Bodian/Naess Slide Show HMXP 102 Dr. Fik

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Bodian/Naess Slide Show

• HMXP 102
• Dr. Fike

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Arne Naess

• Top Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century.
  See details from the link below.
• Naess cited Rachel Carsons 1962 book Silent
  Spring as being a key influence in his vision of
  deep ecology.
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.wint
  hrop.edu/entry.do?id8026970hh1secid

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Naesss Thesis?

• If you were asked to identify one sentence as
  Naesss thesis, which one would you select? 
  Which sentence best encapsulates his main point?

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Answer

• End of par. 2 I never have had the feeling
  that nature is something to be dominated or
  conquered it is something with which we
  coexist.
• Middle of par. 12 And if we make that shift
  toward a life simple in means but rich in goals,
  we are not threatened by plans for saving the
  planet elaborated by environmentalists.

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Bodian/Naess Terminology

• Group work for 10 minutes Get with 3-4 others
  and find (or construct) definitions of the
  following terms. Also, try to put them together
  into a summary of what Naess advocates.
• Deep ecology (esp. pars. 14-22)
• Shallow ecology (par. 15)
• Shallow ecology________deep ecology________.
• Conservation (par. 15)
• Ecosophy (pars. 8 and 10)
• Paradigm shift (pars. 11-12)
• Self-realization (pars. 19-20 and 23)
• The Self vs. the ego (pars. 17 and 20)
• Tao (par. 20)

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Question

• Identify characteristics of deep ecology in pars.
  14-22.
• Do this for the next 5 minutes with a partner or
  partners.

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Characteristics of Deep Ecology

• Reverence for all of life
• An emotional connection to other species
• Democratic spirit
• Reduction of human population to sustainable
  numbers

• Reversal of damage
• Biodiversity and symbiosis
• Long-range view
• The Self gt the ego
• Religious/ethical component

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Next Question

• What is the difference between deep ecology and
  shallow ecology?
• How do the terms three slides above relate to the
  distinction between deep and shallow ecology?

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Shallow vs. Deep Ecology

• SHALLOW
• Conservation
• Short-term measures
• Ego
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Only humans benefit

• DEEP
• Preservation
• Restoration
• Cohabitation
• Long-term measures
• Self
• Difficult questions
• Symbiosis/coexistence
• Leaky margins (Peter Russell)

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Deep Ecology

• . . . the Deep Ecology movement is concerned
  with the following (1) rejection of the
  man-in-environment image in favour of the
  relational, total-field image (2) biospherical
  egalitarianismin principle (3) principles of
  diversity and of symbiosis (4) anticlass
  posture (5) fight against pollution and resource
  depletion (6) complexity not complication (7)
  local autonomy and decentralization.
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winth
  rop.edu/entry.do?id8026759hh1secid

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From Credo Reference

• A radical form of environmentalism which argues
  that nature has inherent rights to existence
  which are as, if not more, important than those
  of humans. Deep ecology is both a philosophy and
  a practice associated with the western
  environmental movement. It emerged in the early
  1970s when ecologist Arne Naess (1973) made a
  distinction between 'shallow' and 'deep ecology',
  although it draws upon much older traditions of
  thought. For Naess the outpouring of government,
  business and government concern over the
  environment in the late 1960s and early 1970s
  amounted to a shallow ecology, or what Luke
  (1988, p. 66) calls 'reform environmentalism'.
  Reform environmentalism was fundamentally
  technocentric - it sought managerial solutions to
  environmental problems within existing
  socio-economic frameworks - and also
  anthropocentric - in that it both saw human
  values as the source of all values and saw nature
  and environment as but means to human ends.
  Against this, deep ecology is ecocentric and also
  advocates dismantling the dominant socio-economic
  systems through which humans appropriate nature.
  As Naess (1973, p. 100, italics added) put it,
  deep ecology calls for a post-anthropocentric
  'biospherical egalitarianism' to create 'an
  awareness of the equal right (of all things) to
  live and blossom'. Subsequently, Bill Devall and
  George Sessions (1985) laid out the philosophical
  tenets of deep ecology in much more detail (my
  emphases).
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winth
  rop.edu/entry.do?id734084hh1secid

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For Our Purposes

• Humans are part of nature/the biosphere.
• The rights of all living things must be
  considered.
• Ecocentrism rather than anthropocentrism The
  ecosystem is a priority.
• Fundamental questions about humans role with
  respect to the natural world must be posed.

