Environmental philo

1. The Special Position of
Humans in the Cosmos*
by
Rainier R. A. Ibana
Philosophy Department
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

2. Reading Materials:
Primary Texts:
Max Scheler, Man’s Place in Nature (Die Stellung
des Menschen im Cosmos)* [MPN]
Scheler, On the Nature of Sympathy [NS]
Norris Clarke, Person, Being, and Ecology[PBE](ORP)
Allan Watts, “The World is your Body” in The
Ecological Conscience, Ed. by Robert Disch [EC]
Secondary Text:
Ibana, “Etikang Pangkapaligiran” in Pagpapahalagang
Moral (Ateneo Philosophy Dept). [EP]

3. This presentation aims to
integrate environmental issues
within the context of a course on the
Philosophy of the Human Person.

4. Relevance of the problem:
Without an ecological awareness, a
philosophy of the human person can
readily become an ideological foil to
exploit the environment.

5. There are two extreme advocates for
environmentalism:
 Deep Ecologists who
claim that humans
should leave the
environment to
herself;
and Conservationists
who claim that the
environment is only
for the sake of human
enjoyment.


6. The arguments of both Deep Ecologists and
Conservationists are contingent on their
standards to measure ecological balance.
Deep ecologists make
use of other beings,
such as eagles, to
measure ecological
well being.
while Conservationists
claim that only
humans serve as the
measure of all things.

7. There is, however, a third
option:
 The dynamic evolutionary context of
humans within the environment.

8. An evolutionary approach
can justify
human intervention in cases of
environmental degradation
(conservationism)
and human distanciation in cases where
the environment can care for herself
(deep ecology).

9. The main ideas that favor the
evolutionary argument for the
environment
Are (1) the ecological context of human
survival and (2) the mutual interaction
between humans and their environments.

10. The ecological context of
human survival
was made possible by oxygen producing
organisms
and the sacrifice of other living beings for
human consumption.

11. Environmentalism begins when
humans start to appreciate
the inherent life-force that pervade all
beings.

12. Plants, like humans, exhibit an
inner life (innersein) -- Max Scheler
that is directed toward
or away from
something.

13. Animals, likewise, can have an
instinctive instrumental relationship
with its environment
Scheler marveled at experiments that deal
with animals that manipulate objects,
such as sticks, to obtain food for
themselves. (MPN 31)

14. Animal tricks, however, are confined
to particular environments.
They are attached to the bondage and
pressures of life. ?
They cannot transform their environments
into a “world.” [MPN]

15. Only humans can actually
transform hostile environments,
 such as lahar,


16. into something more
productive:
Absorbent materials, such as surplus diapers
and sanitary napkins, for example, may be
combined with lahar to make it suitable to grow
plants.*
 *Poster by E. Espiritu, et. al, Manila Observatory, Ateneo de Manila

17. Responsibility for the
environment, therefore,
Cannot be abdicated to anyone else but in
the cooperative effort of human beings.

18. .
 .
For the sake of humans,
deserts are transformed into gardens;
wild animals are tamed.

19. Humans are in fact the
most voracious consumers
of the environment.

20. High levels of human
consumption
is confirmed by ecology’s “ten percent law:”
which states that:
only ten percent of energy is retained by
consumers in an environment:
from 10,000,000 calories of producers
1,000,000 calories are retained by hervibores
and only 100,000 calories are retained by
carnivores.

21. Even the most spiritual acts are
rooted to the world.
“The human brain burns by the power of
the leaf.”
“All flesh is grass.”

22. “The World is Our Body”
“Our whole knowledge of the world is,
in one sense, self-knowledge. For knowing
is a translation of external events into
bodily processes, and especially into states
of the nervous system and the brain: we
know the world in terms of the body…”
Allan Watts (p. 188)

23. Mr. Sekiguchi, one of Japan’s leading
experts on toxic waste, offers the
following advise
to activists who
would like to
monitor the
environment:
 “when you go to a
dump, look at the
trees, listen to your
body. Are your eyes
sore? Do you feel
something strange? Do
you feel sick?” -Time
(May 20, 2000), p. 33.
 Payatas (Philippine Daily
Inquirer, July 11, 2000)

24. Ka-paligid-an
Our field of Physical awareness can be
expanded to include our
surrounding environments, that is, our
world. -- “Etikang Pangkapaligiran”

25. Another argument for
ecology,
moreover, claims that although humans
can transform the environment, the latter
can also transform human life. Ormoc, November 7,1971

26. Barry Commoner
reports that cancer
Occurs ten times more
in U.S. cities
than in rural villages of Uganda.

27. What we do to our environment,
we do unto ourselves
Pollution cause
diseases
Healthy environments
support healthy
populations

28. Environments manifest the lifestyle of
its dwellers.

29. Thus, before we begin to interfere
with the the workings of nature,
It is important to clarify two fundamental
attitudes towards the environment: Let us
begin with G. Marcel’s distinction between
having and being.

30. Marcel’s distinction, between
having and being, implies two
basic comportments:
 I have a body, I have my
world
 I am my body, I am my
world

31. It also entails two attitudes
towards the enviroment:
As an observer or
(miron)
As a living participant
(meron)

32. Observation vs.
Participation
Observers merely
extract what they can
from the environment
Participants care for
their co-participants
in the environment

33. Our relationship towards the world
can thus become either reductionist or
complementary:
Complementarity:
others complement
and enrich my
uniqueness
Reductionism: others
are subservient to
myself

34. The environment may become
my economy or my ecology
Oikos-nomos:
management of the
home
Oikos-logos:
organization of the
home

35. Both the economy and the
ecology,
however, are grounded in the oikos,
“home”

36. In the Oikos, our home, everyone is a
kin:
Brother sun
Sister moon
Cousin stars
Mother Earth

37. The paradigm of kinship
 recognizes
the inherent
right of
every being
for its own
existence
while being
supportive of
others who are
 in need.

38. The laws of the oikos (Ecology)
sustain the economy

39. Violating the laws of the
oikos,
however, can have disastrous
consequences on both the ecology and
the economy.

40. A healthy environment is
therefore a “Common Good”
for the survival of economies and
ecologies.
 Sibuyan Rice field (Vanishing Treasures of Philippine Rainforests)

41. The ecology, as the good of
one,
is the good of all.

42. The best argument to
protect the environment,
Therefore, is to show that those who
violate the laws of the oikos, are to be
adversely affected also by their heinous
environmental crimes.
 (a hand in Ormoc)

43. In order to care for the ecology,
Fr. Norris Clarke suggests
The cultivation of an altruistic love, not
only towards human persons, but also
towards the whole material universe (PBE
100).

44. Love for the environment can be
initiated by an appreciation
for the gifts extended by every being that
exists.

45. Our existence, afterall,
is supported by the sacrifice offered to us
by others.

46. Like a waterfall,
all beings diffuse their goodness to
others, “as far as possible.” -- N. Clarke,
PBE

47. By being aware that we are
recipients of goodness,
We are also bound to share goodness to
others, especially to those who are most
in need.

48. Appreciation for shared goodness will
allow humans to participate in that
divine vision
when God first beheld everything He had
made:
“He found it to be very good” Gen. 1:31.

49. There are therefore
several ways
of integrating environmental concerns in
understanding our shared humanity:
1. An extension of bodily awareness to
include the environment,
2. A meditation on “being” and “having” as
attitudes towards the environment,
3. And the cultivation of virtues, such as
altruism, towards others.

50. Including our ecological concerns
within a course on the Philosophy of
the Human Person
Will teach environmental responsibility by
making us aware of our dynamic and
evolving relationship with the oikos, our
environment.