Second Paper Topics for PH270

Due: Monday, November 11th

Length: 5 pages (min.)

Format: Argumentative

References: Use at least two sources from class and two outside sources. 

Submit: Via email to justin@oursanctuary.org 

Note on Form: If you are addressing a yes/no question in your second paper, you are invited to employ a dialectical form, meaning that you develop your argument by making the strongest case you can for the opposing view, and then offering a critique of the opposing view based on evidence and arguments you construct to support your position.  

Permaculture and Indigenous Worldview

1. Permaculture offers an integrated design framework for sustainability based on the foundational issue of soil fertility, but expanding to include all dimensions of human life. Explore the permaculture design system by focussing on a specific environmental problem that could be potentially resolved or mitigated using permaculture principles.

2. In her study of Ladakh in Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, Helena Norberg-Hodge argues that modern ideas about process and human happiness are actually making people less happy, and undermining the conditions which lead to living a peaceful and meaningful life. What is her argument and is she correct? If so, why? If not, why not? In your response, make use of Norberg-Hodge’s analysis.

3. Are there ethical principles, ecological practices and/or social arrangements in indigenous societies which have supported their long-term environmental sustainability and which may be necessary for modern societies to retrieve to save themselves from ecological collapse?

4. While modern classical economics posts a fundamental scarcity of resources for human life, indigenous societies rooted in gift economics experience an abundance of "resources" for humans. What are the social, economic and/or ecological ramifications of these differing worldviews and which can support the future of human civilization?

Theory of Value and Cosmology

5. Is Nature Sacred?   

6. Is acknowledgment of a sacred, or spiritual, dimension to nature and relationships a necessary aspect of a culture which supports environmental sustainability? Some thinkers, termed “deep ecologists” (E.g. E.F. Schumacher, Christopher Alexander, Charles Eisenstein) within the environmental philosophy movement, have argued that environmental degradation is predicted on a materialistic cosmology which denies inherent, or sacred, value in nature. Is this true? If so, why? If not, Why not?

7. Is each Self separate from other selves or is each self inherently connected to other selves? What bearing does this question have for a cosmology which supports human happiness and environmental regeneration?

8. Does creating an environmentally-sustainable and non-violent civilization require, as Charles Eisenstein argues, the restoration of the Spirit of Gift Economics? If so, is this a plausible suggestion, and how might it be undertaken as a realistic project?

Money, Banking and Growth

9. Philosophy of Money: Where does money come from, and why does it matter for environmental sustainability? Public banking, nationalizing America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as community currencies are all ways people are developing to restore the “Money Power” to democratic control. Make use of any of the documents posted on our blog to develop your paper.  Other questions related to money that you can write on: 

Are we ethically-obligated to pay back our debts? 

Is there an essential systemic connection between monetary systems and violence? 

What is usury, and is it a sin?

Is global debt peonage a justifiable result of monetary systems or an ethical abomination? Should commercial banks have the power to issue new money? 

Should the FED be nationalized? 

Should there be a global debt jubilee?

Environmental Aesthetics and the Theory of Unfolding Wholeness

10. Environmental Aesthetics and Theory of Value - Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? The Theory of Unfolding Wholeness implies that our perception of beauty in nature is objective and quantifiable as the density of life (interacting centers of live as living form), thus challenging the modernist principle of the subjectivity of beauty as a value. Does the theory of unfolding wholeness developed by Christopher Alexander offer a compelling refutation of modernist views of aesthetics?

11. Phenomenological Study of Beauty as Unfolding Wholeness. Spend 4-6 hours in SILENT EXPLORATION of the Wesleyan campus (or somewhere else) as a PLACE of intersection between a human environment (a built environment within which humans do things, work, study, communicate, eat, etc. and the larger natural environment. Your objective will be to use your intuitive feelings to help you measure the contrasting degrees of LIFE in different places around campus. You are looking to find two places: (1) the PLACE-THAT-FEELS-MOST-ALIVE, and (2) the PLACE-THAT-FEELS-LEAST-ALIVE. What do I mean by “alive”? I do NOT mean the place that has the most biological beings living there, or the most natural place. I mean the place that makes you feel most alive, most at home in the world there, that is relaxing, that allows you to feel connected to the place and to yourself, and that gives you a feeling of living beauty. It is suggested that you DO NOT SPEAK OR VERBALLY COMMUNICATE during your search. Language (a feature of the left-brain) suppresses the feelings (created by the right-brain) and makes it more difficult for your intuitive FEELINGS to guide your perception of living form. During or after your silent exploration, ask yourself: how do I express/represent life or the lack of life in this Place? Use as many of the 15 properties of wholeness as you can in your project. Write a paper on your experience, using it to explicate the theory of wholeness.

12. The Meaning of Environmental Aesthetics: The theory of wholeness suggests that the deepest expressions of beauty in the natural and built environment correspond to the condition of COHERENCE between systems. As I discussed during a presentation, this suggests a structural connection between ecological well-being, and our perceptions of both ethics as well as beauty. In your paper, explore the importance of beauty perception as a tool for understanding environmental sustainability in however manner you find relevant.

13. Make you own topic up, just check it with me first!