Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature

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dc.contributor.advisorVilla-Vicencio, Charlesen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCowley, Graemeen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-12-27T19:51:37Z
dc.date.available2014-12-27T19:51:37Z
dc.date.issued2000en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: leaves 281-289.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis study seeks, as its primary objective, the formulation of a genuinely ecocentric hermeneutic. It consequently incorporates an argument against those "shallow" schools of ecological philosophy which assess the ecological crisis as simply an issue of enlightened self-interest, or of more effective resource management. More significantly, however, we have sought to deconstruct the mythos of contemporary ecocentric philosophy, itself, in order to demonstrate that its ideological underpinnings are not consistently ecocentric in nature. This polemical task serves to reframe the ecological crisis as, above all, a crisis of affirmation, and comes to yield a threefold problematisation of (ecocentric) meaning: the problem of methodology, or that of the relation between truth and representation; the problem of morality, or that of the relation between truth and value; and the problem of Immanentism, or that of a full-bodied divinity. Such problematisation has been negotiated by the systematic application of ecocentric precepts to an understanding of the relationship between Self, Nature and God. Particular recourse has been made to the category of organic 'interdependence" - or the idea of the profound kinship of the human and the non-human-and the notion of the primacy of "becoming" over "being - or the idea of the fundamental temporality of all existence. The implications of these principles are extracted through a critical dialogue with the thought of Darwin, Freud and Nietzsche- an intellectual lineage which, it is argued, most fully embodies the ecocentric ambition.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationCowley, G. (2000). <i>Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Religious Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10302en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationCowley, Graeme. <i>"Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Religious Studies, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10302en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationCowley, G. 2000. Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Cowley, Graeme AB - This study seeks, as its primary objective, the formulation of a genuinely ecocentric hermeneutic. It consequently incorporates an argument against those "shallow" schools of ecological philosophy which assess the ecological crisis as simply an issue of enlightened self-interest, or of more effective resource management. More significantly, however, we have sought to deconstruct the mythos of contemporary ecocentric philosophy, itself, in order to demonstrate that its ideological underpinnings are not consistently ecocentric in nature. This polemical task serves to reframe the ecological crisis as, above all, a crisis of affirmation, and comes to yield a threefold problematisation of (ecocentric) meaning: the problem of methodology, or that of the relation between truth and representation; the problem of morality, or that of the relation between truth and value; and the problem of Immanentism, or that of a full-bodied divinity. Such problematisation has been negotiated by the systematic application of ecocentric precepts to an understanding of the relationship between Self, Nature and God. Particular recourse has been made to the category of organic 'interdependence" - or the idea of the profound kinship of the human and the non-human-and the notion of the primacy of "becoming" over "being - or the idea of the fundamental temporality of all existence. The implications of these principles are extracted through a critical dialogue with the thought of Darwin, Freud and Nietzsche- an intellectual lineage which, it is argued, most fully embodies the ecocentric ambition. DA - 2000 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2000 T1 - Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature TI - Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10302 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/10302
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationCowley G. Pandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of nature. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Religious Studies, 2000 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10302en_ZA
dc.language.isoafren_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Religious Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherReligious Studiesen_ZA
dc.titlePandora's box reopened : an essay on death, darkness and the meaning of natureen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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