Biocide: The willful destruction of life as such, either directly, through overt killing or indirectly, by making of it a mere instrument to the growth of non-living systems. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with… Read More

Bioethics: philosophy of the ethical and moral implications of biological discoveries and medical advances. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Biological Time: The time required for the development, maintenance and repair of processes and environments that operate on a micro-environmental level and scale. See Ecological Time. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of… Read More

Biophilia: A term coined by Erich Fromm which means “love of life” which he distinguishes from its opposite “necrophilia”, the “love of death” or repressive inflexibility. Biophilia is distinguished from life-value onto-axiology in attending only to the affective or felt side of life affirmation without principled distinctions among fields and ranges of life value and… Read More

Bourgeois equality of opportunity: the principle that socially constructed status restrictions on life chances, of both formal and informal kinds, are illegitimate. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford,… Read More

Burden of disease: The burden of disease is a measurement of the gap between a population’s current health and the optimal state where all people attain full life expectancy without suffering major ill-health. Reference: Modified definition (WHO, 2000). Burden of disease analysis enables decision makers to identify the most serious health problems facing a population.… Read More

Calculus of sentences: System of logic containing variables representing whole sentences and logical operators applying to such variables. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Capabilities: That which living things are able to by virtue of their being alive (e.g., feel, sense, think, and so forth). As such, capabilities are the source of life-value for living things in so far as they are expressed and enjoyed. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’… Read More

Capability: The general types of activity that distinguish organic life from inanimate things. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Capacity building: Capacity building is the development of knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems and leadership to enable effective health promotion. It involves actions to improve health at three levels: the advancement of knowledge and skills among practitioners; the expansion of support and infrastructure for health promotion in organizations, and; the development of cohesiveness and partnerships… Read More