nature

Discussing two common critiques on theological interpretations of the concept of the highest good in Kant’s moral philosophy in his paper, Two Conceptions of the Highest Good in Kant, Reath has invited readers to have a secular interpretation of this concept and pointed out its advantages. In the present paper, we will attempt to provide the main principles of Reath’s claims and demonstrate why Kant has stated both of these interpretations in all of his critical works—a subject that has confused Reath. For this purpose, we will indicate that in both of the above interpretations, Kant has offered the concept of the highest good in a historical context, in which the intellectual idea of the highest good as a desired ultimate totality makes the intellect to grow in history and cultivate the talents of human kind through numerous conflicts embedded in nature.

Critically reading Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, the present paper attempts to explore the impacts of colonization on indigenous subjects, plants and animals. To trace the detrimental effects of colonialism on both environment and people in Sea of Poppies, this study foregrounds the reflection of the obligatory cultivation of poppy under the rule of British colonizers in India. Sea of Poppies is indeed a portrayal of the catastrophic policies enforced in India by British colonizers in the nineteenth century. In his seminal novel Ghosh deals with the changes brought about by the lucrative cultivation of poppy in the exacerbation of the financial status of indigenous subjects. Environmental devastation and the changes in the normal behavior of animals are also dealt with. Focusing on the theoretical frameworks proposed by Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin, this paper explores the convergence of postcolonialism and ecocriticism in Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies to indicate that not only were native people impoverished during colonialism in India, but also the ecosystem was severely damaged.

Deforestation has been one of the most detrimental consequences of the prevalence of European anthropocentrism in North America. European settlers who immigrated to North America found themselves in a bountiful paradise with infinite untrammeled natural resources that could be utilized to make a fortune. Likewise, they inflicted irremediable damages on nature upon the onset of their settlement in this continent. Investigating Louis Owens’ Wolfsong from an ecocritical standpoint, this article seeks to highlight the massive deforestation conducted by the white Americans in the Northwest of the United States of America. As a qualitative, research-based study, this article commences with the theoretical framework and subsequently focuses on the representations of the critical concepts in Wolfsong . It shall be indicated that the perspective held by the White Americans towards nature drastically collides with that of the indigenes. More exactly, the argument of this research follows the distinction between the treatment of nature by the Euro-Americans and Native Americans in Wolfsong .

Background: Eco-theism is a science that studies the relationship between natural phenomena and problems of religious knowledge, e.g. “infidelity and belief”. The current study has been conducted in order to assay the relationship between the religious problems like “belief and infidelity” and nature and is a subcategory of environmental ethics. We intend to answer the question that whether there is a negative or positive relationship between belief and nature or not? According to Islam, some of natural and material events or in other words, natural actions and reactions are the result of individual vision and action. While materialistic perspective opposes this view and interprets this type of action and reactions in materialistic terms. Studying Quranic verses and prophetic traditions one reaches the conclusion that there is a relationship between people’s vision and degree of belief, on the one hand, natural problems, on the other hand. Conclusion: The present study is composed of two parts: first, we provide an explanation of the concepts of infidelity and faith and then in the second part we proceed to explain and analyze the relationship between the type of action of people and nature as well as the impact of the type of people’s belief. The method is descriptive-analytic. Thus, first religious texts will be discussed and next we will analyze its relationship with natural phenomena. The results suggest that although natural developments take place through their natural course, these natural developments do not have merely material color rather natural events evolve within a metaphysical context.

Living space is a place of relaxation, and those with a sense of attachment to the environment are more satisfied with their living space. According to the literature, being in nature is very effective in creating positive emotions in people. In recent years, living in apartments has made people away from nature affecting their positive feelings about their living space. This study aimed to investigate to what extent and how direct relationship with nature affects dwellers’ place attachment in residential areas? The main research question is that what is the relationship between the direct contact with nature in residential areas and level of place attachment? The research method in this article is mixed. Considering the qualitative method, the basic concepts of the research are presented based on the analysis of the content in the environmental psychology and nature–human interactions; and then the criteria for creating a sense of place attachment in the residential areas are extracted. This can be used as a basis for developing a questionnaire. In the quantitative method, the effect of nature on place attachment is measured using a questionnaire. Based on the findings, it can be argued that green space can form stronger relationships between individuals and the environment. Finally, according to the results of this study and confirmed the significance of green space, designers need to consider more clearly the relevance of this important natural element in their future designs.

