Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on cosmopolitanism Martha C. Nussbaum, Margaret C. Jacob, A. A. Long, Pheng Cheah, Darrin McMahon, Helena Rosenblatt, Samuel Scheffler, Arjun Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Appadurai, Rogers Smith, Peter Brooks, and Craig Calhoun Spring 2008 on judicial independence Sandra Day O’Connor, Stephen Breyer, Kathleen Hall Jamieson & Michael Hennessy, Stephen B. Burbank, Viet D. Dinh, Judith Resnik, Linda Greenhouse, Vicki C. Jackson, Charles Schumer, Spring 2008: on nature J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Robert C. Post, Charles Gardner Geyh, on nature Bill McKibben The challenge to environmentalism 5 Margaret Marshall, Ruth McGregor, Bert Brandenburg & Roy Leo Marx The idea of nature in America 8 Schotland, and Ronald George Harriet Ritvo Beasts in the jungle 22 Camille Parmesan Where the wild things were 31 on the humanities now Richard J. Franke, Francis Oakley, Edward L. Ayers, Michael Wood, Harriet Zuckerman & Ronald Ehrenberg, Caroline W. Bynum, Gordon H. Orians Human nature & nature 39 Anthony Grafton, Kathleen Woodward, Gerald Early, James J. Cass R. Sunstein Taking precautions 49 O’Donnell, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Patricia Meyer Spacks, and Philip E. Tetlock Leslie C. Berlowitz & Michael Oppenheimer The boundaries of the thinkable 59 Margaret Schabas Nature does nothing in vain 71 plus poetry by Robert Pinsky &c.; ½ction by Alix Ohlin &c.; Daniel J. Kevles The contested earth: science, equity and notes by Charles Stanish, Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, William & the environment 80 Kirby &c. annals John Hope Mason Rousseau in England 96

poetry C.D. Wright Because We Have Been Here Before 102

½ction Wesley Brown Body and Soul 104

notes Ian Ayres on options & epidemics 118 Richard Kraut on philosophy as a guide to well-being 122

U.S. $13; www.amacad.org

Inside front cover: Preview of a warming planet: a lone Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua), adrift on a blue iceberg, Gerlache Passage, Antarctic Penin- sula, Southern Ocean, Antarctica. See Camille Par- mesan on Where the wild things were, pages 31–38: “As sea ice gets thinner and shrinks in area, so too shrink animal populations for which ice is their home: from the polar bear and the ringed seal in the Arctic, to the Adelié and Emperor penguins in the Antarctic. These animals are retreating toward the poles, and are rapidly reaching the end of the Earth as they know it.” Photograph © Momatiuk– Eastcott/Corbis. James Miller, Editor of Dædalus Leo Marx, Consulting Editor for essays on nature Phyllis S. Bendell, Managing Editor and Director of Publications Esther Y. Chen, Assistant Editor

Board of editors Steven Marcus, Editor of the Academy Russell Banks, Fiction Adviser Rosanna Warren, Poetry Adviser Joyce Appleby (u.s. history, ucla), Stanley Hoffmann (government, Harvard), Donald Kennedy (environmental science, Stanford), Martha C. Nussbaum (law and philosophy, Chicago), Neil J. Smelser (sociology, Berkeley), Steven Weinberg (physics, University of Texas at Austin); ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi (President of the Academy), Leslie Cohen Berlowitz (Chief Executive Of½cer & William T. Golden Chair) Editorial advisers

Daniel Bell (sociology, Harvard), Michael Boudin (law, u.s. Court of Appeals), Wendy Doniger (religion, Chicago), Howard Gardner (education, Harvard), Carol Gluck (Asian history, Columbia), Stephen Greenblatt (English, Harvard), Thomas Laqueur (European history, Berkeley), Alan Lightman (English and physics, mit), Steven Pinker (psychology, Harvard), Diane Ravitch (education, nyu), Amartya Sen (economics, Harvard), Richard Shweder (human development, Chicago), Frank Wilczek (physics, mit)

Contributing Editors Robert S. Boynton, D. Graham Burnett, Peter Pesic, Danny Postel

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Design for the hedge maze is by Johan Vredeman de Vries, from Hortorum viridariorumque elegantes et multiplicis artis normam affabre delineatae (Cologne, 1615).

