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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
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