Dualism In Val Plumwood's Paths Beyond Human-Centeredness

In “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments”, Thomas Hill explores the idea that those who would destroy natural environments may lack necessary human virtues. He lays out this idea through these claims:

Given the definition of oppression as a system of interrelated barriers and forces which “mold”, “immobilize”, and “reduce” a certain group of people, and affect their subordination to another group (Frye 4), Frye lists out five premises in order to be considered oppressed. First of all, the group of people must be restricted. In other words, there must be limitations or barriers on them. For example, women make 78 cents for every dollar earned by men (Kessler 1). Second, “those restrictions surely cause harm, which must outweigh any potential benefits oppressed groups experience as a result of those same restrictions” (Gillingham 1). For

explicitly explains that there are five specific factors of oppression that affect many people in their day to day lives. Those five faces are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Exploitation is the act towards the usage of labor of a specific social group to benefit another group. Marginalization is commonly the exclusion of people of a third world such as racially marked groups, unemployed, disabled, elderly, etc. Powerlessness is the concept how people of power often profit from the labor of others. Cultural imperialism is the idea of a dominant group becoming a norm of society thus making non-dominant groups behaviors as

Throughout history, humans have had a strong reliance on nature and their environment. As far back as historians can look, people have depended on elements of nature for their survival. In the past few decades, the increased advancement of technology has led to an unfortunate division between humans and nature, and this lack of respect is becoming a flaw in current day society. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv criticizes modern culture by arguing that humans increasing reliance on technology has led to their decreasing connection with nature through the use of relevant anecdotes, rhetorical questions and powerful imagery to appeal to ethos.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, creates a thought-provoking idea of the separation between people and nature in this excerpt from his book. His opinionated tone forces the reader to be concerned for the future generations by including ironic hyperboles and sarcastic diction, which appeal to the readers’ pathos. He uses these rhetorical strategies to indirectly state his opinions.

Throughout today’s society there are several different cultural perspectives which form theoretical and practical understandings of natural environments, creating various human-nature relationship types. In this essay, I will describe and evaluate different ways of knowing nature and the impact of these views on human-nature relationships. From this, I will then explore my own human-nature relationship and reflect on how my personal experiences, beliefs and values has led me to this view, whilst highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each and reflecting upon Martin’s (1996) continuum.

In our Society, we deal with many form of oppression in our daily lives. Unfortunately, different groups of people are more oppressed than others. Oppression is the unjust treatment of a group of people. I believe, our government is a major culprit as they are responsible for oppressing most of society. This involves many groups, such as single mothers, the working class, African Americans, gays and lesbians. In my paper, my personal views will be addressed incorporating ideas from several readings pertaining to different forms of oppression. A summarization of each article will be provided as well.

As the years progress on and as society continues to develop, It seems then when it comes to certain equal rights though it says on paper that we are all equal it appears in actuality that we may never be truly equal. The truth of the matter is that women are the majority in actuality. Men tend to dominate in behavior, affluent and in their success. The fight for equal rights amongst women can even in some cases be compare to the importance of the fight for equality amounts African Americans. They both fought towards social injustice for the battle of equality and refused to accept oppression further more. The matrix of domination is a term that entails the issues that women of subordinate racial background and ethnic background face (Schaefer 364). Instead of

There is an emphasis on the individual seen all throughout various mediums of today’s society and this egocentric view stems from “the idea of freedom, which is central not only to contemporary politics but also to the humanities, the arts, and literature” (Ghosh 119). The concept of freedom is attractive as it gives power and a sense of control to the individual. With freedom comes a sense of hope and possibilities, but as ecologist Garrett Hardin argues this concept is dangerous in the “complex, crowded, [and] changeable world” as it separates people from one another and their environment (1245). As humans “have become more complexy interrelated, [they] have also become more ‘distant’ from one another and [from the] environmental problems (Ostrom et al. 281). This separation of humans from one another will pose a problem as humans must unite to combat the challenges of the Anthropocene. There must be a change from thinking of freedom in an individualistic sense because “man is dependent upon other organisms both for the immediate means of survival and for maintaining habitat conditions under which survival is possible” (Crosby 1186). Society must embrace a collective freedom where individuals understand “how their actions affect each other” and the environment, and can make independent decisions that will promote the benefit of all as well as themselves (Ostrom et al.

The word oppression has deep roots of meaning in history. Historical events have seen decades of oppressed people and how societies justify violent behaviors and abuse as a social structure of their system. The concepts of oppression define a state of being in which large group of people are treated unjustly. Culturally, oppression exercises the cruelty done by high authorities figures when they place inequalities aspects on the group of individuals to exploited them and to also systematically ban them from social and political aspects. The oppression suffered by Haitian women during President Duvalier Regime and Marie Vieux Chauvet depiction of discriminatory act practice in her book,” Love, Anger, Madness,” both illustrate the theme of oppression and practice of injustice base on gender.

“Five Faces of Oppression” by Iris M. Young tries to create an idea that we can critique the reality and stages of oppression of different groups. She argues that oppression is structural in the sense that injustices arise from systematic everyday activities, and not from policies or how people act. Since oppression is systematically reproduced and thus ingrained into culture, politics and economics, therefore it cannot be simply removed from our society. She separates the condition of oppression into five different forms: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Young states that exploitation is where oppression occurs in the transfer of one social group’s products of labor to benefit the wealthier class. She also argues that women are also exploited to through this from of

Here he describes humans with god-like powers in that they are the "completer and modifier of nature, the creator, and finally destroyer of the environment." However, depending on where a society place itself in these three different factors are important in the way of understanding that specific culture's beliefs and values. This has a huge importance on how a culture interferes with nature as it dramatically affects architectural form.

Oppression signifies an authority over another group, disengaging that particular group from the rest of society. “The term oppression encapsulates the fusion of institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life in our society” (Bell, 1997). In one way or another every individual experiences some form of oppression, whether it be through race, sex, gender, religion, age, wealth and/or sexual orientation. These cultural minorities experience inequality where a dominant culture casts its authority and power through exercises of unjust and cruel methods; these methods have been experienced through the Women’s Movement, the

Through this portion of class readings and discussions, we have sought deeper meaning and understanding of philosophies of individuals and organizations that revolve around the fundamental aspects and notions of deep ecology and eco-activism. These associations offer more views and attitudes on how an individual and society can create and maintain a kinship and positive influence with the natural environment.

One major link includes the fight between an oppressed group and their persecutors. Whether it’s the proletariat and the bourgeois in “The Communist Manifesto,” or the inequality of genders in “The Second Sex,” or the flight of the African Americans in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. In all of these texts we are shown how easy it is for one group to abuse their power and create unfair rules and regulations only imposed on the more inferior members of society. Each group of oppressor thrives off of alienating, and subjugating their inferiors.