Dædalus was founded in 1955 and established as a quarterly in 1958. The journal’s namesake was renowned in ancient Greece as an inventor, scientist, and unriddler of riddles. Its emblem, a maze seen from above, symbolizes the aspiration of its founders to “lift each of us above his cell in the labyrinth of learning in order that he may see the entire structure as if from above, where each separate part loses its comfortable separateness.” The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, like its journal, brings together distinguished individuals from every ½eld of human endeavor. It was chartered in 1780 as a forum “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Now in its third century, the Academy, with its more than four thousand elected members, continues to provide intellectual leadership to meet the critical challenges facing our world. Dædalus Spring 2008 Subscription rates: Electronic only for non- Issued as Volume 137, Number 2 member individuals–$40; institutions–$99. Canadians add 5% gst. Print and electronic © 2008 by the American Academy for nonmember individuals–$44; institu- of Arts & Sciences tions–$110. Canadians add 5% gst. Outside The contested Earth: science, equity the United States and Canada add $23 for & the environment postage and handling. Prices subject to change © 2008 by Daniel J. Kevles without notice. Because We Have Been Here Before © 2008 by C.D. Wright Institutional subscriptions are on a volume- Body and Soul year basis. All other subscriptions begin with © 2008 by Wesley Brown the next available issue. Editorial of½ces: Dædalus, Norton’s Woods, Single issues: current issues–$13; back issues 136 Irving Street, Cambridge ma 02138. for individuals–$15; back issues for institu- Phone: 617 491 2600. Fax: 617 576 5088. tions–$30. Outside the United States and Email: [email protected]. Canada add $5 per issue for postage and han- dling. Prices subject to change without notice. Library of Congress Catalog No. 12-30299 Newsstand distribution by Ingram Periodicals isbn 0-87724-069-8 Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La Vergne tn 37086. Dædalus publishes by invitation only and as- Phone: 800 627 6247. sumes no responsibility for unsolicited manu- Claims for missing issues will be honored free scripts. The views expressed are those of the of charge if made within three months of the author of each article, and not necessarily of publication date of the issue. Claims may be the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. submitted to [email protected]. Mem- Dædalus (issn 0011-5266; e-issn 1548-6192) bers of the American Academy please direct all is published quarterly (winter, spring, summer, questions and claims to [email protected]. fall) by The mit Press, Cambridge ma 02142, Advertising and mailing-list inquiries may be for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. addressed to Marketing Department, mit An electronic full-text version of Dædalus is Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, available from The mit Press. Subscription Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2866. and address changes should be addressed to Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-info@ mit Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, mit.edu. Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2889; u.s./Canada 800 207 8354. Fax: 617 577 1545. Permission to photocopy articles for internal or personal use is granted by the copyright Printed in the United States of America by owner for users registered with the Copyright Cadmus Professional Communications, Clearance Center (ccc) Transactional Report- Science Press Division, 300 West Chestnut ing Service, provided that the per copy fee Street, Ephrata pa 17522. of $10 per article is paid directly to the ccc, Postmaster: Send address changes to Dædalus, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers ma 01923. The 238 Main Street, Suite 500, Cambridge ma fee code for users of the Transactional Report- 02142. Periodicals postage paid at Boston ma ing Service is 0011-5266/08. Address all other and at additional mailing of½ces. inquiries to the Subsidiary Rights Manager, mit Press Journals, 238 Main Street, Suite 500, The typeface is Cycles, designed by Sumner Cambridge ma 02142. Phone: 617 253 2864. Stone at the Stone Type Foundry of Guinda ca Fax: 617 258 5028. Email: journals-rights@ . Each size of Cycles has been separately mit.edu. designed in the tradition of metal types. Leo Marx

