Environmental Perspectives

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Environmental Perspectives

• Medieval Thought
• Early Modern Developments
• The Puritans Encounter Wilderness in America

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I. Medieval Themes

• Nature as a hierarchy emanating from God, God
  (the One) at the top and physical matter at the
  bottom.
• The unique central place of human beings.
• Nature as worthy of study as a reflection of God
  and Gods glory and wisdom.

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Some claim Christianity encouraged ecological
exploitation

• By desacrilizing nature (by rejecting the pagan
  worldview in which nature is full of spirits).
• By encouraging the domination of nature (through
  its interpretation of the Bibles claim for human
  dominion, etc.).
• By degrading the value of nature and matter (by
  pointing to a salvation of the soul away from the
  body and the earth).

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The Medieval Great Chain of Being

• Significantly influenced by Neo-Platonism.
• All beings could be arranged in a hierarchical
  structure.
• Within this hierarchy, each kind of being has its
  proper place.
• The structure is static and unchanging. One
  should learn to accept ones place.

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The Central Place of Humankind

• Example Thomas Aquinas
• Humans are rational, while animals are not. This
  gives humans a kind of freedom.
• Humans can treat animals in any way that is good
  for humans.
• If the Bible says that animals should not be
  treated cruelly, it is to prevent cruelty to
  humans or to prevent indirect harm to humans.
• See the readings from Thomas Aquinas.

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A more positive medieval themeNature as a
pointer to God

• In spite of the rather low view of animals,
  nature in general was seen as worthy of study as
  a place of signs and truths from God.
• A growing use of the image of Nature as a book,
  parallel to the Bible, through which humans learn
  about God and other things. The Two Books (Bible
  and Nature)

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Some positive views of animals in the medieval
period.

• St Francis of Assisi. (1181-1226) Canticle of
  Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
• St. Basil the Great (329-373) Prayer for a
  Deeper Sense of Fellowship with All Living
  Things
• O God, grant us a deeper sense of fellowship with
  all living things, our little brothers and
  sisters to whom in common with us you have given
  this earth as home. We recall with regret that in
  the past we have acted high-handedly and cruelly
  in exercising our domain over them. Thus, the
  voice of the earth which should have risen to you
  in song has turned into a groan of travail. May
  we realize that all these creatures also live for
  themselves and for you - not for us alone. They
  too love the goodness of life, as we do, and
  serve you better in their way than we do in ours.
  Amen. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Bishop, Doctor

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• II. Viewing Nature
• Early Modern Developments

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Developments in the 15th and 16th Centuries

• Copernicus (1473-1543) suggests a helio-centric
  model of the universe.
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626) lifts up science as the
  new method by which man could gain power and
  recapture dominion.
• A growing emphasis on studying the Book of Nature
• The Protestant Reformation
• Questioned the authority of the church
• Emphasized individual thought and faith.

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17th and 18th Centuries A New Scientific Model

• A growing emphasis on gaining knowledge (and
  power) through observation of Nature (F. Bacon).
• A stronger argument for the helio-centric view of
  the universe (Galileo).
• A reduction of reality to physical relationships
  that can be described mathematically.
• A shift from viewing the universe as an organism
  to viewing it as a machine.

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Example Rene Descartes (1590-1650)

• Applied the mechanistic model to animals.
• All physical things, including plants and animals
  are machines and operate according to mechanistic
  laws.
• Non-human animals are machines, and like robots,
  dont really think or really feel pain the way we
  do.
• Humans are machines with souls. This makes them
  rational, enables them to think, feel pain,
  reflect, etc.

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17th Century MaterialismJulian de LeMettrie
(1709-1751)

• Even humans are purely physical machines.
• There is no soul beyond the workings of the
  physical body understood in mechanistic terms.

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Example Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• Wanted to find a rational (non-religious) basis
  for ethics.
• Saw human rationality as the key. Humans should
  be treated with respect because they are
  rational.
• Other animals, however, are not rational, and we
  do not have direct obligations to them. (Similar
  to Thomas Aquinas)

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• III. The Puritans Encounter Wilderness in
  America

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Group Reflection

• Imagine that you had just spent several months
  aboard a small sailing ship crossing the Atlantic
  Ocean. How would you feel?
• Now imagine that you walked ashore, and past the
  beach, you saw what looked like endless woods,
  no houses, no stores, no obvious food. Again, how
  would you feel?
• No imagine it was early Winter, and you were cold
  and hungry. How would you feel about this new
  land?
• What would you feel after the cold and sicknesses
  of the Winter killed half you group.
• Would nature seem like a friend?

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Three early developments that shaped American
consciousness of nature.

• The early Puritan experience.
• The agrarian ideal of the early colonists (Thomas
  Jefferson).
• The transcendentalist movement.

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Ideas of Nature in the New World (Europeans in
North America)

• The Puritans
• Left Europe in search of a new world in which to
  establish a society based on Gods law.
• New world as a wilderness to be conquered, wild
  and evil. (Literally and spiritually.)
• Understood Gods call as to tame and subdue this
  wilderness, make it habitable.
• Example William Bradford (1590-1657) on the
  Pilgrims first experience of Cape Cod
  (Plymouth, MA)

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Changes in ways of viewing nature

• Ancient World
• Nature is alive with gods,
• Or Nature is Gods living creation.
• Respect for nature as full of gods, or as Gods
  creation, Gods possession.

• Medieval World
• Nature is a hierarchy from God at the top, earth
  at the bottom.
• Tendency to focus on the non-physical realm.
  Physical realm sometimes seem as source of
  temptation.

Modern World Nature is a purely physical
machine. Human reason is the key to
understanding. Nature is valuable as a
collection of resources to be used by humans.