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Al Gore

• . . . the new story of the Deep Ecologists is
  dangerously wrong. . . .
• Now that you know what deep ecology IS, do you
  agree with Gore?

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Ishmael

• Is Quinns Ishmael a deep ecologist?

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More Discussion Clouds Talk?

• How do clouds talk to us (par. 2)?
• Does this strike you as a dumb thing for Naess to
  say?
• Is it a metaphor?
• Do you understand it in some other way?
• For example, do you make any connection with his
  statement in the next column We are completely
  free, our imagination is free?
• How does Ns comment on clouds relate to deep
  ecology?

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religious component?

• Par. 21 deep ecology has a religious
  component.
• What does this statement mean?
• In particular, how does it relate to Naesss
  statements about Rachel Carson, Buddhism, and Tao?

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Tao

• Tao is a Chinese character often translated as
  Way or Path. In ancient China Tao gained a
  special currency referring to the Way of Nature
  or Heaven. This Great Way was considered the
  source of the order that could be seen in Nature
  and the Cosmos. The concept of the Tao and its
  relationship to yin and yang heavily influenced
  Chinese philosophy and continues to this day.
• Source http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao

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More on Tao

• Chinese term meaning path, way, account.
  From the sense of a literal path, road, or way,
  the term comes to mean a way of doing something
  (e.g., living ones life or organizing society),
  especially the way advocated by a particular
  individual or school of thought (the way of the
  Master, the way of the Mohists, etc.).
  Frequently, it refers to the way of doing
  something, the right way (e.g., The Way has not
  been put into practice for a long time ). Tao
  also came to refer to the linguistic account that
  embodies or describes a way. Finally, in some
  texts the tao is a metaphysical entity. For
  example, in Neo-Confucianism, tao is identified
  with li (principle). In some contexts it is
  difficult to tell what sense is intended (my
  emphasis).
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winth
  rop.edu/entry.do?id830732hh1secid

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Buddhism

• Major world religion and philosophy founded in
  northeastern India in the 5th century BCE. Based
  on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called
  the Buddha, Buddhism takes as its goal the escape
  from suffering and from the cycle of rebirth the
  attainment of nirvana. It emphasizes meditation
  and the observance of certain moral precepts. The
  Buddha's teachings were transmitted orally by his
  disciples during his lifetime he established the
  Buddhist monastic order (sangha). He adopted some
  ideas from the Hinduism of his time, notably the
  doctrine of karma, but also rejected many of its
  doctrines and all of its gods. In India, the
  emperor Ashoka promoted Buddhism during the 3rd
  century BC, but it declined in succeeding
  centuries and was nearly extinct there by the
  13th century. It spread south and flourished in
  Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and it moved
  through Central Asia and China (including Tibet
  see Tibetan Buddhism), Korea, and Japan (see Pure
  Land Buddhism Zen). In the 19th century,
  Buddhism spread to Europe and the United States,
  and it became increasingly popular in the West in
  the second half of the 20th century. Buddhism's
  main teachings are summarized in the Four Noble
  Truths, of which the fourth is the Eightfold
  Path. Buddhism's two major branches, Mahayana and
  Theravada, have developed distinctive practices
  and unique collections of canonical texts. In the
  early 21st century, the various traditions of
  Buddhism together had more than 375 million
  followers.
• Source http//www.answers.com/topic/buddhism

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Four Noble Truths, etc.