The idea of nature in America

The idea of nature is–or, rather, was– natural world became a less immediate one of the fundamental American ideas. presence, images of the pristine land- In its time it served–as the ideas of scape–chief icon of American nature– freedom, democracy, or progress did in lost their power to express the nation’s theirs–to de½ne the meaning of Amer- vision of itself. ica. For some three centuries, in fact, Then, in the 1970s, with the onset of from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 the ecological ‘crisis,’ the refurbished, to the closing of the Western frontier matter-of-fact word environment took in 1890, the encounter of white settlers over a large part of the niche in public with what they perceived as wilderness discourse hitherto occupied by the word –unaltered nature–was the de½ning nature. Before the end of the century, the American experience. marked loss of status and currency suf- By the end of that era, however, the fered by the idea of nature had become wilderness had come to seem a thing a hot subject in academic and intellectu- of the past, and the land of farms and al circles. Reputable scholars and jour- villages was rapidly becoming a land nalists published essays and books about of factories and cities. By 1920, half the the ‘death’–or the ‘end’–of nature; the population lived in cities, and as the University of California recruited a doz- en humanities professors to participate in a semester-long research seminar de- Leo Marx, a Fellow of the American Academy signed to “reinvent nature”;1 and the since 1972, is Senior Lecturer and William R. association of European specialists in Kenan Professor of American Cultural History American studies chose, as the aim of Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, its turn-of-the-century conference, to and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of reassess the changing role played by the Technology. He is the author of “The Machine idea of nature in America.2 in the Garden” (1964), “The Pilot and the Pas- senger” (1988), and coeditor of “Does Technol- 1 The essays they produced are reprinted in ogy Drive History?” (with Merritt Roe Smith, Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, ed. William Cronon (W. W. Norton: New 1994). York, 1995).

© 2008 by the American Academy of Arts 2 This essay derives from a paper presented & Sciences at the conference of the European Association

8 Dædalus Spring 2008 What are we to make of the purported quality of something, as for example, The idea of demise of nature? Can it be that the ven- ‘the nature of femininity’ or, for that nature in America erable idea is no longer meaningful? If matter, ‘the nature of nature.’ When that seems improbable on its face, it is this meaning is in play, the word tacit- because nature is our oldest, most nearly ly imputes an idealist or essentialist– universal name for the material world, hence ahistorical–character to the par- and despite the alarming extent of the ticular subject at hand, whether it be transformation–and devastation–we femaleness or nature itself. The word’s humans have visited on it, that world is multiple meanings testify to its age: its still very much with us. But why, then, roots go back (by way of Latin and Old is the general idea of nature–nature in French) to the concept of origination– all its meanings–falling into disuse? of being born. As Raymond Williams What other reasons might there be for famously noted, nature is probably the the seeming end of nature? With these most complex word in the English lan- questions in mind, I want to reconsider guage.3 And when, moreover, the idea the idea’s changing role in American of nature is yoked with the ideologically thought. freighted concept of American nation- But, ½rst, these preliminary caveats. I hood, as in the historian Perry Miller’s do not mean to suggest that the immi- sly allusion to America as Nature’s Na- nent disappearance of nature–if that is tion, the ambiguity is compounded by what we are witnessing–is a peculiarly chauvinism.4 American development. But in view of Contemplating the nature of nature the crucial role played by the idea over in America has led many scholars, of the course of American history, a re- whom the historian Frederick Jackson assessment of critical stages of that his- Turner is the exemplar, to adopt the con- tory may prove to be revealing. I say tested idiom of ‘American exceptional- ‘stages’ because limitations of space– ism.’5 And not without good reason. the subject calls for a long treatise rath- However wary of chauvinism one might er than an essay–make it necessary to be, it would be foolish to deny that when focus on a few signi½cant points along Europeans ½rst encountered American the historical trajectory traced by the nature, it truly was, and to some extent idea of nature in American thought. still is, exceptional–perhaps not unique But it also should be said that the word nature is a notorious semantic and meta- 3 Raymond Williams, Keywords (New York: physical trap. As used in ordinary dis- Oxford University Press, 1983), 219. course nowadays, it is an inherently am- 4 Miller ½rst used the phrase in his 1953 essay, biguous word. We cannot always tell “Nature and the National Ego,” in Errand into whether references to nature are meant the Wilderness (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Uni- to include or exclude people. Besides, versity Press, 1967), 209. Elizabeth W. Miller the word also carries the sense of essence: and Kenneth Murdock later used it as the title of a posthumous collection of Miller’s essays, of the ultimate, irreducible character or Nature’s Nation (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967). for American Studies, in Graz, Austria, April 5 In his seminal 1893 essay, “The Signi½cance 14–17, 2000. See Hans Bak and Walter W. of the Frontier in American History,” Turner Holbling, eds., “Nature’s Nation” Revisited: argued that American nature, in the form of American Concepts of Nature from Wonder to Eco- free land, in effect determined the “peculiarity logical Crisis (Amsterdam: vu Press, 2003). of American institutions.”

