The Denial of Nature by Vetlesen Arne Johan

Author:Vetlesen, Arne Johan [Arne Johan Vetlesen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781317906360
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

As I shall make clear when discussing Holmes Rolston in a moment, on philosophical grounds I agree with the (moral) realist position according to which value may be derived from fact. Besides the problems already raised by trying to invoke Hume in support of the realist view, there is the separate issue of the appropriateness of the example, and thus the analogy, Callicott suggests here.

As I see it, the step from accepting the descriptive premise: ‘science has established that cigarette smoking is deleterious to your health’, to accepting the normative conclusion: ‘I ought to stop smoking’ is much shorter than the step involved in Callicott’a analogy, i.e. from the descriptive premise ‘science has discovered that the natural environment is a community to which we humans belong’ to Leopold’s normative conclusion that we ought to ‘preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community’. The step may not be longer in the second case than in the first one on logical grounds. But it will certainly be longer – harder to make – once extra-logical, real-life circumstances are taken into account as perceived by and as impacting on the individual supposed to accept the Leopoldian position. Specifically, for a member of what is for all practical purposes a thoroughly anthropocentric culture, one deeply at odds with the notion of putting nonhuman species on a par with humanity as far as value is concerned, the species-neutral, self-interest-transcending, holistic and long-term oriented implications of Leopold’s conclusion will simply not resonate. A comprehensive work of cultural change will have to take place so as to enable people to make the shift from the anthropocentric paradigm deeply entrenched in our dominant structures, institutions, and practices to a Leopoldian one; the powers that be will – indeed do – go out of their way to resist such change. Callicott notes that ‘popular-Western culture still lags behind’ when it comes to adjusting to the retreat from mechanistic and materialistic biases that he thinks is taking place in science in the twentieth century. But he is quick to add that ‘there is every reason to expect that eventually [the new biocentric and organic world view] will fully flower in the form of a wholly new popular culture’ (1989: 199). This may be true, but it remains a rather feeble expression of hope – or article of faith – as long as Callicott (much like Paul Taylor before him) fails to engage with the cultural, political, economic, and psychological – besides philosophical – obstacles that have to be overcome in order for a biocentric world view to replace the anthropocentric one in contemporary Western society. It is not only that the obstacles – the sources of structural as well as individual resistance – are not given sufficient attention in Callicott’s work; it is also that the resistance they continue to yield may be much stronger than Callicott is ready to admit, as Brennan’s work allowed us to see in Chapter 1.

The assessment of Callicott’s position remains incomplete as long as his attempt to incorporate key insights of quantum theory is not considered.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.