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Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics CULTURA CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2016 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1 2016 Vol XIII No 1 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL ISBN 978-3-631-67935-7 www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2016_267935_VOL_13_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 13.06.16 KW 24 17:43 CULTURA CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of 2016 Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1 2016 Vol XIII No 1 ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro- mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY CULTURE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL www.peterlang.com CULTURA 2016_267935_VOL_13_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 13.06.16 KW 24 17:43 CULTURA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002 ISSN (Print): 1584-1057 Advisory Board Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors: Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy B-dul Carol I, nr. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania [email protected] [email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel Englisches Seminar Technische Universität Braunschweig, Bienroder Weg 80, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany [email protected] Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc Designer: Aritia Poenaru Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology Vol. 13, No. 1 (2016) Editor-in-Chief Nicolae Râmbu Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Cover Image: © Aritia Poenaru ISSN 2065-5002 ISBN 978-3-631-67935-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-07223-5 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07223-5 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2016 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com CONTENTS Ove Skarpenes, Rune Sakslind & Roger Hestholm 7 National Repertoires of Moral Values Vuk Uskoković 29 Punk Philosophy as a Path to the Summits of Ethos Devendra Nath Tiwari 49 Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics Mădălin Onu 69 The Barbarian as Agent of History Dale Jacquette 89 Marx and Industrial Age Aesthetics of Alienation Jinghua Guo 107 Marginocentric Hong Kong: Archaeology of Dung Kai-cheung’s Atlas Agnieška Juzefovič 125 The Visual Turn in Academic Research and University Study Programs in Lithuania Mahdi Dahmardeh, Abbas Parsazadeh & SamanRezaie 137 Culture Matters: the Question of Metaphor and Taarof in Translation Janina Sombetzki 161 How “Post” Do We Want to Be – Really? The Boon and Bane of Enlightenment Humanism 10.3726/267935_49 Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 13(1)/2016: 49–68 Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics Devendra Nath Tiwari Visiting Professor on ICCR Chair, School of Indological Studies, MGI, Mauritius. [email protected] Abstract. This article is about a spiritual response to environmental crisis, an emerging field of ethics that joins ecology and environmentalism1 with the awareness of sacred within the creation2. It investigates into the Vedic texts for finding out the philosophical attitude about the earth and our spiritual obligations and responsibilities to the planet in resolving environmental issues. In the vedic- tradition3, it is the course of experiencing nature as spiritual presence and the awareness to it about our conduct as the moral and rational being. It is a world view that values all that in totality is called “nature” that is, generally, taken as “other” in contrast to human, as existence or spirit. The ethics of respect to “others”, against the effects of imperialistic, ideological conflicts, religious terrorism, industrial, atomic and corporate pollutions, must be worked out as a remedy. The basic argument of spiritual ecology lies in the view that we can find no God more than the spirit abiding in all units of the globe. One must have the view of spirit as ubiquitous principle in treating with and enjoying our needs with the things that the nature permeates as gifts of his care to it. Thus, spiritual ecology of the Vedic tradition has a therapeutic importance; it helps in cultivating our conduct and overcoming the fear of a risk against living on the earth. I am of the view that the rationality of a man and that of a nation is to be determined in proportion to the cultivation and progress of attitude and treatment with “other” but not the vice versa. Keywords: Dharma, three debts, Pancakośas, dark green religion, the other, Cultic Milieu THE ARGUMENT The same law working inside, the mind and outside, the nature is the reality of this universe and that corrupting one corrupts the other. The basic argument of our concern with environment is not confined to our conduct or morality only but extends also to change our attitude about the other as having existence that counts for valuation of progress of our rationality and that is why an environmental issue becomes a spiritual one. 49 Devendra Nath Tiwari / Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Ethics TWO WAYS OF LIVING There are two basic ways of living. The first out of the two is to live with other’s experiences laid down in the great books as we find in some of Religious sects, followers of prophetic religions and sayings of the great persons as well. The second way of living is to live by one’s own experiences for which the experiences of the great minds are required only for enriching by experiencing and not as operating force that is spirit only. Dharma Tradition as such has no religious, theological, language, rational and racial dogma; it is always a way to experience the spirit in you, in me and in all and to conduct with the other venerably. This outlook has provided the Hindus perceiving the whole cosmos inside one’s being and conducting with it as the closest to spirit. EMERGING ATTITUDE TOWARDS CLASSICAL INDIAN VIEW OF ENVIRONMENT The way of philosophizing on environmental perspective, in recent West is getting inspiration from the responses of classical Hindu texts to environmental issues. In brief, it is a move for spiritual treatment with the “Other”. Spiritual ecology is a response to all those sick ideologies that are greatly responsible for the ideological, religious, social and political environment crisis. It is getting high importance as a worldview and is attracting the people of the world to cultivate the ways of thinking and conducting with environment at local and global level. It is given high importance recently by Western thinkers as a philosophy of applied ethics, which believes that men by his actions have an effect positive or negative on environment. Men’s attitude towards world, his surroundings, his own position in the nature and his relation with environment direct his actions towards environment. It is a vision that we are here on earth to cultivate ourselves to the extent of realization that “we are nature inside and outside”. Very recently ecologists, philosophers and scientists are feeling high need for explaining Indian Spiritual Ecology as a view of life that gives a vital meaning in forbearing against different imperialistic and anthropocentric ideologies because it considers earth worth of reverent care.
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