Dædalus Spring 2008 9 Leo Marx but, like Australia, a continent even less Americans. To Bradford they are more on developed at the time of contact, sure- like wild beasts than white men. nature ly exceptional. It was exceptional in its The concept of satanic nature provid- immensity, its spectacular beauty, its ed a useful foil for the sacred mission of variety of habitats, its promise of wealth, the Puritan colonists.6 In 1645, for exam- its accessibility to settlers from overseas, ple, John Winthrop, lieutenant governor and, above all, in the scarcity of its in- of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, used digenous population. Hence the remark- it as an ideological weapon to defend his able extent of its underdevelopment–its theocratic authority. His enemies had wildness–as depicted in myriad repre- charged him with infringing on their sentations of the initial landfall of Euro- liberty, and in his uncompromising re- pean explorers on the Atlantic seaboard sponse in the General Court he develops of North America. In that stock image, the distinction between two kinds of lib- the newly discovered terrain appears to erty: natural and civil. Natural liberty, be untouched by civilization, a cultural “common to man with beasts and other void populated by godless savages, and creatures,” is the liberty, he argues, we not easy to distinguish from a state of enjoy in a state of nature, namely, to do nature. evil as well as good; civil liberty, on the other hand, is moral, hence available on- In the beginning, then, Europeans ly to the truly regenerate, only to Chris- formed their impressions of American tians redeemed from sin by the recep- nature in a geographical context: it was tion of divine grace.7 According to Cal- a place, a terrain, a landscape. But they vinist doctrine, only those rescued from invariably accommodated their immedi- the state of nature may enjoy the God- ate impressions of American places to given liberty to do what is good, just, their imported–typically religious–pre- and honest. Here, on the coast of a vast, conceptions about the nature of nature unexplored continent, the idea of an and the character of indigenous peoples. ostensibly separate realm of wild nature Thus all of the signi½cant American –a separateness underscored by the con- ideas of nature are hybrids, conceived trast with the tamed state of nature in in Europe and inflected by New World Europe–was a valuable rhetorical asset experience. And each ideology that for the colony’s leaders. Allusions to served as a rationale for one or another wild nature served to reinforce the doc- colonial system of power contained such trinal barrier between themselves, the a hybrid Euro-American conception of elect, and the unregenerate, whom they nature and of the colonists’ relations consigned to the realm of natural law- with it. lessness. A revealing example is the Pilgrim In the lexicon of Protestant Christiani- leader William Bradford’s well-known ty in America, the essential character of description of the forbidding Cape Cod shoreline as seen from the deck of the 6 William Bradford, History of Plimoth Planta- Mayflower in 1620. He depicts it as “a tion, in Perry Miller and Thomas Johnson, eds., hidious and desolate wildernes, full of The Puritans (New York: American Book Com- wild beasts and wild men.” Here the bias pany, 1938), 100–101. inherent in the Christian idea of nature 7 John Winthrop, “Speech to the General as fallen–as Satan’s domain–effective- Court, July 3, 1625,” in Miller and Johnson, eds., ly erases the humanity of the indigenous The Puritans, 206.

