Political economy midterm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Political economy midterm - Essay Example The basic classes of ontology available include upper ontology, process ontology, domain ontology, and interface ontology. Ontology focuses on status of reality, which can either be dependent or independent. Independent reality implies that reality does not depend on human interpretation2. Human beings have their own ways through which they interpret various aspects affecting their lives; when their interpretation of life does not determine the definition of reality, philosophers refer to that type of reality as independent reality. Dependent reality, on the other hand, implies that the meaning of reality depends on how human beings interpret the state of being. In this case, human beings are the determinants of how reality is interpreted. Positivism, as a philosophy of science, posits that the exclusive source of knowledge constitutes information derived from logical and mathematical studies plus the reports of sensory experience. According to the positivists, exclusive knowledge must be based verified data derived from empirical evidence. Empirical evidence refers to facts derived from scientific research as opposed to hearsay. Schroeder and Chester contend that positivists believe that the society operates according to general laws, just like the physical world3. Positivism subscribes to the belief that the study of the social world is similar to the study of the natural world. The natural world actually exists and its study depends on clearly observable features. Positivists believe that it is possible to understand the casual mechanisms characterizing the political economy just as it is done in physical sciences (Horwitz and Koppl 32)4. The primary objective of positivism science is to discover the universality of the aspects under investigation. For example, if positivists want to understand causes of poor economic performance, they focus on the

Precautionary Principle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Precautionary Principle - Essay Example Such specific status of the precautionary principle makes it a very interesting and highly relevant field of analytical inquiry. The formal concept of 'precautionary principle' originated in Germany in the 1930s. Initially, this concept applied to socio-legal practices such as household management: German word 'Vorsorgeprinzip' translated into English as 'precaution principle' (O'Riordan & Cameron 1994, p. 10). By the 1970s the concept of 'Vorsorgeprinzip' developed into an essential principle of German environmental law and was used to justify the actions meant to address such problems as global warming, sea and air pollution, and others. At the centre of early conceptions of precautionary principle was the idea that society should take efforts to prevent environmental damage by careful forward planning, blocking the flow of human activities potentially hazardous for environment or "long term planning to avoid damage to the environment, early detection of dangers to health and the environment through comprehensive research, and acting in advance of conclusive scientific evidence of harm" (LaFranchi 2005, p. 681). Since the 1970s the precautionary principle has proliferated in international and domestic conventions, treaties, and political statements dealing with environmental issues in which the science is uncertain. Thus, the precautionary principle was introduced in 1984 at the First International Conference on Protection of the North Sea; it was also integrated into the Bergen declaration on sustainable development, the Maastricht Treaty on the European Union, the Barcelona Convention, and the Global Climate Change Convention. Sweden and Denmark were the first states after Germany to seriously implement the precautionary principle in their environmental and public health policy (Hanson 2003). Since the late 1980s, the precautionary principle in some or other form has become unalienable aspect of domestic statutes and policies in Australia too. Current Approaches and Definitions Despite relatively long history of use, no universally accepted definition of the precautionary principle has been proposed up to date. Perhaps the most widely quoted definition of the precautionary principle is the one formulated at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development: "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation" (Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992, Principle 15). Although this definition is used more commonly than others it is not universally accepted: there are many alternative definitions. The precautionary principle can also be defined as "... a willingness to take action in advance of