• All Buddhism is based on doctrine known as the
  four noble truths existence is suffering
  (dukhka) suffering has a cause which is craving
  and attachment (trishna) there is a cessation of
  suffering (nirvana) and there is a path to the
  cessation of suffering. The path to the cessation
  of suffering includes eight aspects right views,
  right resolves, right speech, right action, right
  livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and
  right concentration. Other general Buddhist
  tenets include the concept of reality as process
  and relationship, rather than substance or
  material entity. Buddhism also teaches the
  concept of non-self, or the idea that all
  happenings are related and dependent on cause.
  The concepts of reincarnation and karma are a
  part of Buddhist doctrine Buddhists believe that
  the practice of emptying ones self can free a
  person from an endless cycle of reincarnation
  (my emphases).
• Source http//0-www.xreferplus.com.library.winth
  rop.edu/entry.do?id4785112hh1secid

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Buddhism (appears not to be currently on Credo
Reference)

• The primary tenet of Buddhism is the cessation
  of suffering (duhkha) in all its different
  forms. Duhkha is something more than the everyday
  suffering that most people encounter at some time
  or other. To Buddhists, the entire universe is
  subject to duhkha, and none-neither gods nor
  demons, neither those dwelling in hell or
  heaven-are exempt from it. Joys are always
  transient life always ends in death and decay.
  Even death itself offers no salvation, since all
  sentient beings are constantly reborn into the
  endless cycle of death and rebirth. This
  understanding of the world is neither pessimistic
  nor nihilistic. Indeed, all the teachings of
  Buddhism point to the possibility of the
  cessation of duhkha. This cessation is what
  comprises the Buddhist notion of
  salvation-nirvana.
• How is nirvana achieved? The Buddhist path to
  salvation or enlightenment is a matter of
  perfecting three essentials (1) Morality, which
  involves the correct way of living, through the
  exercise of universal love and compassion toward
  all living beings. (2) Wisdom, which requires
  seeking an understanding and knowledge of things
  as they are, through thought and critical
  investigation. (3) Practice, involving mental
  development, through meditative exercises,
  concentration and insight aimed at a direct
  apprehension of reality (my emphases).

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My Sisters Take on Buddhism and Deep Ecology

• There are two main Buddhist concepts that I see
  as connecting strongly with deep ecology. 
• The first is the idea of emptiness - that is -
  there is nothing that has an independent self. 
  Or to put it another way, all things are
  connected.  The great teacher Thich Naht Hahn
  uses the example of a piece of paper.  He
  explains how it contains everything - sun, moon,
  wind, rain, earth, all of the foregoing trees
  that led to the birth of the tree from which the
  paper came, the person who cut down the tree and
  all her/his relatives, and so forth. 
• The second is the idea that all sentient beings
  have within them Buddha nature, basic goodness,
  and hence the ability to reach enlightenment. 
  All beings include insects, plants, animals,
  fish, and more. 
• The first idea suggests that I am not separate
  from the salmon in the northwest, the whales in
  the ocean, the birds in the sky, the air, the
  earth, so to take care of one is to take care of
  all, to take care of self, to take care of those
  to come.  The second idea adds the sense of the
  reverent or holy to all beings in that they are
  to be revered and cared for, given every
  opportunity possible to obtain enlightenment
  because the potential exists within each.  These
  ideas call for a Buddhist to treat all beings
  with equity and hold all as equally valuable,
  holy, deserving of a right to live, a chance to
  grow and be happy.
• --Deborah Brower

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Question

• So do you agree that deep ecology has a religious
  component?

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Large-group Discussion on Consumerism

• Do you agree that instead of an energy crisis,
  we have a crisis of consumption (par. 12)?
• What point does Naess make about Rachel Carson
  (par. 21)?  You should look back and see what
  Swimme says about her.
• Does what Swimme says about spirituality in his
  final paragraph relate to Naesss outlook?
• If Naess, Swimme, and Marx were having a
  conversation, what opinions would they share or
  not share?
• What values do you believe should govern your
  individual life and the life of American society?

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Alternatives

• Are we limited only to the two options that Naess
  mentions on par. 12  A smooth way, involving
  harmonious living with nature, or a rough way,
  involving a dictatorship and coercion?

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Final Question

• Answer this question on page par. 12  In what
  situations do I experience the maximum
  satisfaction of my whole being?
• Write your answer in your notebook. If we have
  time, I may ask you to share your response.
• END