Ecology and Conservation Biology

Biologists and other scientists use a variety of concepts to capture the surrounding conditions of their chosen units of analysis. In this chapter we examine two sorts of concepts: environment and niche concepts. We discuss how such concepts developed, how they are understood, and how they are used in the life sciences and beyond. By identifying their similarities and differences, we arrive at a sense for both the common features of concepts used to characterise the surroundings of organisms an other (...) entities, as well as the variety of ways in which these concepts can be adapted to fit a variety of purposes and contexts in scientific research. (shrink)

My tattoo of a figure symbolizing interdependence has framed my reflections on the concept for three decades. Biological and social interdependence is an omnipresent fact, but we need direction as to how to respond to it. This question leads to two major problems in moral philosophy: the source of moral obligation and the need to reconcile universal and local ethical commitments. I explore panpsychism as a partially satisfying answer to the first of these. The part it does not satisfy is (...) to be sought by answering the second of these problems. -/- This answer might be that we should develop the human response to interdependence by working to form community with other forms of life and with nature as a whole. This is slow, long-term work. But our moral obligation will arise from doing it—from the hard job of making community based on our abilities to do this and not from the fact of interdependence. These concepts, though initiated by reflection on the subject of my tattoo, suggest no doctrine but, instead, philosophical and practical tasks that only great efforts and hard work by the human community can determine, pursue, and fulfill. (shrink)

Ecosystems are routinely evaluated in terms of degradation, resilience, recovery, and restoration success, yet the conceptual status of ecosystemic health remains unresolved. This paper examines whether health can be ontologically attributed to ecosystems. We first characterise ecosystems as complex biological systems whose organisation depends not merely on the presence of organisms, but on structured networks of trophic, mutualistic, symbiotic, competitive, and biogeochemical interactions. We then adopt an ecological account of health according to which health is understood as the capacity to (...) endure and adapt to environmental perturbations. Against this background, we ask whether ecosystems possess the forms of regulation required for health in the strict biological sense. Our conclusion is qualified. Although ecosystems exhibit adaptive capacities associated with their complex organisation, current evidence does not warrant attributing to them the specialised biological regulation required for organismic health in the strict sense. Even so, the concept is not merely decorative, as it offers a theoretically disciplined and empirically tractable framework for ecological restoration by shifting attention from species counts alone to the recovery of interactional organisation, functional relations, and adaptive capacity under disturbance. (shrink)

La Profilée is a universal structural law of persistence under transformation. Ecology is a proof domain: its systems are natural, bound by the law, and a deviation would falsify it rather than reveal a design flaw. It occupies a distinctive place among the natural domains because its objects sit at the edge of individuality. A population, a community, an ecosystem — each persists through continuous change, yet whether each is one persisting thing rather than an aggregate of smaller ones is (...) contested within ecology itself. This makes ecology the domain where the existence verdict (Q1) is hardest and most instructive, and where the difference between a persister and a heap is not a philosopher’s puzzle but a working question with management consequences. -/- This catalogue does for ecology what the Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Cognition, and Immunology Programme Catalogues do for their domains. It is an audit register: where established ecology already applies an identity or persistence criterion without stating one, what follows when the criterion is made explicit, and what status each finding carries. -/- The four-step protocol is unchanged. Present the ecology completely without the law; audit it for implicit persistence and identity structure; insert the law explicitly; catalogue the consequences by class. -/- Relation to the Biology catalogue. The Biology Programme Catalogue treats ecology as one facet of biological persistence, in a handful of modules under BR-6 (population as persister, regime shift as transmutation, keystone as frame element). This catalogue treats ecology as a domain in its own right, with its full programme breadth: the individuality question, stability and resilience, regime shifts, the niche, succession, diversity, and the boundary problem. The biology modules are the contact points, not the coverage. -/- A caution proper to this domain. Ecology’s system boundaries are genuinely unsettled — what counts as one ecosystem is disputed on ecological grounds, not only on structural ones. This makes the Q1 verdict the load-bearing one throughout, and the catalogue treats it as the first question rather than assuming it. Where a claim depends on a boundary that ecology has not fixed, that dependence is stated rather than hidden. -/- The no-content rule holds. Nothing here derives a species, a food web, a trophic level, or a biogeochemical cycle. These are realizations, and they appear only as the reading of forced abstract structure. (shrink)

The concept of the Anthropocene has become a key frameork for understanding the profound impact of human activity on Earth systems. Despite its critical ambitions, hoever, Anthropocene discourse largely retains an anthropocentricoften implicitly animalcenteredontology of life. This article argues that the Anthropocene, hile effective in diagnosing ecological crises, remains conceptually insucient for thinking about life itself. rom the perspective of the philosophy of botany, the study eamines ho plants despite constituting the primary biological, metabolic, and temporal foundations of terrestrial lifehave (...) been systematically marginalized in philosophical thought, a phenomenon described as plant blindness. By focusing on the vegetal mode of life in terms of organization, temporality, and relationality, the article develops an alternative ontological orientation centered on plant life. n this contet, the concept of the Phytocene is introduced not as a ne geological epoch, but as a philosophical proposal that repositions life around vegetal processes rather than human agency. The article demonstrates ho plant life offers a nonhierarchical, processual, and relational understanding of life. The study concludes that eiting the Anthropocene does not mean leaving a historical period behind, but rather transforming the conceptual frameorks through hich life is philosophically understood. (shrink)