10 Dædalus Spring 2008 primal nature was conveyed by epithets To justify the colonists’ acts of treason The idea of like ‘howling desert’ and ‘hideous wil- and armed rebellion, he had merely to nature in America derness,’ and by the malign names–sav- describe them as the means–indeed, age, cannibal, slave–assigned to indige- the only possible means–of claiming nous peoples. In Winthrop’s argument, the independent status to which they accordingly, the unarguable existence of were entitled by “the Laws of Nature a separate (unredeemed) state of nature and of Nature’s God.” Nature, as our helps to justify his a priori condemna- free-thinking president conceived of it, tion of the unregenerate, who constitute was not so much the work of God as a potential threat of lawlessness, anar- God was a constituent feature of Nature. chy, and misrule. Their geographical lo- By invoking a secularized idea of nature cation underscored the theological argu- on behalf of a quintessentially political ment: the only escape from natural un- cause, Jefferson helped to narrow the regeneracy open to them was the recep- gulf separating humanity and nature. tion of divine grace. But for that purpose, the idiom of the natural sublime was even more effective. By the time Thomas Jefferson wrote Nine years later, in Notes on Virginia, Jef- his draft of the Declaration of Indepen- ferson invoked the sublime to account dence, the theological notion of a dual for the unsurpassed beauty of one of nature–part profane, part sacred–was American nature’s most cherished cre- being supplanted by the unitary charac- ations–Virginia’s Natural Bridge. An ter of Newtonian science and Deism. ardent practitioner of the neoclassical Here, the initial identi½cation of Ameri- aesthetic, Jefferson credits the beauty of can nature with the landscape expanded the Bridge to its symmetrical form, or, to embrace the natural processes, or as it were, to the strikingly close approxi- laws, operating behind its visible sur- mation of its form to ostensibly natural face. Because the newly discovered ce- principles of order and proportion. He lestial machinery obeys physical laws begins his description of the bridge with accessible to human reason, Newtoni- a detailed analysis of its exact dimen- an physics had the effect of bringing hu- sions, as if reported by a detached ob- manity and nature closer together. Be- server writing in the third person. But sides, the mathematical clarity and pre- then, partway through, he abruptly puts cision of the new physics made the old himself into the scene, climbs the para- images of a dark, disorderly nature re- pet, and, shifting to the second person, pugnant. Alexander Pope summed up describes how “you” inescapably would the change in the prevailing worldview react if you too found yourself standing in the couplet engraved on Newton’s on the narrow ledge looking “over into tomb in Westminster Abbey: the abyss”: Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night. You involuntarily fall on your hands and God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was feet, creep to the parapet and peep over it light. . . . . If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful By 1776 it made sense for a rhetorician in an equal extreme. It is impossible for as gifted as Jefferson to extend the hypo- the emotions arising from the sublime thetical reach of nature’s laws–or, to be to be felt beyond what they are here; so more precise, of principles analogous to beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and them–to the unruly sphere of politics.

Dædalus Spring 2008 11 Leo Marx springing as it were up to heaven! The orthodox theological assumption that on rapture of the spectator is really indescrib- humanity and nature belong to separate nature able!8 realms of being. To illustrate the poten- tial effect of being in “the presence of As this passionate Wordsworthian nature,” Emerson describes an epipha- apostrophe suggests–it was written ny that is patently irreconcilable with about ½fteen years before the preface the idea of nature’s separateness. One to the Lyrical Ballads–Jefferson already gloomy afternoon, while crossing the was prepared to enlist in the Romantic town common, he was suddenly–unac- movement. But even after the triumph countably–overwhelmed by a sense of of Romanticism, the separateness of immanence, or, as he puts it, of “being nature remained a largely unchallenged part or parcel of God.” It was a largely if unstated premise of public discourse. secularized variant of the Protestant Since no authoritative biological coun- conversion experience, and it suggests terpart to the Newtonian laws of nature the possibility, as Emerson puts it, of an had yet been formulated, supernatural “occult relation”–or state of oneness– explanations of the origin of life were with nonhuman nature. The balance of not yet vulnerable to the challenge of Nature may be read as an effort to devise scienti½c materialism. By the same to- a reasoned explanation, or justi½cation, ken, pantheism retained its status as a for this transformative experience. Christian heresy, and dutiful commu- Emerson’s account of the epiphany nicants were advised to be wary of the reveals his ambivalence about the rela- feeling of oneness with nature. tive validity of religious and scienti½c conceptions of nature. On the one hand n 1836, four years after resigning his I it expresses his growing skepticism, on pastorate in the Second (Unitarian) both theological and scienti½c grounds, Church of Boston, Ralph Waldo Emer- about the received idea of a separate na- son anonymously published the essay ture. As a Unitarian, to be sure, he al- Nature, which came to be known as the ready had repudiated most supernatural manifesto of Transcendentalism, a New aspects of Christian doctrine, including England variant of European Romanti- the divinity of Jesus. A few years before cism. The essay begins as a lament for writing Nature, he had resigned his pas- the loss of humanity’s direct relations torate on the grounds that he no longer with nature. “Why,” Emerson asks, could in good conscience perform the– “should not we also enjoy an original to him, excessively literal–sacrament of relation to the universe?” the Lord’s Supper. At that time, more- Like his title, the question rests on the over, he was studiously keeping abreast assumption that nature was–and should of the latest advances in geology and once again become–a primary locus of zoology, which provided empirical evi- meaning and value for Americans. What dence in support of various emerging followed was Emerson’s ½rst and only theories of evolution. When Nature was attempt to formulate a systematic theory reissued in 1849, in fact, he appended a of nature, and in it he probably came as new verse epigraph depicting humani- close as he ever would to repudiating the ty’s origin:

