permaculture

[kran0072@umn.edu]

Cindy, that's interesting, about permanence and values.

Martin, I'm not sure if we're talking in the same terms or not. Let me know 
if I'm not clear.

I'm wondering whether it is even possible to do anything, permaculture 
included, without ethics or values.

A design principle, whether founded in scientific inquiry or a more 
intuitive process of "knowing," simply says if one does A, B will or may 
result. What one does, and where they do it, and exactly how is a matter of 
making decisions. Perhaps I'm confused, but it seems that there is no 
decision that one can make based solely on observation or science or 
whatever. If one intervenes in some system, there are implied values. It 
seems problematic to deny that our acts and general lifestyle are 
influenced by values. Perhaps we internalize and forget that these values 
underly our actions, but aren't they present?