Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Vita. Includes abstract. Typescript. Bibliography : leaves 22-27.

The thesis deals with the problem of Buddhist approach to plants through its history and all its lands. Scientific literature and translations of primary sources translated into western languages are the main sources I use. I particularly focus on the question whether Buddhism considers plants as sentient beings and ascribes them the ability to achieve enlightenment. I also deal with pre-Buddhist ideas concerning plants in each particular region. In the case of India I especially focus on Jainism, the historical companion of Buddhism. Furthermore, I put these facts into a broader frame of Buddhist environmental ethics and Buddhist treatment of the natural world. Thus, this paper should also contribute to the discussion about how ecological Buddhism is. In the pre-Buddhist India, plants were believed to be sentient beings and were involved in the cycle of rebirths. This view was accepted by Jains, but Buddhism chose another way. Whereas early parts of the Pali cannon contain rules prohibiting harming plants, later texts explicitly exclude them from the realm of sentience beings. The topic was further dealt mainly by Eastern Buddhism and, on the contrary, mainly overlooked in other regions. Eastern Buddhism, especially in Japan, again ascribed to plants the ability to attain Buddhahood. This doctrine...

The thesis is based on questionnaire survey conducted among 136 so called "green and colourful" respondents. The term "the colourful and the green" comes from the professor of environmental sociology, Hana Librová, and refers to people living the ecologically beneficial lifestyle that can be characterized by voluntary or intentional modesty. The target of the survey was to find out whether these people are influenced in their lifestyle by books or which books would articulate their worldview the best; what books they resonate with. Often repeated titles formed a "green influential literary canon" that is further analyzed in the thesis. First, the canon as a whole is examined, second the three most frequent books are studied with an ecocritical approach. In the canon, a minimum titles from the field of deep ecology, nature writing as well as science fiction or utopia were registered. Despite the expectation, there were many books related to New Age movement in the canon as well as pop-cultural spiritual writings. Nevertheless, books concerning native americans, together with eco- philosophical works largely dominated. Functions that the publications fulfill for the readers are seen as a clamp of diverse books in the canon. There are three main functions defined and further explained:...

The goal of this diploma thesis called "Ethics of the Garden" is to introduce the ecological-ethical issue and the closely related question about the role of a mankind in the world. First of all, the main aim is to introduce the ecological-ethical concept of the American author Michael Pollan. In this concept, a garden is viewed as a source of elementary ethical principals that are applicable in the relationship of mankind to nature. That is why it is called "Ethics of the Garden". The practical part of the thesis is dedicated to the individual principles of this concept. It introduces its characteristics and it also gives specific examples of the practical application of the principles of the "Ethics of the garden" within the context of central Europe. Here only very few original ecosystems (untouched by human intervention) have survived and it is hard to find an ideal solution for the coexistence of mankind and nature. Keywords ecological ethics, environmental ethics, ethics of the garden, environment, nature, culture, civilization, intervention in nature, primary and secondary nature