Suchergebnisse

Howhumansperceiveandjudgenatureandrelateittotheirlifeisshaped by emotional, cognitive, cultural, and social factors. Whether a species is consid- ered native, non-native, or invasive can affect such aesthetics of nature by interact- ing with our emotions, affronting or confirming our cognitive categories, or engaging in our social, economic, and cultural worlds. Consequently, how humans perceive and judge the presence of such species, or how they judge an ecosystem or land- scape change triggered by them, is not fixed or easy to define. Here, some of the psychological, cognitive, and social dimensions that influence how humans judge non-native and invasive species and their effects on ecosystems are reviewed. It is concluded, at least in the case of non-native species, that the reduction of aesthetics to a 'service' is problematic, for it occludes the complex psychological and social processes that shape divergent perceptions of changing species distributions.

Das neuzeitlich-mechanistische Naturverständnis wurde in der jüngeren Vergangenheit durch eine Reihe neuer Ansätze in verschiedenen Einzelwissenschaften erschüttert. Die technomorphen Modellvorstellungen geraten zunehmend ins Kreuzfeuer der Kritik. Die Entwicklung der Selbstorganisationstheorie, die Resultate der Chaosforschung sowie die Entwicklungen der fraktalen Geometrie und der Synergetik markieren einen Umbruch des wissenschaftlichen Naturbegriffs, der zu einer Ablösung des physikalisch geprägten Weltbildes führen könnte. Der vorliegende Sammelband enthält Beiträge zur philosophischen, naturwissenschaftlichen sowie kunst- und architekturtheoretischen Diskussion über das Naturverständnis der Gegenwart.

AbstractNature can be a nebulous, often contradictory concept that holds immense cultural and emotional weight for many. Philosophers and social scientists have frequently dissected its meaning and shared significance, especially with respect to environmental issues. This paper analyzes nature as experienced and understood in everyday life in Western society, arguing that the most salient, intuitive mode of understanding the concept is a visual–pictorial one. It further argues that nature is expressed through emplaced aesthetics managed and produced through various forms of "mobility," or socially produced movement, as theorized by the writers of the "new mobilities paradigm." The paper considers two general contexts for this process: the production of aesthetic nature in urban settings and in extra‐urban landscapes. Furthermore, it argues that these aesthetic expressions have a great influence on the epistemology guiding popular sensibilities around our broader relationships to the nonhuman world and on the moral logic of much Western environmentalism.

This book investigates the aesthetic nature and purposes of computer culture in the contemporary world. It casts a cool eye on the claims of cybertopians, tracing the globalization of the new medium and enquiring into its effects on subjectivity and sociality