as the internal structure for non-fiction essays.2 In this work, I was also trying to respond to the challenge of Marshall McLuhan’s work.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Volume 20 | Number 2
    NEWSLETTERS | The American Philosophical Association APA Newsletters SPRING 2021 VOLUME 20 | NUMBER 2 ASIAN AND ASIAN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHERS AND PHILOSOPHIES FEMINISM AND PHILOSOPHY HISPANIC/LATINO ISSUES IN PHILOSOPHY NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS PHILOSOPHY PHILOSOPHY AND THE BLACK EXPERIENCE TEACHING PHILOSOPHY VOLUME 20 | NUMBER 2 SPRING 2021 © 2021 BY THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION ISSN 2155-9708 Table of Contents Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Ethical Narratives and Oppositional Philosophies ...................................................... 1 Consciousness ......................................................... 67 Editors’ Introduction: Buddhist Modernism and Its What It’s Like to Grow Up Poor, but Fall in Love Discontents ................................................................ 1 with Philosophy: A Notice to the Profession in Case It Forgot ........................................................... 71 Articles ....................................................................... 5 Knowing What to Order at the Conference Précis of Why I Am Not a Buddhist ............................ 5 Dinner ....................................................................... 75 On Pursuing the Dialogue Between Buddhism and Epistemic Shame as a First-Generation Scholar ..... 77 Science in Ways That Distort Neither ........................ 8 Marginal Disclosures: Sisterhood, Standpoint, On Being a Good Friend to Buddhist Philosophy ... 15 Community, and Thriving......................................... 80 Buddhism
    [Show full text]
  • "Environmental Justice"
    IIENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE"JUSTICE" Holmes Rolston, IIIIII Colorado State UniversityUniversity nvironmentalJustice is a welcome addition to the rapidly growing literature in envi­ A review of Peter S. Wenz's Environmental ronmental ethics. Two dozen titles are Justice, (Albany: State University of New York E currently in print or in press, and this Press, 1988).368 pages. $52.50 hardbound, book will hold its own in that vigorous discussion. Peter S. Wenz is Associate Professor of Philosophy $19.95 paper. and Legal Studies at Sangaman State University, Springfield, Illinois. His background in law as well as philosophy shapes his approach, which is from the perspective of justice. "Environmental Justice is primarily about theories of distributive justice, the­ ories concerning the manner in which benefits and burdens should be allocated when there is a scarcity of benefits (relative to people's wants or needs) and a surfeit of burdens" (pp. xi-xii). "The present book is largely devoted to examining com­ peting principles of distributive justice as they are, or may be used to make environmentally focused decisions" (p. 24). Wenz finds environmental justice of critical importance, both practically and theoretically. "I have argued that we live in an extremely unjust world" (p. 338). "From the environmentalenvironmental justice perspective, the world is a mess" (p. 339). In his .~~., '~~''q ~ q'# REVIEW q'# Ii 1.L.)~ I!l~ Summer 1989 147 Between the Species '-"~.>j',,~ ..'?!l'{;-""'i,,)<,'i:*,'~"'., :c.."-." Environmenta1Jusnee search for justice, Wenz surveys available theories animal rights. Humans have a right to be rescued and tests them against cases real and imagined.