This letter examines the possibilities opened by the concept of the Anthropocene for rethinking life, particularly through the ontological status of vegetal existence. Although Anthropocene discourse has rendered visible the destructive impact of humanity on the planet, many approaches continue to frame life within an anthropocentric perspective. The present text argues that contemporary ecological crises stem not only from political failures or technological inadequacies, but also from the dominant ways in which life itself has been conceptualized. Within modern thought, plants (...) have often been regarded as passive and secondary forms of existence. Yet vegetal life has remained a foundational element of life in terms of the continuity of the atmosphere, the structure of food webs, and the sustainability of ecosystems. The letter argues that the distributed, relational, and noncentralized organization of plants offers an alternative to hierarchical and human-centered ontologies of life. In this context, the concept of the “Phytocene” is proposed not as the designation of a new geological epoch, but rather as an ontological reorientation that shifts attention from human activity to vegetal processes. From this perspective, overcoming the Anthropocene may require not merely declaring a new era, but reconceptualizing coexistence with plants within the relational continuity of life. (shrink)

The concept of biodiversity must function simultaneously as a scientific metric for biotic difference, a normative goal, and a political instrument. These differing aims have their origins in the very formation of the concept and pull any clarification of it in different, sometimes incompatible, directions. Scientific precision requires narrowing the concept in ways that reduce its ethical reach and political flexibility, while political usability requires a vagueness that undermines scientific rigour and ethical salience. This central tension in the concept explains (...) the division of the philosophical literature into realist, eliminativist, and deflationary camps, each prioritising one of these aims. Realists anchor biodiversity to causally significant features of the natural world; eliminativists argue that the concept distorts or displaces the full range of nature's value; deflationists derive biodiversity from the political procedures by which conservation is practised. This review surveys the philosophy of biodiversity literature through this tripartite lens and uses it to identify emerging challenges to the concept. (shrink)

Georges Canguilhem’s best-known book – The Normal and the Pathological – critically examines the claim that physiological descriptions and explanations of living organisms lead to an understanding of the pathological state as a quantitative deviation of the normal state (Canguilhem 1991 [1966]). Beyond this critical approach, Canguilhem advances a distinctive view of the individual organism which should be emphasized in terms of a positive contribution. As Jean Gayon (1998) has emphasised, Canguilhem considers living individuals as (systemic) relations, not as substantial (...) entities. According to Gayon, Canguilhem’s view of biological individuality corresponds to three different stages of his career which he characterises as axiological, in which the individual is a value (and, therefore, normality and illness as judgements require an initial determination of the individual norm); ontological, where individuals “should not be conceived of as beings but as relations” (1998, 308); and gnoseological, that is, “life is concept” (or logos), a perspective Canguilhem developed when reflecting on the challenges posed by the development of molecular biology in the 1960s and 1970s (on Canguilhem and molecular biology, see Morange 2000; Loison 2018; and Limoges 2019). In all the three stages mentioned, Canguilhem insists on the importance of “the vital,” a topic generally foreign to science, and aims to describe biological entities as vital rather than in terms of physical or mechanical arrangements…. (shrink)

The Core Emotion Framework (CEF) introduces a structural constructivist architecture that reconceptualizes human affect as the emergent output of ten functional operators distributed across the Head, Heart, and Gut somatic centers. Rejecting both biological essentialism and purely psychological constructionism, CEF models the psyche as a computational substrate—a “Human Operating System”—in which operators perform regulatory transformations on interoceptive and exteroceptive signals to generate affective states and behavioral dispositions. As the document states, CEF “treats the human psyche as a computational substrate… converting (...) raw physiological inputs into structured affective states and actionable behaviors,” while maintaining that “the practical utility of the Core Emotion Framework… remains entirely independent of the speculative Human Operating System hypothesis.” The framework formalizes emotional agility through three mechanical metrics—dominance, suppression, and entanglement—derived from behavioral scaling assays that quantify upward and downward operator regulation. These metrics resolve longstanding empirical puzzles in affective science, including emotional blending, strategy specific treatment resistance, and sudden therapeutic gains, by modeling them as predictable consequences of operator fusion, excitability, and detangling thresholds. A comprehensive 100 pattern entanglement taxonomy provides a generative map of personality structure, clinical rigidity, and relational archetypes. The framework further extends into neuroendocrine modeling, proposing that chronic operator fusion (e.g., Expand–Accept) underlies phenomena such as food noise, DMN hyperconnectivity, and flattened cortisol slopes in obesity. Finally, CEF outlines a multi phase empirical validation roadmap and introduces somatic engineering tools (ECM, CTCM) for real time operator measurement. Together, these contributions position CEF as a unified, mechanistic, and falsifiable architecture for affective science, somatic engineering, and personalized neuroregulation. (shrink)