Properly inves tigating the potential of nature in the formation of architectural concepts needs a theoretical framework in which its analytical components can explain the methods of utilization of nature. Although some attempts have been made in this regard, considering the missing elements, there is s till a significant gap in the literature and a s tudy for introducing a more comprehensive theoretical framework has yet to be conducted. The aim of this s tudy is, therefore, firs tly, to present a theoretical framework that can explain the role of nature in the creation of architectural concepts by its detailed factors and, secondly, to apply this framework for inves tigating nature-inspired works of Toyo Ito. Accordingly, this documentary paper is based on a theoretical approach supported mainly by the outcomes of a literature review and case s tudy analysis, which utilizes the descriptive-analytical method. For the case s tudy part, projects were selected from various scales and functions to ensure proper evaluation. Both qualitative and quantitative tactics have been used in data analysis. Findings demons trated that the highes t rate in regards to the itemized factors of the Theoretical Framework of the s tudy relates to ‘Integration of natural elements in spatial articulation’ and the lowes t rate corresponds to ‘Usage of material in their raw and brutal s tate’. Moreover, though the highes t level of utilization of nature among the cases, is related to ‘Grin Grin’, a large-scale project, yet considering all the frequencies, it can be argued that the larger scale does not necessarily imply the higher frequency.

Of building cultural centers in all communities and with any kind of attitude has always been one of the designers’ issues. When we use the term in ordinary daily conversation, we often think of culture as an equivalent to the “higher things of the mind”- art, literature, music and painting. According to sociologists, the concept of culture includes such activities, but also far more. Culture can be conceptually distinguished from Society, but there are very close connections between these notions. Culture concerns to the “life Style” of the members of a given Society- their habits and customs, together with the stuffs they produce. Society refers to the system of interrelationship which connects the individuals who share a common culture. No culture could exist without a society and no society could exist without culture, as well. Nature, as a sort of context for society has always been the catalyst for cultural issues. Architecture is considered as a link between man and environment around, which is a step forward to close up the society, culture and nature. By considering human attitudes to nature and the principles of sustainability, Green Architecture, helps to expand the favorite Cultural themes for designers in such cultural centers. This paper aims to assess and analyze the connection between society, culture and nature. Also, investigating this form of addressed sustainable cultural centers regarding the improvement of society in the case study of Cultural Center and Garden of Niavaran. It is prepared on the basis of library-based phase of the research, case study method and observation for its field study phase. At the end, to sum up, the findings of this study comprise the distinguishing characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of our case study and some efficient proposals have been used to achieve sustainable development.

Park design in Iran has followed the traditional European style since the Qajar dynasty. The familiarity of Iranians with the spirit of Persian gardens and the low quality of the newest parks is such that users prefer ancient geometrical Persian gardens. Today, those responsible for the design of urban green spaces lacking examples differing from the traditional and thus they are in need of an adequate set of guidelines for how to design for present conditions, users, and their needs. This research focuses on the relationship between park design components and users’ psychological restoration regarding their preferences and perceptions to increase the quality of parks, diminish vandalism, and increase user agency. Psychological restoration is the likeliness that people will be able to rest and recover their ability to focus. A random sample of 100 Tehranian residents was taken by presenting them with images depicting 6 urban parks from around their city. The results were analyzed by grouping into categories: 1-similar activities and 2-by counting and categorizing the individual descriptions of components (frequency of words) contributing to restoration likelihood. Findings showed that the categories mentioned most frequently for high levels of restoration were natural categories including trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, and water. Findings with low levels of restoration and recovery consisted of negative contextual conditions and the absence of nature such as high rise buildings around the parks, lack of trees, and crowds of people. The activities imagined more frequently were playing and other physical activities, social activities, and relaxation.

