Sustainability and Quality of Life

SUSTAINABILITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE is a scholarly anthology edited by Jack Lee, Ph.D. (ISBN-13: 978-0-9743472-1-9). HERE IS A SUMMARY OF THE ANTHOLOGY (WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR, DR. JACK LEE): Some scholars suggest we should live a sustainable life. But what is "sustainability"? We need to think about sustainability deeply and broadly. In this anthology, I provide a forum for doing this. Philosophy (e.g., ontology and ethics) is very important. We also need to bring together natural sciences, education, sociology, law and other disciplines. Environmental issues command a multi-disciplinary approach. I am especially proud to include an environmental philosophy paper written by the brilliant young Taiwanese mountaineer Allen Yu before he died, of pollution-related leukemia. I hope this anthology can help us to re-think our engagement with the natural world. HERE IS AN ABSTRACT OF THE BOOK: Today we face serious environmental problems which force us to re-examine our way of life. The consensus scholarly response is to urge humanity to live sustainable lives. This suggestion is appealing as a slogan but resides in academic consciousness largely unexamined as a concept. This anthology gathers philosophers and ethicists together with experts and practitioners from many other disciplines and backgrounds to examine the question: what is sustainability? KEYWORDS: sustainability, intrinsic value, ecosystem, animal, human species, Confucianism, environment, obligations to the future, anthropocentrism, global warming. HERE IS THE BOOK'S TABLE OF CONTENTS: ---Preface (page ix); ---Contributors (page xi); ---1. Metaphysics of Sustainability: Kant's Categorical Imperative (by Martin Schnfeld) (page 1); ---2. Sustainability: A Personal Account (by J. Baird Callicott) (page 19); ---3. Intrinsic Value and Respect for the Natural Environment (by Jack Lee) (page 35); ---4. The Land Ethic and Gleason's Individualistic Concept of Plant Association (by Allen Yu) (page 51); ---5. Environmental Ethics and Bioethics: Anthropocentrism, Ideological Convergence, and Socio-Political Disposition (by Edmund U. H. Sim) (page 77); ---6. Sustainable Development vs. Sustainable Biosphere (by Holmes Rolston, III) (page 91); ---7. The Possibility of a Global Environmental Ethics: A Confucian Proposal (by Shui Chuen Lee) (page 103); ---8. Confucian Filial Piety and Environmental Sustainability (by A. T. Nuyen) (page 119); ---9. Toward An Ethical Climate Regime (by Po-Keung Ip) (page 137); ---10. Climate Change and Obligations to the Future (by William Grey) (page 157); ---11. Environmental Ethics in an Omniverse Environment: From Terrestrial Chauvinism to Golden Rule (by Charles Tandy) (page 171); ---12. The Non-human Natural World, Indigenous Peoples, and Late-modern Capitalism (by Mac Kang Bai (Campbell)) (page 217); ---13. Indigenous People's Hunting Issues and Environmental Ethics: A Contextual Observation in Taiwan (by Yih-Ren Lin) (page 255); ---14. Taiwan's Reform of Energy L...