This is the second paper of the La Profilée Domain Series. Following the Domain Principle (D012) and building on the physical foundation established in Domain I, it specifies the bridge assumptions connecting LP structural variables to biological observables and derives the LP structural account of biological persistence architectures. Biological systems are the richest empirical domain for LP structural analysis. Every biological persistence challenge — maintaining cellular identity under metabolic stress, organismal homeostasis under environmental load, population viability under selection pressure, ecosystem (...) coherence under disturbance — instantiates the LP persistence condition IR = R/(F·M·K) ≤ 1 through specific biological mechanisms. Biology already thinks in persistence problems. LP provides the structural architecture that unifies them. The biological bridge assumptions connect: Frame (F) to regulatory architecture, genomic integrity, and homeostatic set-points; Module (M) to metabolic flexibility, adaptive capacity, and repair systems; Coupling (K) to signaling fidelity, immune regulation, and systemic integration; Transformation load (R) to pathological stress, environmental pressure, and metabolic demand. Six structural results are derived under the biological bridge assumptions. Result I — Cellular Persistence: cellular identity maintenance is a Frame preservation problem under metabolic transformation load. Result II — Disease as IR Dynamics: disease progression can be interpreted as the trajectory of IR in biological state space — from subclinical overload to visible pathology. Result III — Aging as Entropy Accumulation: biological aging instantiates structural entropy production (D009) through progressive loss of homeostatic restoration capacity. Result IV — Cancer as Coupling Failure: malignant transformation can be interpreted as progressive Coupling degradation — the loss of regulated integration between cellular identity and proliferative capacity. Result V — Evolutionary Persistence: natural selection instantiates structural selection (D006) in the biological domain. Result VI — Ecosystem Persistence: ecological community stability instantiates the LP Coherence Zone at the population and ecosystem level. Biological persistence architectures do not merely resemble LP. Under the stated bridge assumptions, they instantiate LP admissibility in the biological domain. (shrink)

Plant sex is complicated. Compared to more familiar animals, including ourselves, plants reproduce so differently and with such bewildering variation, that botanists spent centuries debating whether plants sexually reproduce at all. Camerarius' (1694) revolutionary concept that plants may be "male," "female," and "hermaphrodite" anticipated the modern evolutionary hypothesis that sex, as defined by meiosis and fertilization, is shared by all eukaryotes. Yet, the word "gender," which botanists often use to describe plant reproductive systems, has a confused history within the field, (...) isolated from a broader scholarly discussion that has profoundly influenced culture. In this essay, we identify the use of "gender" as a current issue worthy of consideration, suggesting that clarifying what we mean by "gender" in our scholarship and teaching may better serve the field and promote more inclusive classrooms. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Proponents of evidence-based conservation (EBC) maintain that environmental intervention ought to be based on biodiversity data and data synthesis, instead of relying on unproven theory, individual expertise, and customary practices. This paper analyzes the epistemology of EBC, in which data are bestowed, explicitly or implicitly, with a privileged status and intrinsic evidential significance. I problematize this view by reviewing the complex knowledge infrastructure and dynamics involved in turning data into evidence within biodiversity conservation. Building on the philosophical literature on the (...) nature, journey, and social embeddedness of data, I highlight the critical role of scientific protocols in producing reliable, actionable knowledge for conservation. I argue that protocols are established precisely because data do not have the highest epistemic privilege or intrinsic evidential significance. To illustrate my point, I examine two case studies: the Conservation Evidence project and the Red List of Threatened Species. I discuss some of the conceptual and practical consequences of improving the epistemology of EBC. Furthermore, I show how protocol implementation can generate multiple data communities that are constrained by, yet open to, negotiations regarding evidential standards. (shrink)

In both scientific and popular circles it is often said that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. Although the urgency of our present environmental crises is not in doubt, such claims of a present mass extinction are highly controversial scientifically. Our aims are, first, to get to the bottom of this scientific debate by shedding philosophical light on the many conceptual and methodological challenges involved in answering this scientific question, and, second, to offer new philosophical perspectives (...) on what the value of asking this question has been — and whether that value persists today. We show that the conceptual challenges in defining ‘mass extinction’, uncertainties in past and present diversity assessments, and data incommensurabilities undermine a straightforward answer to the question of whether we are in, or entering, a sixth mass extinction today. More broadly we argue that an excessive focus on the mass extinction framing can be misleading for present conservation efforts and may lead us to miss out on the many other valuable insights that Earth’s deep time can offer in guiding our future. (shrink)

