RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE IN TRADITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONCEPTS OF CHINA AND WEST

As the process of economic globalization gathers momentum, dialogue between different cultures has become extremely important. There should be dialogue between the Chinese and Western cultures under the principle of equality and mutual respect and understanding to increase consensus for mutual development.

From the Subjectivity of Human Rights to the Universality of Human Rights——A Preliminary Interpretation of the Theory on the Subjectivity of Human Rights

Universality is one of the essential characteristics of human rights, but there is a substantive difference between idealism and realism in understanding the concept of universality of human rights. The concepts of radical universality and strong universality based on the concept of natural human rights are too idealistic and thus have a high risk of being alienated into a tool of international re-pression in practice. On the contrary, the theory on the subjectivity of human rights can effectively defuse this risk brought about by radical universality and strong universality. Advocating a transition from the universality of human rights to the subjectivity of human rights not only keeps in line with the actual construction process of international human rights, but can also effectively interpret the practical difficul-ties in the realization process of international human rights. Therefore, it can be used as another alternative theory on human rights beyond the theory of natural human rights.

Global Bioethical Prevention of the Collision of Biological and Cultural Evolution on Miserable Human Survival

With the cultural myth that science can only determine the way the world ＂is＂ （facts）, while humanities, social sciences, lawyers, philosophers, and theologians must determine the way the world ＂ought to be＂ （values）, those in position of global-, national-, and local-political power make major decisions of the use （or non-use） of scientific knowledge and technology. As a result, the human being has created a non-scientifically based cultural environment that is affecting his ability to survive. In effect, cultural evolution is occurring more rapidly than biological evolution that can adapt to the changes brought about in the physical and psycho-social environments. In a pluralistic cultural world, where each society has generated a different view of human nature and different ethical values, the use, misuse, or non-use of scientific and technological advances are derived from these unscientific views of human nature. Since all life depends on limiting interacting environmental and ecological factors, it is imperative that scientific information be used to govern how to minimize irreversible effects on life-sustaining ecological factors, but also scientific information bearing on understanding human nature ought to be integrated into a ＂global bioethics＂. While ethical values cannot be directly derived from scientific factors, it is also true that human values or our ＂ought＂ cannot be maintained in ignorance or defiance of the facts or the ＂is＂.

Challenges of a feasible route towards sustainability in environmental protection

Anaerobic processes for treatment of low and high strength wastewaters and solid wastes constitute the core method in the natural biological mineralization(NBM)treatment concept.When adequately combined with the complementary NBM-systems and modern clean water saving practices in wastewater collection and transport,they represent a feasible route to sustainable environmental protection(EPsus),in essence even towards a more sustainable society.Despite the development and implementation of modern high rate Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment(AnWT-)systems and complementary innovative NBM-processes,the considerable progress made since the seventies in fundamental insights in microbiology,biochemistry and process technology,still numerous challenging improvements in the NBM-field can be realized.This contribution is mainly based on the insights attained from wide ranging literature evaluations and the results of experimental research conducted by numerous PhD students who participated in our group over the last four decades.An attempt is made here to identify major facets on which an improved insight can,and consequently should,be obtained in order to accomplish more optimal operation and design of various types of Anaerobic Degradation(AnDeg-)processes.

The Anti-metaphysical Turn in the Philosophy of Love （From the Cartesian Perinatai Perspective on Love to Diderot＇s Free Love in His Supplement to Bougainville＇s Journeys）

In my paper, I show how the metaphysical aspect of the earlier concepts of love faded away through the disappearance of the essential references to God as the one, omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent being of the creation of nature, physis. Although in the seventeenth century, the structure of nature was conceived roughly in Epicurean terms, this concept was thought to be in need of a completion through a parallel system of being directed by teleological causality in one way or other. A synthesis of the Epicurean-scientific and the Christian teleological worldview was the main point in the philosophical agenda. The Enlightenment period meant a radical break between this soul-centred view and a new body-centred view most of the important thinkers were persuaded of. I exemplify this radically new look at the human being-in-the-world by presenting some ideas from ~ 50 of Diderot＇s ＂Thoughts on the interpretation of nature＂ （Pensdes sur l＇interprdtation de la nature）. Diderot attributes the faculties of feeling and thinking to all being from the tiniest molecules to the most complex beings, dispensing in this way with the typically seventeenth-century idea of God as the personal warrant of the pos- sibility of cognition. The sentient elements＇ j,~,~ng other corpuscles is no more governed by an omniscient creator but by the dynamism of the process itself. This boundless, creative, dynamic fluidity of being, this newly conceived nature in continual flux seemed to be captured best by such elastic faculties as imagination or sentiment. This is one of the reasons for the overall dominance of these faculties in the French and Scottish versions of the philosophy and theory of art of Enlight- enment. The consequences of all this in domain of the thinking on love will be presented by way of a reflection upon Diderot＇s ideas on the mixing of human andanimal species in the Dream of D＇Alembert and on his ideas on ＂free love＂ in his Supplement to the voyage of Bougainville （1775/1796）.