Technology versus Ecology: Human Superiority and the Ongoing Conflict with Nature

Technology versus Ecology: Human Superiority and the Ongoing Conflict with Nature

Indexed In: SCOPUS
Release Date: September, 2013|Copyright: © 2014 |Pages: 347
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4586-8
ISBN13: 9781466645868|ISBN10: 1466645865|EISBN13: 9781466645875
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Description & Coverage
Description:

Although human beings are technically part of the ecosystem, there still remains a conceptual conflict between technology and nature. These concerns highlight the idea of human superiority in which the priority is given to technology versus living in synchronization with nature.

Technology versus Ecology: Human Superiority and the Ongoing Conflict with Nature explores the issues revolving around the conflict between technology versus human beings, the concern for the separation of human beings in the ecosystem, and the negative consequences that may follow as ecosystems are being damaged. This book is a significant reference source for researchers, instructors, and students interested in the constant evolution of technology and ecology.

Coverage:

The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to:

  • Conflict with the Ecosystem
  • Eco-Ethics
  • Environmentalism and Sustainability
  • Human Superiority
  • Nature of Modern Technology
  • Technology vs. Ecology
Reviews & Statements

This book presents the case for changing our extant attitudes of human superiority and exceptionalism in order to achieve the environmental equilibrium necessary to sustain our species.[…] Dr. Schultz presents a well-informed, comprehensive, and astute analysis of the place of technology in the relation of humanity to the world’s physical environment.

– John Karayan, Woodbury University, USA

Drawing on his background in computer information systems and ethics, Schultz continues the account of conflicts between technology and ecology he began in earlier books. Among his topics are humans as masters of the world, conflicts with the ecosystem, mind body consciousness, humans as hunter-gatherers, civilization, causes of conflict with the ecosystem, environmentalism and sustainability, the role of science and technology, human-animal relations, regaining our place as a species among species, and extinction.

– Annotation ©2013 Book News Inc. Portland, OR

Offers a dark and timely update of what Aldo Leopold, in his classic Sand County Almanac, termed a "land ethic." Like Leopold, Schultz critiques the human tendency to set ourselves above or outside the natural world. But Technology versus Ecology: Human Superiority and the Ongoing Conflict with Nature goes further, asking whether science and technology are compatible with the planet's survival (and our own, as a species). He isn't optimistic. Science understands by abstracting and simplifying, but ecological inter-relationships are multifold and complex. And unhappy outcomes are near certain when technology is harnessed to short-term, profit-driven economic goals- like a steam engine without a safety valve.

– Colloquy, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Spring 2015
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Editor/Author Biographies
Robert A. Schultz received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard University (1971). His dissertation in ethics was under the direction of John Rawls. He was a member of the philosophy faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University, and the University of Southern California, and taught courses and published articles and reviews in the fields of ethics, logic, and aesthetics. In 1980 he assumed the position of data processing manager at A-Mark Precious Metals, a Forbes 500 company, then in Beverly Hills, CA. From 1989 through 2007, he was professor and chair of computer information systems and director of academic computing at Woodbury University (Burbank, CA). He regularly taught courses in database applications and design, systems development tools, and the management of information technology. He has numerous publications and presentations in the areas of database design, IT education, and the philosophy of technology. His previous book, Contemporary Issues in Ethics and Information Technology, was published by IRM Press (an imprint of IGI Global) in 2006. He retired and was awarded an emeritus professorship at Woodbury University in 2008. He continues to teach and publish in the areas of IT and ethics and taught an online course on this topic in the Applied Information Management Program at the University of Oregon in early 2009.
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