This paper proposes Excessivism as a philosophical framework locating the origins of meaning, consciousness, and cultural production not primarily in scarcity or lack, but in a recurrent natural pattern of production beyond immediate sufficiency. Physical processes expend energy, generate radiation, residues, and by-products, and provide raw material for further processes. Life inherits this fecundity as reproductive overproduction, variation, selection, and ecological recycling. Excessivism is not the claim that one identical mechanism operates unchanged from physics to morality. It identifies a recurring (...) logic of emergence, transience, and dissolution that assumes different forms as matter becomes life and life becomes conscious. With sentience, this indifferent generativity acquires an interior cost. With human palimpsest consciousness, capable of retaining loss, anticipating dissolution, and imaginatively entering the lives of others, that cost becomes psychological and existential. Meaning is produced not only steadily but in disproportionate, energetically costly spurts that may reconfigure the entire cognitive landscape. The anti-bliss epiphany represented by the arc of the fox compresses emergence, vulnerability, and possible dissolution into a single felt pattern. Ritual, mythology, religion, art, and morality are interpreted as distinct means by which consciousness attempts to metabolise this excess and restore a workable psychological balance. They do not reverse the cosmic pattern. They reorganise the mind's relationship to what it has perceived. The framework therefore grounds ethics neither in a command issued by the universe nor in a deduction from thermodynamics, but in embodied imagination: the capacity to recognise another vulnerable centre of experience and to feel the pressure of that recognition. Compassion remains a possibility rather than an automatic consequence, since the same imagination can become care or predation. Excessivism thus explains the proximity of creativity and cruelty, examines civilisation as a redirection of surplus, and treats technological self-redesign as one possible response to the burdens of consciousness rather than as an inevitable or morally compulsory destiny. (shrink)

Global Map takes you to the frontier where Artificial Intelligence, planetary management, and the future of humanity converge. In this groundbreaking book, Rubén García Pedraza explores the Unified Modelling System—a powerful framework that allows us to build models upon maps, and from those maps, to make precise and effective decisions. Whether in agriculture, industry, or planetary-scale projects, this system reveals how decisions can be optimized to transform reality itself.

We propose that a 2-ancestor model may better preserve evolutionary “principles of coding” and avoid evolutionary stagnation.

In this essay, we contend that the exercise of human dominance over nature extends beyond a mere utilitarian and exploitative attitude toward non-human creation, which inevitably leads to ecological crises, and is also reflected in humanity’s impulse toward ‘escape from nature’, manifesting as a growing detachment from the rest of creation. This impulse, although evident throughout history, holds particular relevance in today’s increasingly digitally mediated world, where the acceleration of the ‘digital transformation’ process is often presented as a key component (...) in the solution to the current climate crisis. While the digitalization of essential aspects of modern life, such as communication, transportation, and even food production, may indeed provide a temporary remedy for the pressing ecological challenges of our time, notably by reducing the global carbon footprint, it also forces a fundamental reevaluation of the significance of humanity’s care for the non-human world. To this end, we argue that Orthodox theology, particularly in the patristic thought of Maximus the Confessor and its modern reinterpretation by John Zizioulas, offers a crucial perspective for recognizing the ontological importance of non-human creation and responding to the ‘ontological threat’ it faces in our digital age. Specifically, we propose that Maximus’ concept of the logoi of being, along with Zizioulas’ emphasis on an eschatological rather than protological view of creation, as well as his affirmation of the universal ‘right to the future’, are key to understanding non-human creation not as a perishable artefact of historical creation but as an essential companion on the journey to its eschatological fulfilment. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the concepts of vulnerability and nature in Confucian and Taoist classics, addressing their contemporary relevance within the European context. It argues that traditional Western approaches to vulnerability and nature differ substantially from Chinese perspectives, which necessitates a hermeneutic strategy of "détour," as suggested by François Jullien. -/- In Confucian thought, vulnerability manifests through emotions and relationships, managed through self-cultivation and cultural mediation. Confucius emphasizes naming and channeling emotional vulnerability via classical literature and ritual practice, aiming for (...) moral and political self-improvement rather than mastery over nature. Conversely, Taoist texts, particularly the Daodejing, advocate "wuwei" (non-action), a principle aligning with spontaneous natural processes (ziran), suggesting humans should harmonize with nature's inherent dynamics rather than assert control. -/- The paper underscores conceptual tensions and dialogues between these traditions, especially regarding the political implications of human and natural world's vulnerability. Through textual analysis, it traces the evolution of ideas about nature and vulnerability from early classical texts into systematic philosophical positions, notably through Mencius, who further integrates these themes in response to political and social challenges. -/- Ultimately, the paper suggests that Confucian and Taoist frameworks offer significant philosophical resources for reconsidering modern European perspectives on nature and vulnerability, challenging dominant Western narratives about human exceptionalism and ecological governance. It invites contemporary reflection on intercultural dialogue's potential to enrich understanding and address environmental and ethical challenges. (shrink)

