Human pressure on mountain resources poses certain threats to their natural and man-made environment. Although there are many parameters involved, one of the driving forces behind this situation is the emphasis given ...Human pressure on mountain resources poses certain threats to their natural and man-made environment. Although there are many parameters involved, one of the driving forces behind this situation is the emphasis given so far only to the market value of mountain goods and services, ignoring the true social and environmental costs of using mountain resources. Towards this direction, the use of non-market valuation techniques could prove to be beneficial. Bearing in mind the above remarks, the paper presents an application of the Contingent Valuation Method, which aims at estimating the monetary value of a mountain settlement’s vernacular architecture, namely Metsovo. For this purpose, the survey focuses on Metsovo visitors’ willingness to pay a single annual voluntary contribution to an institution that would be founded in order to undertake all necessary actions required to preserve the town’s traditional character. The results are very promising and indicate that vernacular architecture holds a significant economic value that could justify the implementation of appropriate policies towards the protection of vernacular settlements in mountain areas.展开更多
I make an attempt in the paper to argue in favor of the person-centered view of good life, where becoming a good person involves seeking to qualitatively transform oneself into a worthy human being. I maintain that be...I make an attempt in the paper to argue in favor of the person-centered view of good life, where becoming a good person involves seeking to qualitatively transform oneself into a worthy human being. I maintain that becoming fully a person and respecting others as persons are achievements that are not assured for all of us. Thus, for the purpose I prepare the ground for an account of good life that rests on valuational consciousness. I propose that one may ascribe valuational consciousness to a person who is a value-sensitive rational being striving to attain a kind of inner transparency. Evidently, to say that a person has valuational consciousness is to stress the values, which are built into personal consciousness. The life of a person, whether that of truth, courage, nobility, justice, kindness, is a life marked by ego transcending personal consciousness that reaches out to humanity at large. And such a repository of values enables a human being to attain the ideal of good life. The ideal of good life, I contend, consists of attaining the higher order posture of selflessness--a posture of inner transparency. It is to shake off the egocentric partiality that characterizes our usual attitudinal stance towards one another.展开更多
文摘Human pressure on mountain resources poses certain threats to their natural and man-made environment. Although there are many parameters involved, one of the driving forces behind this situation is the emphasis given so far only to the market value of mountain goods and services, ignoring the true social and environmental costs of using mountain resources. Towards this direction, the use of non-market valuation techniques could prove to be beneficial. Bearing in mind the above remarks, the paper presents an application of the Contingent Valuation Method, which aims at estimating the monetary value of a mountain settlement’s vernacular architecture, namely Metsovo. For this purpose, the survey focuses on Metsovo visitors’ willingness to pay a single annual voluntary contribution to an institution that would be founded in order to undertake all necessary actions required to preserve the town’s traditional character. The results are very promising and indicate that vernacular architecture holds a significant economic value that could justify the implementation of appropriate policies towards the protection of vernacular settlements in mountain areas.
文摘I make an attempt in the paper to argue in favor of the person-centered view of good life, where becoming a good person involves seeking to qualitatively transform oneself into a worthy human being. I maintain that becoming fully a person and respecting others as persons are achievements that are not assured for all of us. Thus, for the purpose I prepare the ground for an account of good life that rests on valuational consciousness. I propose that one may ascribe valuational consciousness to a person who is a value-sensitive rational being striving to attain a kind of inner transparency. Evidently, to say that a person has valuational consciousness is to stress the values, which are built into personal consciousness. The life of a person, whether that of truth, courage, nobility, justice, kindness, is a life marked by ego transcending personal consciousness that reaches out to humanity at large. And such a repository of values enables a human being to attain the ideal of good life. The ideal of good life, I contend, consists of attaining the higher order posture of selflessness--a posture of inner transparency. It is to shake off the egocentric partiality that characterizes our usual attitudinal stance towards one another.