Timothy Morton’s The Ecological Thought focuses on changing thought so that humanity can effectively combat the ecological crisis at hand. While there exists other modes of thought that all claim to promote environmental action, namely the empathetic thought and the aesthetic thought, Morton’s ecological thought seems the most adept at holding this claim to environmental action. By comparing Morton’s ecological thought to three other sources with their own ideas about their particular mode of thought, it will be established that by changing thought comes ecological action and the end result is Morton’s ecological thought. In Gay Hawkins’ “Worm Stories,” the author argues that thought surrounding human waste needs to be changed, using an example …show more content…
However, how big is the gap between non-empathetic thought and empathetic thought? For example, Krznaric tells of a woman from London named Jenna who, while complaining about her situation being a flood victim, was invited to see the flood victims in India. Consequently, she saw that her situation as a flood victim paled in comparison to the situations of the flood victims in India, and hence she will “do everything [she] can to make a difference” (Krznaric 207). In other words, a perfect example for Krznaric; a person who is unaware of the miserable situations overseas steps into the shoes of the situations overseas, forming an empathetic bond, has a life-changing experience, and as a result wishes to help climate change in any way this person can. Yet, the event that allowed Jenna to form that empathetic bond was the act of going over to India, which is how she was able to step into the shoes of India’s flood victims. Nonetheless, Krznaric expects the rest of humanity to form this empathetic bond by simply imagining the situations of those in worse-off countries. The reason that Jenna’s empathetic bond was effective was due to the her actual experience in India, suggesting that either Krznaric expects the entirety of wealthy nations to visit India or he believes the empathetic imagination will amount to the same result as the empathetic experience. As such, Krznaric’s empathy requires people to visit poorer nations, reducing its accessibility. Moreover, Krznaric asserts that flying from location to location is “morally wrong” since the act uses fossil fuels (Krznaric 212). However, Jenna journeyed from London to India with that very form of travel to form her precious empathetic bond. Should Jenna feel “morally wrong” because she used a plane to travel in order to achieve her empathetic bond? The fact that Krznaric’s argument doubles back on itself, as to obtain an empathetic bond we
The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.
John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Aldo Leopold all have moderately different views and ideas about the environment in terms of its worth, purpose, use and protection. At one extensively non-anthropocentric extreme, Muir’s views and ideas placed emphasis on protecting environmental areas as a moral obligation. That is to say, Muir believed that wilderness environments should be used for divine transcendence, spiritual contemplation, as a place for repenting sins and obtaining devotional healing, rather than being used for exploitative materialistic greed and destructive consumption, such as industrialism, mining, and lumbering. At the other extreme, anthropocentric, Pinchot views nature simply as natural resources. In other words, nature is explicitly
Anthropocentrism has been a central belief upon which modern human society has been constructed. The current state of the world, particularly the aspects that are negative, are reflective of humans continuously acting in ways that are in the interest of our own species. As environmental issues have worsened in recent decades, a great number of environmentalists are turning away from anthropocentric viewpoints, and instead adopting more ecocentric philosophies. Although anthropocentrism seems to be decreasing in popularity due to a widespread shift in understanding the natural world, philosopher William Murdy puts forth the argument that anthropocentrism still has relevancy in the context of modern environmental thought. In the following essay, I will explain Murdy’s interpretation of anthropocentrism and why he believes it to be an acceptable point of
According to Arianna Huffington in the article “Empathy: What We Need Now”, during hardships and instability of society, empathy is needed to find solutions to those issues. Huffington writes about how empathy is needed in our country in order to produce a positive social change. She begins by giving an example of a movement that Martin Luther King created and how empathy was a part of this movement. King as well spoke of how empathy is the sign of living. To become involved in the situations of humanity in order to improve it, displays that empathy is the core of a human’s existence. After reading this article, I do agree with Huffington about how individuals need to fully understand and put themselves within the situation to fully comprehend the issue to solve.