Peut-on parler de crépuscule écologique ? Quelle est aujourd'hui la juste place des hommes et des femmes dans l'ensemble du vivant ? Quels éléments peuvent nourrir la réponse à cette interrogation qui questionne aussi le rapport de la nature avec elle-même, l'humain et Dieu ? Ce sont les questions que cet ouvrage entend aborder à travers une lecture théologique et transdisciplinaire. Face à la nature, l'être humain se sent bien souvent déconcerté : alors qu'il semble de plus en plus difficile (...) de maintenir la thèse d'une discontinuité absolue entre l'humain, l'animal et le végétal, il faut reconnaître aussi qu'un abîme les sépare. Où est la juste place des êtres humains dans l'ensemble du vivant ? Le présent ouvrage, troisième volume du cycle sur les « Vulnérabilités du vivant », issu des travaux de l'unité de recherche Théologie et Société de l'Université catholique de Lille, entre dans le débat, en combinant les approches environnementale, sociale, anthropologique, théologique et spirituelle. L'engagement écologique des chrétiens - dans le sillage de l'encyclique Laudato si' (2015) - et le nouveau rapport au monde qu'il dessine, constituent la trame de ce livre. La diversité des contributions entre en résonance avec la prise en considération du cosmos, dans son lien d'alliance naturelle avec Dieu et l'humanité. L'humain se reçoit de la nature : c'est en se mettant à son écoute qu'il peut se laisser transformer par elle, pour se redonner de manière écoresponsable dans une perspective d'espérance. Sur le plan anthropologique, le concept de vulnérabilité en tant qu'ouverture à se laisser saisir par l'autre, est l'expression d'une nouvelle donne aux conséquences pratiques que cet ouvrage explore dans une perspective transdisciplinaire. Ont contribué à cet ouvrage : Paulo Barbosa da Silva, Jean-Luc Blaquart, Benoit Bourel, Bruno-Marie Duffé, François Euvé, Philippe Gagnon, Matthew Ihensekhien, Sophie Izoard-Allaux, Thierry Magnin, Luis Martinez-Saavedra, Jean-Marc Moschetta, Béatrice Oiry, Isabelle Priaulet, Yves Vendé, Catherine Vialle. (shrink)

In this much-needed account of what has gone wrong in our thinking about the environment, Val Plumwood digs at the roots of environmental degradation. She argues that we need to see nature as an end itself, rather than an instrument to get what we want. Using a range of examples, Plumwood presents a radically new picture of how our culture must change to accommodate nature.

Ecosystems are increasingly being represented as marketplaces that produce goods for humanity, and because of this, economic metaphors for increasing efficiency have been introduced into conservation. A powerful model for economic growth is the globalised free market and some are implicitly deploying it to suggest changes in conservation practice. Ecological globalisation is the position that we should not control the free movement of species and re-wilding occurs most efficiently through non-intervention. When species can move and interact with new ecological systems, (...) they create novel ecosystems. These novel arrangements create experimental markets in nature's economy, providing opportunities for the efficient production of goods for humans, also known as ecosystem services. When invasive species supersede local populations, it indicates previous biotic systems were inefficient, which is why they were replaced, and therefore it is wrong to protect indigenous ‘losers’ from extinction. Those who defend indigenous species are accused of being xenophobic against recent biotic migrants. This position is flawed both empirically and morally as there is a disconnect between these economic and political arguments when applied to human economies and nature's economy. (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that the concept of ‘species’ should not be the main focus of research and policies in biodiversity conservation. Diversity is important at all levels of life: within species as well as among them and within and among ecosystems. First, we give a brief overview of the debate about the necessity to find a unified concept of ‘species’. In this, we side with Charles Darwin, who insisted that no strict definition could be given to this term, (...) which is ultimately a matter of arbitrary and pragmatic human language. This did not worry Darwin, and neither should it concern biologists or ecologists today. Darwin's great discovery relied on a recognition of the many differences within species, not on their similarities. Next, we argue that the focus on species and the neglect of other diversity measures in the conservation discourse have led to problems in public perception of—and policies on—conservation and biodiversity. In areas with few species, intraspecific diversity is often of utmost importance to ecosystem processes and functions, and such regions may provide the environmental conditions that enable and promote the diversification of specialised subgroups in the absence (or reduction) of interspecific competition. We give some examples of these processes based on research in marine and freshwater ecosystems, focusing on Iceland and the subarctic region. Finally, we refer to alternative, emerging methodologies of assessing ecosystem health which go beyond the quantitative method of counting species and subspecies and instead emphasise more complex phenomena such as relations, interactions and processes. These approaches, we suggest, are consistent with the philosophical tradition called ‘process ontology’, and we argue that both ecological research and conservation policy can benefit from a process philosophical perspective. Finally, we briefly discuss our motivations for finding this topic to be of importance. (shrink)

After so many decades dominated by molecular biology, it is important to remember that scientists have also devoted much attention to entire living organisms and ecosystems. In this spirit, Sharon...

