In its hermeneutically rich reconstructions of “Axial Age” breakthroughs in the world’sgreat religions, RHE provides an all-important historical explanation for the autonomy of cul-ture vis-à-vis social structure in the present day. Powerfully documenting “Eastern” as well as“Western” Axial breakthroughs, RHE goes beyond the Orientalism that distorted Weber’s ownhistorical and c...

Animal welfare has become a growing concern affecting acceptability of agricultural systems in many countries around the world. An earlier Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible (1982) that dominion over animals meant that any degree of exploitation was acceptable has changed for most people to mean that each person has responsibility for animal welfare. This view was evident in some ancie...

Local and regional environments have for many centuries been seen as, or as being composed of, ''natural resources,'' which have generally been considered fully available for human use, irrespective of any use to which other species, purposefully or not, might put them. The global environment has more recently, though less routinely, been seen in this way. I examine full-human-use arguments in ...

This article argues that Nietzsche’s transvaluation project refers not to a mere inversion or negation of a set of nihilism-prone, Judeo-Christian values but, instead, to a different conception of what a value is and how it functions. Traditional values function within a standard logical framework and claim legitimacy and “bindingness” based on exogenous authority with absolute extension. Nietz...