Hello Matt & others,
In addition to your citations (below) and as far as I am aware, the
Manifesto for Earth has been published in two other places, vis:
- The Structurist No 43/44. University of Saskatchewan. pp. 5-9 2004
Special Edition entitled "Toward an Ecological Ethos in Art and
Architecture. Edited by Eli Bornstein. 152 pp.
- Davidsonia 2004. Quarterly journal of the Univ of B.C. Botanical
Gardens. 15: (2) 70-81.
Generally, the Manifesto (www.ecospherics.net) has not received
negative criticism. It has been translated into Spanish, French,
German, Ukrainian, Russian and Italian. It was, however, reviewed by a
representative of the Vatican in La Republica, Italy's national
newspaper where the reviewer disagreed only with Principle Number 1
which states that "The Ecosphere is the center of value for humanity."
The criticism stems from the core Catholic belief that source of value
is to be found in God and not Earth itself. It is of interest that
there have not been any science-based criticisms of the Manifesto so it
is good to see this discussion on Ecolog-L. The Manifesto is
Earth-centered and not organism-centered and, as far as I know, this
makes it the most ecocentric document in the field of ecological
philosophy and ethics. It represents the results of well over 100 years
of ecological and natural history observations, experience and thinking
of its two authors.
Concerning your puzzling speculation (below) that the Manifesto
"seeks to close discussion rather than to open it" and also "perhaps it
is not practical" I would respond by pointing out that this is a
manifesto and not some other kind of document. Unlike many other
manifestos, declarations and similar writings it does not mix up "what
is" (ecologically) and the ethical consequences, namely "what ought to
be." It explicitly points the way/path to ecocentric thinking, a
difficult concept for many people (including most ecologists) who are
raised on a heavy diet of pure anthropocentrism with a smattering of
(organism centered) biocentrism. Note that the "what is" is presented
in the first six principles and the "what (consequentially) ought to be"
in the last five principles. In the final year of writing and revising
the manifesto, we could not conceive a principle which could be added to
the eleven. All other possibilities were best subsumed under one or
another of the eleven. This seemed a bit odd to us but there you have it.
The Manifesto has also once again been described and discussed in the
second edition of 'Ecological Ethics: An Introduction' By Patrick Curry
which was recently published (2011) by Polity Press (332pp). Pointing
the way to ecocentric thinking is what Patrick Curry's book is about. I
am reading it now.
Finally, I called the owner/editor of "Biodiversity" (where the
Manifesto was first published n 2004) re the ISI reference and he said
that the journal is indexed in a number of services and he will look
into approaching ISI.
Cheers,
Ted Mosquin
(Retired ecologist/biologist)
On 11/10/2011 12:03 PM, Matt Chew wrote:
Wayne, et al:
The manifesto has been cited, e.g., by:
Patrick Curry (2006) Ecological Ethics. Cambridge UK: Polity Press.
J. Anthony Cassils (2007) Some Reflections on Human Rationality (or the
Lack of It) and the Way Ahead. Proceedings of the Canadia Association for
the Club of Rome 3(11)19-27
Robert Burke (2011) The Rise and Fall of Growth: The Inappropriateness of
Continuous Unchecked Growth. Journal of Futures Studies 16(1)79-100.
There may be others, but I've used up the 10 minutes I had available.
A link to the manifesto and some promotional text were posted to ECOLOG-L
in March 2004 (see Digest #2004-83) by one of its authors.
It has also been cited and linked to by various websites.
Why has it not been cited in ISI indexed journals? Perhaps because (like
many manifestos) it seeks to close discussion rather than open it. Perhaps
because it isn't practical. Any other thoughts?
Matthew K Chew
Assistant Research Professor
Arizona State University School of Life Sciences
ASU Center for Biology& Society
PO Box 873301
Tempe, AZ 85287-3301 USA
Tel 480.965.8422
Fax 480.965.8330
[email protected] [email protected]
http://cbs.asu.edu/people/profiles/chew.php
http://asu.academia.edu/MattChew
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG -www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4607 - Release Date: 11/09/11