Despite its relative infancy, ecological science plays a pre-eminent role in current environmental decision-making globally and has, over recent decades, permeated a broad range of academic disciplines. Developments in two areas of philosophical thought in particular, environmental aesthetics and the aesthetics of science, beg an exploration of their intersection with respect to the role of aesthetics in ecological science. Here, we provide a contemporary synthesis of both environmental aesthetics and aesthetics of science to explore aesthetic dimensions of contemporary ecological science, (...) highlighting three main areas of convergence: 1.) the influence of aesthetic experiences and judgements of nature by ecologists on ecological science and our contemporary understanding of nature; 2.) the development and role of ecological ‘taste’ amongst ecologists; and 3.) moral, cultural and political implications of the ecological imagination as underpinned by current ecological science. We identify a risk for feedback mechanisms to perpetuate a relatively homogeneous ecological aesthetic as a result of reciprocal influences between ecological science and society which may further promote inadvertent policy advocacy and stifle scientific innovation. We suggest ecological science would benefit from increased aesthetic literacy and reflection by broadening the ecological imagination and intentionally facilitating more diverse and equitable science to inform policy outcomes. Our argument should be of interest to philosophers of science, ecologists and those that draw on their outputs. (shrink)

This essay introduces, develops, and appraises the mitonuclear compatibility species concept (MCSC), identifying advantages and limitations with respect to alternative species concepts. While the consensus amongst most philosophers of biology is that (kind) essentialism about species is mistaken, and that species at most have relational essences, we appeal to the MCSC to defend thoroughgoing intrinsic essentialism. Namely, the doctrine that species have fully intrinsic essences and, thus, are natural kinds (of sorts), while allowing that species aren’t categorically distinct.

Establishes that being in partnership with Nature is our birthright, explores the roots of our separation, and demonstrates that we are designed to communicate with Nature. Offers six principles of co-creative partnership with Nature that serve as a map for guiding us back to our rightful place as a part of Nature. Explains that plants can guide us in living according to our true essential nature and details the steps of creating and facilitating a plant initiation with common plants.

This companion volume focuses on the application and practical ramifications of Indian ethics. Here Indian dharma ethics is moved from its preeminent religious origins and classical metaethical proclivity to, what Kant would call, practical reason–or in Aristotle’s poignant terms, ēhikos and phronēis–and in more modern parlance normative ethics. Our study examines a wide range of social and normative challenges facing people in such diverse areas as women’s rights, infant ethics, politics, law, justice, bioethics and ecology. As a contemporary volume, it (...) builds linkages between existing theories and emerging moral issues, problems and questions in today’s India in the global arena. The volume brings together contributions from some 40 philosophers and contemporary thinkers on practical ethics, exploring both the scope and boundaries or limits of ethics as applied to everyday and real-life concerns and socio-economic challenges facing India in the context of a troubled globalizing world. As such, this collection draws on multiple forms of writing and research, including narrative ethics, interviews, critical case studies and textual analyses. The book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and students of Indian philosophy, Indian ethics, women and infant issues, social justice, environmental ethics, bioethics, animal ethics and cross-cultural responses to dominant Western moral thought. It will also be useful to researchers working on the intersection of Gandhi, sustainability, ecology, theology, feminism, comparative philosophy and dharma studies. (shrink)

Niche construction is the process of organisms changing themselves or their environment—or their relationship with their environment—in ways that affect the evolutionary trajectory of their population. These evolutionary trajectory changes are traditionally understood to be triggered by changes in selection pressures. Niche construction thus necessarily involves organisms altering selection pressures. In this paper, we argue that changes in selection pressures is not the only way organisms can influence the evolutionary futures of their population. We propose that organisms can also affect (...) drift probabilities, and that such changes should be considered niche construction. Drift probabilities can be modulated by altering population size or by affecting driftability (individual variance in possible reproductive outcomes). We consider both and provide examples of how niche construction can stabilize, increase, or dampen drift probabilities. Finally, we revisit and broaden the traditional definition of niche construction. We hold that organismic activities that modify drift probabilities should count as niche construction, even if selection pressures remain unaltered. (shrink)

