Environmental Philosophy Essay, Research Paper

Many authors throughout history have expressed their, or society?s, yearning towards a simpler life: a life without responsibilities or obligations, a life without worry or regret. Sigurd Olson expresses such a yearning in his essay “Contemplation”, where through reading Lao Tzu, he had discovered that in order to understand and relate to wilderness, we only need a contemplative mind, which is simple and easy. He suggested that life in wilderness is a continual contemplation and communion with God and Spirit. Moreover, in his essay, “Wholeness”, he suggested that “wholeness is being in tune with the wind, sands, and stars,” and “wholeness is part of simplicity and silence, and of all the components of a wilderness experience.” He also compares our daily life as trivial and only with the contemplation of wilderness that we can achieve the wholeness and serenity.

Annie Dillard is another environmentalist that writes about wilderness with deep passion. In her essay, “A Passion for this Earth”, she wrote about her childhood experiences with a grove of birch trees. Through her daily routine of sitting by the trees, she came to a close connection with the earth and nature. She realized that with every human mood “there is a corresponding season and that our lives are seamlessly connected to the great life of the earth.” In other words, we are a part of the nature and that the way we act and feel are all intertwine with the evolving of the earth. Moreover, Dillard also drew a connection between our “guilelessness of childhood and the revelation of land”. She suggested that in one?s childhood, we would roam the land, run around landscapes and be in touch with nature. However, as we grow older, we become more engaged in the daily “civilized” routine and forget about the beautiful wilderness. Dillard suggested that we should all reawaken the memory of the earth that we experienced during childhood, and be able to establish again a connection with the land.

Restoration and Reunion with nature is the main idea that Carolyn Merchant wants to get through in her essay. Her idea of restoration is “a spectrum of emerging disciplines based on imitation, synthesis, and a creative reciprocity between humans and non-human nature.” Human are the one who have the power to destroy and alter nature, therefore we should also have the ability to restore it back to the way before. However, before restoring the nature, we need to understand it and also through understanding, reunion with wilderness as a whole. She further explains this by giving an example of a doctor healing a patient. The doctor must first understand the structure of human body before being able to repair it; it is the same with us trying to restore our earth. Moreover, Merchant also suggested two theories: agroforestry and permaculture. Since the amount of energy needed to support our technology in farming often surpasses the calories the foods themselves supply, agroforestry imitate the way farming traditionally were and restore the “complementary arrangements of trees, crops, and animals in accord with ecological principles in order to maintain productivity without environmental degradation.” On the same plane, permaculture restores the way trees are leveled and tries to provide the necessary energy through this setting. The principle of mimesis also come through very strongly in her essay, she suggested that “people can use the environment to fulfill real needs, while non-human nature acts reciprocally as partner.” Nature should be treated with respect, and we human are not superior and should not manipulate and dominant the nature.

Thomas Berry expresses similar view about the way that we are too much engaged in our modern civilization “businesses” that we forget the beauty of wilderness in his essay “Returning to Our Native Place”. Thomas Berry?s view on wilderness is very much a combination of the theories discussed above. He suggested that nature is the true center of all things and human having been wandering away long enough should seek reunion with nature. There is a feeling of intimacy and a sense of presence when we realize that we and the nature are one, we are one “wilderness community” and we share our “existence with the animals and with all natural phenomena.” Through connecting with various living forms of the earth, Berry suggested that we are not only establishing an acquaintance with the general life, but we are also developing an intimate rapport, an co-existing relationship. He also agreed with the restoration idea of Merchant. Strongly admiring the natives and their traditions, he found that the natives are the only ones who are able to continue their existence outside the constraints of our civilization and stay in touch with nature. He suggested that we should restore things to their traditional ways and call the entire world back to their authentic mode. Civilization, in Berry?s mind, can only imperilise the wilderness.

The major idea in “The Gift of Wilderness” is the idea of bigness outside ourselves. The authors uses experience of his granddaughter and himself in illustrating the overwhelming sense of smallness that wilderness gives them. He thinks that wilderness can tell us who we are and our identities lie within wilderness. He also suggested that among all the civilization, Americans are the ones who disturbed the wilderness most, they are merely “people remodeling the Alhambra with a bulldozer, and proud of their yardage”, and their government have been known to endanger the very things they ought to protect. A very interesting idea is being put forward in this essay, the author regards wilderness as playgrounds, schoolrooms, laboratories, and shrine. We need not build these facilities, for they are already around us and we can certainly learn from it.

In conclusion, in all the articles, the authors stressed on the beauty of the wilderness. They all agree that in front of nature, we are indeed very small and insignificant. Humans and other animal species are all part of the wilderness, and in order for the world to be in harmony, we should forget the civilization and our lifestyle nowadays and restore it to our authentic mode. For then, we will be united with the world and be able to feel the wholeness and intimacy with it.

