Human Beings
And
Nature
Environmental New
Crises Story
From the Sciences
A more or less
drastic
Rethink of
The
Relationship??
The New Story from
the Sciences
1)
The Universe is far from being just
'dead' matter
2)
Reality is fundamentally unpredictable
Quantum Theory
Chaos Theory
3)
"The Universe is a put-up job"
(Paul Davies)
Simplicity
Laws of nature
And play of
'chance'
Complexity
Including something like us
4)
We (and other such creatures) are
Nature's way of becoming aware of itself and (seemingly) produced by nature for
that purpose.
"We are
meant to be here"
(cf. Hegel, cf. Rahner, Denis Edwards)
We are
· Part
of Nature
· That
Part of Nature wherein Nature comes to know itself
· Creatively
interacting parts of Nature
· People
who know our selves as creatively
interacting parts of Nature
· And
with that knowledge comes Responsibility
for the quality of that interaction
Environmental The New
Concerns Story
???Questions???
Where do we fit in?
How is God related to all this?
What to do next?
How to respond well as
·
Human
beings
·
Christians,
Jews,
Moslems, whatever
How to Respond?
Anthropocentric Non-Anthropocentric (continue (Nature
Centred?
to be human- God Centred?)
Centred)
How to respond: anthropocentric versus non-anthropocentric
Anthropocentric
God
Human
Beings
The Earth and its
creatures
(Nature)
Exploitative Conservationist
· Domination Stewardship
· "increase "tend the
garden"
and multiply"
Conservationist: "stewardship" (not necessarily
anthropocentric, but not necessarily non-anthropocentric either)
Arguments:
· resources
for future human beings
· the
'cathedral' argument
· pollution
is bad for people, both present and future generations
Sustainable Development
=
Resources[human economy]Pollution
Population
This opens up
our
First Major
Possibility
Of
philosophical, theological, ethical response to the new situation,
That is
To
move towards
"A sober and
chastened anthropocentrism"
(Bernard Haring,
Free and Faithful in Christ, Volume
3,
Non-Anthropocentric
Life Centred
Life
Nature
Centred
Nature
Cosmos-Centred
The
Cosmos
God Centred
AllA
aallall
Non-anthropocentrism
:options
Animal Ecological
Liberationist -
intrinsic value
-
giving animals of all creatures
rights -
reverence for
i.e. individual integrity of
animals. Ecosystems
Cf. P. Singer - a
number of
Also T. Regan varieties
(see below)
--------------------------------------------------------
-
Ecologists: people coming out
of the science of ecology. E.g. Rachel
Carson, Aldo Leopold, David Suzuki (out of biology)
-
Deep Ecologists: deep, i.e.
philosophical, towards a radical new world view. Esp. Arne Naess,
George Sessions, Bill Devall.
-
Process Ecologists: also
philosophical, but working out of the 'process-relational' worldview inspired
by A.N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne.
E.g. John Cobb, Charles Birch, David Ray Griffin,
-
Eco-Feminists: linking
exploitation of women and nature. E.g. Ynestra King,
Lois Daly, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sallie McFague, Val Plumwood, Catherine
Keller
-
Ecological Theologians:
Joseph Sittler, D.D. Williams, Sean McDonagh, Paul Santmire, Tom
Berry, Denis Edwards, Ruether, Sallie McFague, Catherine Keller, Jay B. McDaniel etc.
The Key Question: Whether things in nature other than human
have intrinsic value,
Or do only human beings have intrinsic value?
Intrinsic value: value
in and for itself, quite apart from its usefulness for us
Versus
Instrumental
value: value because of its usefulness for us, or, conceivably, for
other creatures which have intrinsic value.
Do animals and plants have intrinsic value? Do eco-systems
as such have intrinsic value?
Or is this to be confined only to human beings, and,
perhaps, to some of the higher animals??
There is an
important split within Ecological Non-Anthropocentrism
Between
Believers in
and Ecological
Degrees of Egalitarians
Intrinsic Value (generally
(but without Deep Ecologists)
reverting to
dualism)
process
thinkers
most eco-theologians
eco-feminists eco-feminists
Avoiding
Ecological Egalitarianism
The Big Step: allowing
intrinsic value to have degrees
Two Problems:
1)
Brings back hierarchy
Humans
…
…
Plankton
2)
The spill-over into the human sphere: "the
problem of marginal cases"
The Big Issue for dealing with problem 2):
What is the basis
for
assigning
intrinsic
value?
Present Potentiality
Actuality as
well,
Cf. Descartes, radical
capacity
Locke
Peter Singer effectively,
membership of
a species
Or else we can argue like Dombrowski:
instead of "babies are no different from pigs, therefore treat babies like
pigs', why not argue,
"pigs are no different from
babies, therefore treat pigs like babies'? (in other
words, don't eat them!)
David Suzuki: resolving the oppositional binary Human
Beings versus Environment:
We are an exchange with
EARTH
WATER
AIR
FIRE
They are us and we are them: towards a re-framing of the
issues.
It is not us versus them or us in relationship with them -
we are all in it together, interacting parts of the one nature.