La question n'est plus : 'L'écologie, pour ou contre?' Le label vert a partout remplacé le label rouge (ou bleu ciel). La question est : 'Quelle écologie?' Or il y a là un problème, et même un 'problème à cornes,' selon la formule de Nietzsche : peut-on vraiment fonder l'écologie sur la Nature, dont la notion est si ambivalente? Elle n'a pas attendu l'homme pour produire cinq extinctions massives. Laissée à elle-même, elle éteindra tout, y compris les étoiles. Par ailleurs, (...) s'il faut bien sauvegarder les espèces dans leur admirable diversité, est-ce uniquement dans un but de conservation? La seule conservation eût été la finalité de la Nature que la vie n'aurait même pas dû commencer: une pierre dès le départ était plus performante. Et si le sens du vivant ne se trouvait pas tant dans la conservation que dans l'exposition de soi--et une exposition glorieuse--, jusqu'au sacrifice? Si la Madone était plus vraie que la Méduse? Fabrice Hadjadj nous offre ici une puissante méditation sur le vivant, l'interdépendance spirituelle de l'homme et des bêtes, la relation entre écologie et eschatologie. A travers une approche à la fois philosophique et biblique, il pense une tragédie heureuse, où il ne s'agit pas de donner pour durer, mais de durer pour donner encore.. En bref, il prend le taureau par les cornes."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Compassionate conservation is an ethical framework proposed to instill greater compassion for individual animals in conservation science and practice. In addition to highlighting compassion as a virtue, compassionate conservationists propose four ethical principles (first do no harm, individuals matter, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence) to capture what it means to act compassionately in conservation. In this paper I argue for a revision of this framework. I begin by showing how compassionate conservationists also implicitly promote the virtue of respect, which better accounts (...) for the principles individuals matter and inclusivity, yet entails a further principle: respect for autonomy. I further suggest that, to reflect genuine compassion for wild animals, the principles first, do no harm and peaceful coexistence should be replaced by empathy, understanding, and minimize harm. In the second half of the paper, I discuss the implications of this revised framework. I argue that, due to the prevalence of suffering even in well-conserved ecosystems, compassion and respect motivate a more active management of natural environments in order to reduce the harms (natural and anthropogenic) that wild animals face. This reveals a greater need for discussions on how to balance the flourishing of wild animals against the preservation of biodiversity, as well as a need to identify new approaches to conservation which better promote both ends. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the classic examination of major philosophical, ethical, scientific and economic roots of environmental problems which examines the ways that radical ecologists can transform science and society in order to sustain life on this planet. It features a new Introduction from the author, a thorough updating of chapters, and two entirely new chapters on recent Global Movements and Globalization and the Environment.

Background: Microbiome biomarker discovery for patient diagnosis, prognosis, and risk evaluation is attracting broad interest. Selected groups of microbial features provide signatures that characterize host disease states such as cancer or cardio-metabolic diseases. Yet, the current predictive models stemming from machine learning still behave as black boxes and seldom generalize well. Their interpretation is challenging for physicians and biologists, which makes them difficult to trust and use routinely in the physician-patient decision-making process. Novel methods that provide interpretability and biological insight (...) are needed. Here, we introduce "predomics", an original machine learning approach inspired by microbial ecosystem interactions that is tailored for metagenomics data. It discovers accurate predictive signatures and provides unprecedented interpretability. The decision provided by the predictive model is based on a simple, yet powerful score computed by adding, subtracting, or dividing cumulative abundance of microbiome measurements. -/- Results: Tested on >100 datasets, we demonstrate that predomics models are simple and highly interpretable. Even with such simplicity, they are at least as accurate as state-of-the-art methods. The family of best models, discovered during the learning process, offers the ability to distil biological information and to decipher the predictability signatures of the studied condition. In a proof-of-concept experiment, we successfully predicted body corpulence and metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery using pre-surgery microbiome data. -/- Conclusions: Predomics is a new algorithm that helps in providing reliable and trustworthy diagnostic decisions in the microbiome field. Predomics is in accord with societal and legal requirements that plead for an explainable artificial intelligence approach in the medical field. (shrink)

gl. 1. Ėkofilosofii︠a︡ kak zhiznesokhrani︠a︡i︠u︡shchiĭ kulʹturnyĭ proekt -- gl. 2. Obrazy kulʹtury mira v istoriko-personologicheskom izmerenii -- gl. 3. Borʹba za mir v sovremennom mire : opyt, kont︠s︡ept︠s︡ii, modeli resheniĭ.

This chapter questions the way “sex” features in behavioral ecological research as a standard explanatory variable. Researchers often use sex to explain variation in a trait or phenomenon that they are studying. This practice is widespread, partly because sex is often easy to identify and often explains some variation, thus making it easier to discover and test other causal patterns of interest. Yet, sex also frequently fails to explain variation. Using a couple of recent examples, it is shown how the (...) pervasiveness of sex as an explanatory variable is partly due to the structure of scientific research, including the use of data from large longitudinal studies, and generalization from previous studies. Researchers should more carefully assess and justify the relevance of sex to each new study, to avoid overgeneralization and the perpetuation of assumptions about sexual difference and its importance in biology. (shrink)

This paper addresses a relatively new mode of ecological research: data synthesis studies. Data synthesis studies involve reusing data to create a general model as well as a reusable, aggregated dataset. Using a case from movement ecology, I analyse the trade-offs and strategies involved in data synthesis. Like theoretical ecological modelling, I find that synthesis studies involve a modelling trade-off between generality, precision and realism; they deal with this trade-off by adopting a pragmatic kludging strategy. I also identify an additional (...) trade-off, the synthesis trade-off, between making data easy to synthesise for a particular project, on the one hand, and facilitating data reuse for other projects, on the other. In response to this synthesis trade-off, researchers create flexible datasets that are relatively easy to use for particular projects and can be adjusted to suit some other purposes. The flexibility compromise is also found in broader open data efforts, making it a significant element in the future of data-intensive ecology. (shrink)

A philosopher's examination of how animal and plant life has shaped the history of our planet.