In the early works of the eighteenth-century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, besides explaining the philosophical and metaphysical foundations of various sciences, has illustrated a comprehensive philosophical system and desirable metaphysical critique. In his later works, through emphasizing the concept of Nature and the growth of Reason, he has considered special and multifaceted responsibilities for the Education and the University. For him, the alignment of knowledge and Nature in the university is the main mission of this institution; a mission that is required by the Faculty of Philosophy in a legitimate conflict with the top three faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine to bring them in line with the design of Nature. This effort, in fact, is a necessary condition for accomplishing the future metaphysics and attaining the unity of knowledge and a complete philosophical system. This article, apart from explaining the idea of "the unity of knowledge" and a model of the unity of knowledge and nature in the conflict of faculties, attempts to show the relationship of this model with the plan of a complete future philosophical and metaphysical system in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In the following, the lessons of this approach have been considered, especially in the discussion of university independence for the reconstruction of Iran's higher education.

This article unravels the concept of eco-trauma in American Indians’ lifestyle in Gardens in the Dunes (2000), a novel portraying eco-concerns of Leslie Marmon Silko (1948). Silko’s novel is preoccupied with ecological concerns of American Indians who depend on nature to continue their existence. Being detached from their ancestral lands, Indians encountered several psychological problems due to their indispensable loyalty to nature. This article focuses on the significance of environment and ‘place’ according to Lawrence Buell (1939), and traces ‘place’ as the center of feeling for a person. Cheryll Glotfelty’s connection between nature and culture, and Cathy Caruth’s perspective on trauma have been utilized to explain Indians’ psychological problems due to loss of ancestral lands. Eco-traumatic approach illustrates the interrelation of Native American’s identity and culture with their living place. Indeed, Indians return to their land to eliminate their environmental concerns. Their ceaseless effort to reverse eco-trauma by adhering to their ancestral ritual is also examined in this article. Silko re-emphasizes and stipulates that the notion of nature can consolidate Indians’ identity; hence, loyalty to natural environment ensures how Native Americans’ loss of land and nature opens up the experience of eco-loss or eco-trauma and diminishes Native Americans’ culture.

In Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), a unique relationship is established between a fecund and futuristic environment called Area X and a group of scientists commissioned to probe this area. While the scientists’ initial response toward this area is human-centered and Anthropocenic, the conventional expectations of this initial response are severely shattered later in the novel. The present study believes that the various aspects of this shattering gives us a glimpse of the kind of relationship we could have with the environment in the Anthropocene, the human epoch. By utilizing the theoretical concepts in key secondary sources – such as Pieter Vermeulen’s Literature and the Anthropocene (2020) and Benjamin Robertson’s None of This Is Normal: The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer (2018) – the study identifies that various demarcational means fail to fulfill their binary making function due to the vastness and unmappable nature of environments such as Area X. Accordingly, this failure constitutes the study’s purpose in that it shows conventional paradigms of mankind’s knowledge bodies could not delve into the cognizance and intentions of an amoral and un-registrable environment. This failure also shows recalcitrant areas such as Area X are already present and all encompassing around us.

This paper examines some key aspects of the formal and figurative discourse on ‘nature’ as manifested in the philosophical tradition and with reference to contemporary life. Instead of building a straightforward, self-enclosed argument for the sake of argument, it will demonstrate how someone living today may arrive at certain kinds of judgments in the light both of our collective human inheritance, of which Ḥikma is a major element, and a philosophical reasoning that penetrates into areas of life with which philosophy is not directly or primarily concerned but which are of fundamental importance to all human beings. It begins by sketching a picture of the present historical moment, which many specialists consider a historical anomaly precipitated by the abrupt rise to world domination by a single geographical region. A few basic themes relating to ‘nature’, which by tradition has been approached either figurately or formally, will then be discussed. Their upshot is that for man to live ‘naturally’, he cannot reduce his own nature to that of other animals. Every being has its particular nature. Therefore, the concept of nature cannot be considered only unconditionally or as something common to all animals. Finally, this paper poses two basic questions: Why has our necessary—but equally ‘natural’—separation from the nature of other beings been allowed to go as far as it has? Are we so alone in our modern troubles that we must cast off our human inheritance and pretend to reinvent the universe at every turn?