Part 2:

It is a fast-paced world we live in, define by schedules, choices and options. We awaken at the sound of an alarm clock, stop and go at the whim of a street light, and spend the day under the thumb of our bosses. As we race down the road of life hoping we are to the path to success, so distracted are we by the intersections of choice and the potholes of despair and confusions that we forget what we were racing toward in the first place. For those of us who do take time to stop and think about where we are headed, we realize, as Annie Dillard did, that on the road of life, we may have just lost sight of what we are living for and the origin of where our lives come from.

“Wilderness is a human concept an idea about a place and its effect on us. It is a state of mind devoted to an experience and the contemplation of natural places and processes. There is common theme in these wilderness interests,” as A. Anderson

has suggested. I think of a wilderness as a spot or place in our world in which I can put my existence in perspective of nature. I think that we need wilderness because it is full of life and mysteries. Wilderness is where our life sprung from. As Annie Dillard suggested, we need wilderness because our emotions and feelings are all intertwined with the natural world, “for every mood there is a corresponding season and that our lives are seamlessly connected to the great life of the earth.” We should not treat the earth and human separately, because we are actually a single body, working with each other and providing each other with what we need. We also need wilderness because as Wallace Stegner has suggested in “The Gift of Wilderness”, wilderness is our playground, schoolrooms, laboratories and we can learn so much about both the natural world and ourselves from it.

Since wilderness are inside us, we should try to connect and reunion with it. In order to be “in tune with the wind, sand, and stars,” and to experience the sense of wholeness and serenity with the nature, one need to understand the theory of “wilderness contemplation”. Wilderness contemplation is a form of meditation in the nature. Sigurd Olson suggested that through wilderness contemplation, we can learn to commune with one?s inner self and stressing the detachment or divorcement of self from all disturbing environment. However, unlike Yoga, this wilderness contemplation is much simpler. All we need, is to be in the wilderness, and when we are alone, we can feel in continual contemplation and communion with God and Spirit. No particular stance and incarnations or repeat over and over words are neccesary in order to reach the same level as Yoga, since these are all devices to make people feel at peace, and when we are in wilderness, peace is all around. Through wilderness contemplation, we can seek wisdom and there is usually a sense of peace, removal and a happiness beyond understanding from it.

In order to rekindle an earth-human relationship, Carolyn Merchant suggested that we should restore our earth to the authentic mode, to the way it use to be. Instead of “analyzing nature of dominating and controlling it, restorationists are synthesizing it for the sake of living symbiotically within the whole.” She is suggesting that, in order to restore the nature, we have to first, understand it. Through understanding, we can also connect and reunion with the earth, the origin of our lives. She encourages mimesis, which is the process of imitation through which restoration takes place. This principle of mimesis encourages people to use the environment to fulfill real needs, while non-human nature acts reciprocally as partner. In order to rekindle earth-human relationship, nature should be treated with respect, and we human are not superior and should not manipulate and dominant the nature. We should neither act as the helpless victim of a polluted environment nor arrogant dominators of nature, “but active participants in the destiny of the system of which are a part.” Moreover, Wallace Stegner thinks that we could look forward to a better and more rewarding national life, i.e. to rekindle a better relationship between earth and human if we learned to renounce short-term profit, and practice working for the renewable health of our earth. We should regain our sense of courtesy toward the earth and inhabitants, our sense of gratitude and our willingness to recognize the sacred character of habitat. Thomas Berry suggested that we should establish not only “an acquaintance with the general life and emotions of the various species, but also an intimate rapport.”

Human?s role in the natural world had was traditionally inside the chain of ecosystem, providing to the wilderness what it needs and at the same time benefiting from it. Human and earth are in harmony and in mutual understanding. However, as our civilization expand, human begin to take a superior position and dominated and manipulated the land. Instead of a “helpless victims” or “arrogant dominator” human should restore to their traditional role in wilderness. Human are indeed very small in the realm of wilderness, but together with our forces, we can be very powerful. Since we had been selfish and arrogant, the wilderness is extensively exploited. Before restoring to our traditional roles, I think that we should first take on the position as the restorationists and the conservationists.

My environmental ethic lies strongly on the issue of using animals in research designed to benefit human beings. The issue of the use of animals in research is an integral part of the framework of animal rights or animal liberation within the large structure of environmental ethics. Ecocentric ethics holds that the earth is the nurturer of life, a great interlocking order, and a web of life in which humans are but one strand. The earth, according to this philosophy, is alive, active and sensitive to human action and sacred. Thus, all things are connected to all their other things, and internal relations and process take primacy over parts. Human are unseperated from the rest of nature. I think that humans do not occupy a privileged place in nature. Nature has its intrinsic value, independent of human values and human consciousness; thus limits should be place on the extent of human prerogatives to use and alter nature. Animals are created equal to human, we should not use our dominant rule in the world to manipulate other non-human nature?s life. This is both selfish and uncivilized. Animals also have the right to enjoy their live free from threats and dangers. I also believe that wilderness is like our mother who nurture us and provide us with unlimited resources, it supports our needs. We should do the same to the nature. Instead of manipulating and dominating over it, I think we should live in harmony with nature. Limited exploitation should be allow, however, we should never over-exploit our land or kill animals to benefit human kind.