In this article, I examine the relation between Bateson and Guattari’s ecological thoughts: two thinkers whose ecological ideas at first sight have a lot in common. In order to show the difference between the thoughts of both thinkers, I will take my clue from Guattari’s remark that he parts ways with Bateson on the role of context. Explaining the role of context in both authors will allow me to show how Guattari’s thought implies both an endorsement and a critique of (...) cybernetics, and, specifically, promoting a machinic rather than cybernetic ecology. I will conclude by indicating what is at stake in this distinction. (shrink)

Though many of us have constructed our lives (or have had them constructed for us) such that it is easy to ignore or forget, human lives are entangled with other animals in many ways. Some interspecies relations would arguably exist in some form or another even under an ideal model of animal ethics. Others have an inescapably non-ideal character – these relationships exist as they do because things have gone wrong. In such circumstances we have reparative duties to animals we (...) have wronged because we have wronged them. Here I draw upon Christine Korsgaard’s “Fellow Creatures” (2018) and other nonideal approaches to animal ethics to critically assess the United States Fish & Wildlife Service practice of killing barred owls to protect endangered spotted owls in the old growth forest of the Pacific Northwest. This is a difficult case to be sure, but one that can benefit from non-ideal moral assessment in terms of interspecies relational repair. I argue for increased spotted owl habitat preservation and forest restoration as an alternative to barred owl removal that better aligns with both nonideal relational animal ethics and stated US Fish & Wildlife Service values. (shrink)

In the first half of the 2000s, one project to restore the former Danube floodplain was carried out in Belene, a marginal town on the Bulgarian Danube. The aim of this article is to record the practices that were already in place before the interventions on the Danube, as part of a heterogeneous local knowledge that had an alternative vision to the scientific knowledge of experts involved in the restoration project. The data comes from qualitative interviews with locals and experts (...) implicated in this project, as well as ethnographic observations from the fieldwork I carried out in 2013–2014, 2020 and 2022. The conclusion is that without attempting to replace the scientific knowledge, the locals aim to impose, through their local knowledge, a sort of slow ecology that eases the pace of the restoration of the former Danube floodplains. (shrink)

We are currently in the middle of the transformation from Martin Heidegger’s modern society to a society based on digital technology. In the developing digital society, humans in their current state of ‘Being’ are increasingly surrounded by systems that are networked and run based on algorithms, software, and data. These interconnected systems function, communicate, and interact in networks and driven by these algorithms, software, and data, which give them the ability to connect, calculate, and reveal. Jointly, these systems thus create (...) a new and actual reality based on their mathematical and scientific background. In the present-day digital society, humans’ actual ‘state of Being’ is increasingly framed by what the digital technology reveals to us and enables. The transition to this new digital reality conjures up more and more questions as to whether we as humans sufficiently understand the essence of digital technology and whether we as humanity have sufficient knowledge and insight to be able to analyze and fathom the essence of the new digital ecology around us. In this article, I will use Heideggerian phenomenology as a philosophy to create a framework that will allow us to, based on phenomenological research into our current ‘Dasein’ or ‘being there’, gain deeper insight into the ‘Being’ of digital technology and the ensuing development of a digital reality for humanity as a whole. (shrink)

This article charts a path between those who champion the culture concept and those who think it dangerous. This path navigates between two positions: realists who adopt realist conceptions of both the culture concept and the category of cultural groups, and fictionalists who see such efforts as just creative and fictional extrapolation. Developing the fictionalist position, I suggest it overstates the case against realism: there is plenty of room for realist positions that produce well-grounded empirical studies of cultural groups. Nonetheless, (...) I stress the importance of one element of the fictionalist critique: that the choice of ontology can lead to downstream harm. Developing an extended case study around the work of the anthropologist Julian Steward, I show how ontological decision making is an important element of contemporary scientific and policymaking work. I conclude by arguing that greater attention should be paid both to the processes by which ontologies are adopted and the potential consequences that may result. (shrink)

Founded on the premise that all living beings and systems are subjects in their own right, the Intersubjective Ecology Lab (IEL) is a collaborative effort at innovative, creative and experimental ways of reviving or arriving at socio-ecological knowledges and relationships that can help us reimagine our present and future beyond the so-called era of ‘the Anthropocene’ by supporting ecosystemic well-being on a local and planetary scale. During the Highland Gathering 2023, we hosted various sessions; from a philosophical dialogue on decolonizing (...) our relations with, and the meanings of ‘nature’, to a workshop on participatory improvisation theatre as a tool for embodied storytelling and imaginative learning from a ‘more-than-humane’ world, in collaboration with experimental philosopher and artist Jonathon Keats’ bestiaries project. It also included discussions on ethics towards an Atlas of Indigenous Ecological Knowledges in collaboration with the Ekologos Global Environmental Humanities Project, which served as preparations for a collaborative fieldwork in which we audio-visually documented Naga oral literatures: place-based stories and songs of belonging in a more-than-human world. (shrink)