There was a turning point in each period of time which human has discovered a new sight about the world and nature order in a way, and then has presented this relation by numeral, artful and industrial language. Biourbanism focuses on the urban organism, considering it as a hyper complex system, according to its internal and external dynamics and their mutual interactions. Nowadays when it is talked about technology, different kinds of cars and big buildings are stroked in human mind؛ It is clear that if the technology result which is the answer of fundamental human needs is considered, it almost will be clear the reason of some circumstances, that each industrial or structural phenomena has been inspired from which natural alive pattern, so it has to be a relation with logical and scientific principles between mechanical system and alive constant system. The main aim of using important nature achievements is that instead of recreating from alive fauna , study nature principles and their consistency because all things in nature are powers balance , so that world has structure , therefore architectures and experts commissions and trainings to find better solution for symbiosis with nature serves as today world need. Bio urbanism endorses principles of geometrical coherence, Biophilic design, Bio Architecture, Bio mimesis, etc. in practices of design and also new urban policies and, especially Bio politics, to promote urban revitalization by ensuring that man-made changes do not have harmful effects to humans.

Biology has been a brilliant teacher and a precious textbook to man-made construction for thousands of years, because it allows one to learn and be inspired by nature’s remarkable and efficient structural systems. Concepts unfortunately have this in common that in general use often specifies incorrectly some phenomena. There was a turning point in each period of time which human has discovered a new sight about the world and nature order in a way, and then has presented this relation by numeral, artful and industrial language. The relation between nature and human considers different periods. At first it was bio-utilization which degrades the value of nature as a source of energy and material. After revolution in science development and attention to the damages which they made to environment, they tried to change their look to this issue and expand the mean of relation between human and nature. Birth of such word like bio architecture emphasize on the new point of view at nature. The role of nature and importance of natural resources in human’s social-economic (and even his psychological) life is undeniable, and also it is essential to note that God is the Creator and man the explorer. This paper aims to call a close multidisciplinary collaboration that promotes engineers to build more sustainable and smart structural systems for bridges in the 21st century. In this article survey the introduction of bionic architecture and related categories.

In this era that new technology has affected human life, many research scientists believe that Biophilic design can improve human well-being. Biophilic architecture can provide healthy spaces connected with nature and reduce stress and enhance longevity. Different researchers have identified and categorized different patterns in the Biophilic design. These patterns have a wide range of applications for both interior and exterior environments with physiological, cognitive and psychological benefits. This paper focuses on the 14 Biophilic patterns connected with nature that have been shown to impact human health. The objective of this qualitative study is to determine if one of the traditional mosque-schools in Iran has incorporated the 14 patterns of Biophilic Design defined by Ryan (2014). We aim to meet this objective by researching people&lsquos reactions to the fourteen Biophilic patterns (Ryan, 2014) using questionnaires and assessing people&rsquos connection to nature when present at the mosque. Aqa-Bozorg mosque-school in Kashan city which is one of the oldest cities in Iran was selected as the case study. Through questionnaires we asked whether visitors felt connected to or removed from nature while physically present in this mosque-school. Data results indicated that most of the visitors felt connected to nature while they were present in the building. We concluded that Aqa-Bozorg Mosque-school which was built long before the conceptualization of &ldquoBiophilic design&rdquo does incorporate these patterns.