Burton defines empathy as the ability to not only recognize but also to share another person’s or a fictional character’s or a sentient beings’ emotions. It involves seeing a person’s situation from his or her own perspective and then sharing his or her emotions and distress (1). Chismar posits that to empathize is basically to respond to another person’ perceived state of emotion by experiencing similar feelings. Empathy, therefore, implies sharing another person’s feeling without necessary showing any affection or desire to help. For one to empathize, he or she must at least care for, be interested in or concerned about
In the article “The Baby in the Well: The Case Against Empathy,” Paul Bloom puts forward a tendentious thesis. Empathy, according to him, is overrated. The imaginative capacity to put oneself in the place of an oppressed, afflicted, or bereaved person does not lead to rational, thoroughly-considered solutions to important problems. Indeed, it can lead to hysterical displays of ill-directed charity, the misallocation of resources, and total blindness to other significant issues. Bloom appeals to his readers’ sense of logic by using examples of environmental and geopolitical crises that require forward-thinking solutions; he suggests that, because of the need to think about the future and the big picture, a politics of empathy cannot be relied
Many years ago, people saw the wilderness as a savage wasteland, but today, it is viewed as “the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.” (Cronon) He discusses this changed point of view by stating the difficulties that society will have rectifying environmental ailments if it stops viewing wilderness as “a dualistic picture in which the human is completely outside the nature.” (Cronon) This is understandable because humans rely on others to create opinions, and they do not know how to form their own thoughts and solutions to issues such as environmental ones. Therefore, it is with great importance that humans begin to learn how to formulate their own thoughts and share those personal thoughts with others, such as sharing solutions about environmental
Leopold defends his position the advent of a new ethical development, one that deals with humans’ relations to the land and its necessity. This relationship is defined as the land ethic, this concept holds to a central component referred to as the ecological consciousness. The ecological consciousness is not a vague ideal, but one that is not recognized in modern society. It reflects a certainty of individual responsibility for the health and preservation of the land upon which we live, and all of its components. If the health of the land is upheld, its capacity of self-renewal and regeneration is maintained as well. To date, conservation has been our sole effort to understand and preserve this capacity. Leopold holds that if the mainstream embraces his ideals of a land ethic and an ecological consciousness, the beauty, stability and integrity of our world will be preserved.
In his essay, The Ethics of Respect for Nature, Paul Taylor presents his argument for a deontological, biocentric egalitarian attitude toward nature based on the conviction that all living things possess equal intrinsic value and are worthy of the same moral consideration. Taylor offers four main premises to support his position. (1) Humans are members of the “Earth’s community of life” in the same capacity that nonhuman members are. (2) All species exist as a “complex web of interconnected elements” which are dependent upon one another for their well-being. (3) Individual organisms are “teleological centers of life” which possess a good of their own and a unique way in which to pursue it. (4) The concept that humans are superior to other species is an unsupported anthropocentric bias.
In the short story “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros we are introduced to a woman named Cleófilas Enriqueta DeLeón Hernández, and she takes an interest in telenovelas and they create ideas in her head. These telenovelas influence Cleófilas negatively. She wants a romance like the ones in the telenovelas and a romance like that is unhealthy. She also has this image of what she hopes her life could be, and that is unhealthy because she would never have that. She gets this image about what an ideal man looks like and acts like from these telenovelas
Analyzing human obligation pertaining to all that is not man made, apart from humans, we discover an assortment of concerns, some of which have been voiced by philosophers such as Tom Regan, Peter Singer and Aldo Leopold. Environmentally ethical ideals hold a broad spectrum of perspectives that, not only attempt to identify a problem, but also focus on how that problem is addressed through determining what is right and wrong.
A great deal of consideration needs to go into preparing a child for the change that occurs when going from a home/child care atmosphere into a school environment. The Teacher needs to consider the child in its entirety throughout the changeover to scholarly activities. This must include the child’s physical readiness, socio-emotional, and cognitive abilities for learning. It is equally essential to discover ways in which to involve the children's first and most important teachers, their families. The families have the most information about their child's strengths, weaknesses as well as the challenges the child faces. Being able to communicate with the families is vital to teachers in collecting in depth information about their students in order to be better equipped to meet the needs of the children.
Such ploys seek to undermine any legitimate eco-consciousness in the audience, replacing it with rhetoric that is ultimately ambivalent toward the health of ecosystems, but definitively pro-business. These tactics assume a rigidly anthropocentric point of view, shutting out any consideration for the well-being of non-human existence; they seem to suggest that nature lies subordinate to our base desires. In addition to upholding the subordination of nature to business and leisure activities, this view establishes nature as something privately owned and partitioned (243), rather than something intrinsic to the world. Our relationship with nature becomes one of narcissism.
Schultz, P., 2002. New Environmental Theories: Empathizing With Nature: The Effects ofPerspective Taking on Concern for Environmental Issues. Journal of social issues, 56(3), pp.391--406.
“Unless humanity is suicidal, it should want to preserve, at the minimum, the natural life-support systems and processes required to sustain its own existence” (Daily p.365). I agree with scientist Gretchen Daily that drastic action is needed now to prevent environmental disaster. Immediate action and changes in attitude are not only necessary for survival but are also morally required. In this paper, I will approach the topic of environmental ethics from several related sides. I will discuss why the environment is a morally significant concern, how an environmental ethic can be developed, and what actions such an ethic would require to maintain and protect the environment.