    [Show full text]
  • At Last, the Real Distinguished Thing at Last, the Real Distinguished Thing
    at last, The Real Distinguished Thing at last, The Real Distinguished Thing The Late Poems of Eliot, Pound, Stevens, and Williams by Kathleen Woodward OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Excerpts from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot are reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and Faberand Faber, Ltd.; copyright 1943 by T. S. Eliot; copyright 1971 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Excerpts from the following works are reprinted by permission of New Directions, New York, and Faber and Faber, Ltd., London: The Cantos ofEzra Pound, copyright 1948 by Ezra Pound; Pavannes and Divagations by Ezra Pound, copyright © 1958 by Ezra Pound, all rights reserved. Excerpts from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens are reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and Faber and Faber, Ltd.; copyright © 1923, 1931, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954 by Wallace Stevens. Excerpts from the following works by William Carlos Williams are reprinted by permission of New Directions: Paterson, copyright 1946, 1949, 1951, 1958 by William Carlos Wil­ liams; Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems, copyright 1954 by William Carlos Williams; Selected Essays, copyright 1954 by William Carlos Williams; / Wanted to Write a Poem, edited by Edith Heal, copyright © 1958 by William Carlos Williams. Chapter 1 originally appeared in different form as "Master Songs of Meditation: The Late Poems of Eliot, Pound, Stevens, and Williams," in Aging and the Elderly: Humanistic Perspectives in Gerontology, edited by Stuart F. Spicker, Kathleen Woodward, and David D. Van Tassel (Humanities Press, 1978), and is reprinted by permission of Humanities Press, Inc., Atlantic Highlands, N.J.
    [Show full text]
  • Thinking Duck the Newsletter for the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon Spring 2008
    The THINKING DUCK THE NEWSLETTER FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON SPRING 2008 The Society for Interdisciplinary Feminist Phenomenology A new initiative promises to change the face of feminist philosophy by Lori Brown, graduate student he Society for Interdisciplin- ary Feminist Phenomenology T (SIFP) will host its inaugural institute and public forum over Me- morial Day weekend, May 28–31. SIFP is the brainchild of philoso- phy faculty members Bonnie Mann and Beata Stawarska. Bringing it to fruition, however, has involved the efforts of people and programs from across—and beyond—the uni- versity. Bonnie and Beata founded the institute in 2006 with advisory assistance from Sara Heinämaa, senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Helsinki, and Eva Maria Simms, professor of psychology at Duquesne University. The society’s inception was further aided by gen- erous funding from the University Seated (left to right): cofounders of SIFP Dr. Beata Stawarska and Dr. Bonnie Mann. Back row of Oregon’s Center for the Study of (left to right): current administrative graduate teaching fellows and graduate students Caroline Lundquist, Elena Cuffari, Emma Jones, Amrita Banerjee and Sarah LaChance Adams Women in Society, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Wired Humanities Project, the Oregon complished through a small-group focus, an opportunity for deep Humanities Center, and the Department of Philosophy. engagement with one another’s work beforehand, and a commit- Graduate students in the philosophy department also have ment to holding the sessions in a beautiful place. been integral to the society’s success. Sarah LaChance Adams Now, that last point may catch you off guard.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critical Reflection on Environmental Pragmatism
    A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON ENVIRONMENTAL PRAGMATISM A Thesis Submitted in to Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By DEVARTHA MORANG ROLL NO-09614105 DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI Guwahati 781039 India October 2016 1 DEDICATION To my parents & my mother-in- law Smti. Tileswari Loing 2 TH-1633_09614105 Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Department of Humanities & Social Sciences Guwahati 781039 Assam, India DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitle “ A Critical Reflection on Environmental Pragmatism ” is a research work carried out by me in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, under the supervision of Prof. Prabhu Venkataraman for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This work has not been submitted elsewhere for award of any degree or diploma in any university or institute. Devartha Morang 21 st October 2016 IIT Guwahati i TH-1633_09614105 Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Department of Humanities & Social Sciences Guwahati 781039 Assam, India CERTIFICATE It is certified that the matter embodied in the thesis entitled A Critical Reflection on Environmental Pragmatism, submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Devartha Morang, a student of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India, has been carried out under my supervision. It is also certified that this work has not been submitted anywhere else for the award of a research degree. IIT Guwahati Dr. V. Prabhu October 2016 Associate Professor Department of Humanities and Social Sciences IIT Guwahati, Assam, India ii TH-1633_09614105 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I thank my parent organization the Biswanath College for giving me opportunity to pursue my research work at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India in the department of Humanities and social sciences.
    [Show full text]