Nature and Western Civilization

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Nature and Western Civilization
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What is the use of sacrificing for the sake of
future generations when the evidence tells us
that beyond any doubt they will be better off
than we are. Baumol Resource Economics
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In the future, we must mould and shape nature to
enlarge the bounds of human empire to the
effecting of all things possible Scientific
methodology will allow us the power to conquer
and subdue natureto shake her to her
foundations. Adapted from F. Bacon, 1600. The
New Atlantis
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God, who hath given the World to Men in common,
hath also given them reason to make use of it to
the best advantage of Life, and convenience. The
Earth, and all that is therein, is given to Men
for the Support and Comfort of their
being. John Locke, The Second Treatise on
Government
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Virtue is harder to be got than a knowledge of
the world and if lost in a young man, is seldom
recovered. John Locke, 1673, An Essay
Concerning Human Understanding
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To find out what we value we must first determine
what were willing to pay for.
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External cost A negative effect of production
or consumption of goods the cost of which is not
paid for by the producer but is imposed on others.
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We act as consumer to get what we want for
ourselves. We act as citizens to achieve what we
think is right or best for the community..
Are my preferences as a consumer consistent with
my judgments as a citizen? They are not.
M. Sagoff, 1988
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We have met the enemy and he is us Pogo
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Cronon, William. 1983. Changes in the Land.
New York, Hill Wang. 241 p. Hypothesis
The transformation of the landscape of southern
New England between the 16th and 18th century
resulted from fundamentally different conceptions
of wealth between Native Americans and European
colonists. Wealth the means to human
happiness.
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There are two ways to be rich, one of which has
rarely been recognized in Western culture. Wants
may be satisfied either by producing much or
desiring little. The New England Indians had
chosen this second path. They lived richly and
had little in the way of complaints. Indians
went about their daily tasks with great leisure,
for their days were all nothing but pastime.
Quite different from us who can never do anything
without hurry and worry worry because desire
tyrannizes over us and banishes peace from our
actions. adapted from Cronon, (1983), Changes
in the Land
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To find out what we value we must first determine
what were willing to pay for . To find out what
we're willing to pay for, we must first determine
what we value.
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Nature becomes purely an object for men,
something merely useful, and is no longer
recognized as a power working for itself. Karl
Marx
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If any resource can be shifted from one
configuration to another, and it would bring
greater satisfaction in the second, then it
should be so shifted.
Maxim of resource economics


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Our enormously productive economy demands that we
make consumption our way of life, that we convert
the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we
seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego
satisfaction, in consumption. We need things
consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and
discarded at an ever increasing rate. V. Lebow
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Society cannot exist unless a controlling power
on will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the
less of it there is within, the more there must
be without. Edmund Burke
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• Happiness is the highest good, an activity of the
  soul in conformity with virtue.
• 
  Aristotle

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The Foundation Man was created to praise,
reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this
means to save his soul and the other things on
the face of the earth were created for man's
sake, and in order to aid him in the prosecution
of the end for which he was created. When it
follows that man ought to make use of them just
so far as they help him to attain his end, and
that he ought to withdraw himself from them just
so far as they hinder him. Ignatius of Loyola
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Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue,
but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound,
comprehensive energy policy. Dick Cheney, New
York Time (May 1, 2001)
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Comedy The drama of humans as social rather than
private beings, a drama of social actions having
frankly corrective purpose.
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We see the tragedy of the commons not as a defect
in the concept of a "commons" but as a result of
the disastrous transition period between the loss
of an effective bioethic and its replacement by a
new bioethic that could once again bring
biological realities and human values into a
viable balance.