Agriculture & Philosophy: Agricultural Science in Philosophy


Book Description

Agriculture and philosophy have been parts of a whole across history and remain so. Philosophy informs wellbeing and contentment amidst the vagaries of existence, the primary concern of which has always been security of food. Science, once known as natural philosophy, is a major means of philosophical advance today. Agricultural science is presented as comprising all of these components. The philosophical quest to be at ease in nature extends from pre-historical times into our unknown future, and employs diverse vehicles to convey insights across generations via myths, legends religion, academic study and ritual practices. Expressing esoteric concepts has employed agricultural metaphor across the historical era as it has been our most common interaction with nature. Continuing as our most widespread human interaction within nature, agriculture’s role in creating civilization, and later its writing, eventually led to an urban separation from nature including food production. Unifying the philosophy, agriculture and agricultural science across cultures and traditions from pre-agricultural times through the European Enlightenment to today, this work builds on neglected ancient insights. Perhaps the most profound of these insights is that our thoughts and actions may be seen as an integral part of nature. Rather than being independent agents with free will, our fears and guilt may be seen as active forces in the dynamics of nature itself, which includes our procurement of food. This conception offers a wider interaction than can be comprehended from current popular approaches.




Philosophy of Agricultural Science


Book Description

This book, written by one of the leading Japanese scholars in the philosophy of agricultural science, examines the relationship between human life, the natural environment, and agriculture. The author argues that satisfying diverse human values requires a harmonious realization of three sometimes conflicting sets of values, and situates a reconceived agricultural science as the best means to realizing these ends. This means rethinking the entrenched divisions between the natural, human, and practical sciences to create an agricultural science that draws on the reductive empiricism of the natural sciences as well as the interpretative methodologies of the human sciences in its efforts to find applied solutions to real problems. This also entails rethinking the place of agriculture in the world, recognizing that its non-economic contributions to the community and environment are every bit as important as, if not more than, its economic values. Only through balancing diverse value objectives and synthesizing diverse research methodologies will modern societies avert further environmental damage and begin to rectify existing problems.




The Philosophy of Food


Book Description

This book explores food from a philosophical perspective, bringing together leading philosophers to consider the most basic questions about food. Each essay analyses many contemporary debates in food studies. Slow Food, sustainability, food safety, and politics, and addresses such issues as happy meat, aquaculture, veganism, and table manners.




Agriculture's Ethical Horizon


Book Description

The second edition of Agriculture's Ethical Horizon is a carefully considered application of philosophical concepts, such as utilitarianism and positivism, to the practice of agricultural science. Author Robert Zimdahl argues for an approach to agriculture guided by foundational values, and addresses the questions: What are the goals of agricultural and weed science? What should their goals be? How do and how should the practitioners of agriculture address complex ethical questions? This book engages students, researchers, and professionals across disciplines including horticulture, soil and plant science, entomology, and more, all without requiring a background in philosophy. It examines topics such as scientific truth and myth, moral confidence in agriculture, the relevance of ethics to sustainability, and biotechnology. New to this edition is a chapter examining the raising, housing and slaughter of animals for human food, and a chapter on alternative and organic agricultural systems. - Easily understood by non-philosophers - Chapter sidebars highlight important concepts and can be used to engage students in further discussion - Companion website includes further teaching aids and a discussion board




Rethinking Food and Agriculture


Book Description

Given the central role of the food and agriculture system in driving so many of the connected ecological, social and economic threats and challenges we currently face, Rethinking Food and Agriculture reviews, reassesses and reimagines the current food and agriculture system and the narrow paradigm in which it operates. Rethinking Food and Agriculture explores and uncovers some of the key historical, ethical, economic, social, cultural, political, and structural drivers and root causes of unsustainability, degradation of the agricultural environment, destruction of nature, short-comings in science and knowledge systems, inequality, hunger and food insecurity, and disharmony. It reviews efforts towards 'sustainable development', and reassesses whether these efforts have been implemented with adequate responsibility, acceptable societal and environmental costs and optimal engagement to secure sustainability, equity and justice. The book highlights the many ways that farmers and their communities, civil society groups, social movements, development experts, scientists and others have been raising awareness of these issues, implementing solutions and forging 'new ways forward', for example towards paradigms of agriculture, natural resource management and human nutrition which are more sustainable and just. Rethinking Food and Agriculture proposes ways to move beyond the current limited view of agro-ecological sustainability towards overall sustainability of the food and agriculture system based on the principle of 'inclusive responsibility'. Inclusive responsibility encourages ecosystem sustainability based on agro-ecological and planetary limits to sustainable resource use for production and livelihoods. Inclusive responsibility also places importance on quality of life, pluralism, equity and justice for all and emphasises the health, well-being, sovereignty, dignity and rights of producers, consumers and other stakeholders, as well as of nonhuman animals and the natural world. - Explores some of the key drivers and root causes of unsustainability , degradation of the agricultural environment and destruction of nature - Highlights the many ways that different stakeholders have been forging 'new ways forward' towards alternative paradigms of agriculture, human nutrition and political economy, which are more sustainable and just - Proposes ways to move beyong the current unsustainable exploitation of natural resources towards agroecological sustainability and overall sustainability of the food and agriculture system based on 'inclusive responsibility'




Before Dinner


Book Description

Both issues refer to the social and cultural aspects of food.




The Natural Way of Farming


Book Description

...A natural way of farming that renounces all human knowledge and intervention. - preface.




Paul B. Thompson's Philosophy of Agriculture


Book Description

​​This book explores the philosophical thought and praxis of Paul B. Thompson, who planted some of the first seeds of philosophy of agriculture and whose work inspires interdisciplinary scholarship in food ethics, biotechnology, and environmental philosophy. Landmark texts such as The Spirit of the Soil, The Agrarian Vision, and From Field to Fork revealed the fertility of food systems for inspiring reflection on our relationships to technology, the land, and one another. Rooted in philosophical traditions ranging from pragmatism to post-phenomenology, Thompson’s work nourishes projects in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and social and political theory, not only in academic philosophy departments but also in the social and natural sciences. This volume collects this diversity of thought in a tour of the many fields of food systems; from theorizing the sustainability of agroecological systems, to appreciating the quotidian practice of agrarian communities, to anticipating the impacts of emerging biotechnology, and to savoring the roles that food plays in forming our identities. Composed by an international crop of scholars working on the future of food ethics, the volume is a vital contribution to scholars and practitioners thinking through our relationships to the food systems that sustain us.




The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology


Book Description

This handbook covers the history of philosophy of biology then moves on to evolutionary theory. It continues with discussions of molecular biology and ecology, and covers biology and ethics as well as biology and religion.




Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences


Book Description

The Handbook Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences addresses numerous issues in the emerging field of the philosophy of those sciences that are involved in the technological process of designing, developing and making of new technical artifacts and systems. These issues include the nature of design, of technological knowledge, and of technical artifacts, as well as the toolbox of engineers. Most of these have thus far not been analyzed in general philosophy of science, which has traditionally but inadequately regarded technology as mere applied science and focused on physics, biology, mathematics and the social sciences. - First comprehensive philosophical handbook on technology and the engineering sciences - Unparalleled in scope including explorative articles - In depth discussion of technical artifacts and their ontology - Provides extensive analysis of the nature of engineering design - Focuses in detail on the role of models in technology




Recent Books