La littérature contemporaine se tourne à la fin de XXe siècle vers de nouvelles formes littéraires axées principalement sur les préoccupations environnementales; un imaginaire écologique en rapport avec la nature s’éclore, une sorte de retour à l’authenticité qui met l’environnement au-devant de la scène. Le milieu naturel occupe de plus en plus l’imaginaire littéraire et s'oriente vers un nouveau rapport avec la nature environnante qui constitue une des préoccupations principales des auteurs contemporains, y compris celle de Le Clézio(1940).Ce dernier représente à travers Mondo (1978) un imaginaire littéraire où l’environnement naturel s'affiche comme une préoccupation majeure; l'auteur s'applique à y décrire le parcours évolutif d’une jeunesse perdue qui mène à une lutte conflictuelle entre l’homme et la civilisation. Alors dans le cadre d’une étude descriptive et analytique, cette recherche s’est fixé comme ambition, une fois définie l’écopoétique, de faire ressortir l’importance d'une analyse écopoétique de "Mondo" et tente une approche de ce récit du point de vue de l’écopoétique, en étudiant les éléments constitutifs de la nature (la mer, la montagne, la colline, etc.), tout en cherchant à en extraire la description et la narratologie comme le noyau primitif de l’écriture le clézienne. Les résultats de la présente recherche laissent à penser que Le Clézio, s'érigeant en défenseur de la nature et des cultures minoritaires, fait une large place à la thématique écologique dans cette nouvelle.

Notre objectif est de proposer des pistes de connaissances sur l’origine du langage figuré. Si son existence, sa présence et son usage ne font l’ombre d’aucun doute dans l’esprit de la communauté l’on s’interroge moins ou presque pas sur sa provenance, sur son introduction dans le langage humain et dans les interactions verbales quotidiennes de celui-ci. C’est la tâche que s’assigne cette réflexion. Bien plus que pédagogique, cette analyse se veut surtout épistémologique, car, elle vise à mettre en relief ses origines naturelles. Dans ce sens, elle interroge la genèse de l’Homme, l’imputation de la pauvreté du langage originel en expressions, la disposition du psychisme humain à énoncer par figuration. Elle questionne aussi la rhétorique, son berceau émanation, et certaines disciplines linguistiques qui furent son terreau de plénitude. Ces différents points constitutifs des axes focaux de l’étude exhument les principes fondateurs du langage figuré, son corpus d’exploration, son fonctionnement et les attentes subséquentes à son emploi.

Ibn Ṭufayl and Kierkegaard share existentialist elements around nature. Ibn Ṭufayl believes in nature as the best teacher of philosophy and philosophical reasoning. For Kierkegaard, being human means being dependent on and embedded in nature. This makes Kierkegaard a highly relevant interlocutor for contemporary Eco philosophy and ecocriticism. Ibn Ṭufayl’s opinion on the subject is discernible in his novel called Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān. Pursuing the truth of life, Ḥayy, the main personage of Ibn Ṭufayl’s novel, finds his way through four travels of mind. Nature is the context of his travels, so determined to protect nature, Ḥayy takes considerable care of fauna and flora as he steps into the highest levels in his ascent. In the first travel, Ḥayy begins from nature from which is created and in which is raised by a roe mother. In the second travel, he figures out all of natural affairs insofar as becoming a leading scientist. In the third travel resulted in the former travel, Ḥayy becomes successful in philosophical analysis. In the fourth travel, Ḥayy goes forward with philosophical analysis and reaches mystical level. The mystical experiences go on so that through all natural beings and events Ḥayy conveys to God. In this last pace, Ḥayy returns to nature and becomes a nature protectionist. At the end of story, Ḥayy faces a religious stranger showed up from another island. Ḥayy finds his beliefs thoroughly in accordance with his own opinions.

The present paper analyzes Jorie Graham’s “Sea Change”, the eponymous poem of her 2008 poetry collection, through Julia Kristeva’s theories on semiotic and the abject. By tracing the historical attitudes towards embodiment, this research attempts to examine Graham’s outlook towards the mind/body and by extension nature/culture dichotomies in her poetry. The previous studies on the Sea Change collection have mostly focused on Graham’s formal structures and ecological concerns; no other research has used Kristeva’s theories to examine the importance of one’s embodied experience of the world in her poetry to reveal how negative attitudes towards the body lead to a fractured existence for the human subject. Graham’s poetic language addresses the neglect to which the semiotic has been subjected, redefines the body in terms that are not abject and opens up a safe cultural space for it. Her poetry illuminates how mystification and degradation of the body have a positive correlation with oppression of the nature, as concepts belonging to similar dichotomous lines of thought, and highlights the call for a re-evaluation of the attitudes towards the human subject’s existence in the world.