8 Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Vir- A subtle chain of countless rings ginia, ed. William Peden (Chapel Hill: Universi- The next unto the farthest brings; ty of North Carolina Press, 1955), 55.

12 Dædalus Spring 2008 The eye reads omens where it goes, a process of natural selection, if our spe- The idea of And speaks all languages the rose; nature in cies is inextricably embedded in a glo- America And, striving to be man, the worm bal web of biophysical processes, then Mounts through all the spires of form.9 there can be no such thing–on the plan- et Earth at least–as a separate domain But though Emerson, like many of his of nature. contemporaries, was receptive to evolu- But the logic of science is one thing, tionary thinking long before the publica- and ancient habits of mind are another. tion of Darwin’s Origin of Species, he was Despite the passage of some 145 years not prepared–for reasons he never quite since Darwin’s theory ½rst caught the made explicit–to abandon the idea of world’s attention, and despite the con- nature’s separateness. That traditional ½rmation it has received, ½rst and last, assumption is built into the conceptual from an international consensus of sci- structure of Nature. In de½ning his key entists, its import has yet to be incorpo- terms, he postulates a universe made up rated in prevailing assumptions about of all that exists except for one thing: the nature of nature. To this day, the the human soul. All being, he asserts, ‘nature’ commonly invoked in our pub- “is composed of Nature and the Soul,” lic and private discourse–even by those and he goes on to specify that “all that of us who claim to ‘believe in’ evolution is separate from us, all which Philosophy –seems to be a discrete, almost wholly distinguishes as the not me, both na- independent entity ‘out there’ some- ture and art, all other men and my own where. In ordinary usage the word rare- body, must be ranked under this name, ly conveys a sense of humanity’s ties nature.”10 Though he tacitly repudi- with other living things. As the historian ated the major tenets of the Christian of science, Lynn White, Jr., noted in his faith, and though he was prepared to influential 1967 essay, “The Historical embrace the theory of evolution, he con- Roots of our Ecological Crisis,” “Despite tinued to de½ne nature as a discrete enti- Darwin, we are not, in our hearts, part of ty, eternally separated from human be- the natural process.”12 ings and their immortal souls. But that is putting it mildly. As every- one knows, the publication of the Origin ut the theory of evolution, as de½ni- B of Species aroused intense public hostili- tively set forth by Darwin in 1859, made ty, especially among churchmen and the age-old belief in nature’s separate- religious believers. There was no way, ness scienti½cally untenable once and after all, to disguise the simple truth: for all.11 On that score the logical import Darwin’s theory flatly contradicts the of evolutionary biology is clear and con- Biblical account of the creation. Besides, clusive. If Homo sapiens evolved through people of all persuasions, many nonbe- lievers among them, were–still are– revolted by the notion that we are kin to 9 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884), I, 8. 12 Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of 10 Ibid., 10–11. Emphasis added. our Ecological Crisis,” in Paul Shepherd, ed., The Subversive Science; Essays Toward an Ecology 11 In Origin of Species, though Darwin’s theory of Man (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 369. of evolution by natural selection remained in- See also Leo Marx, “American Institutions and complete until the publication of the Descent of Ecological Ideals,” Science 170 (November 27, Man in 1871. 1970): 945–952.

Dædalus Spring 2008 13 Leo Marx the higher primates. It makes them feel, march across these wilds, draining on as the saying goes, ‘tainted by bestiality.’ swamps, turning the course of rivers, nature So does the idea that humanity reached peopling solitudes, and subduing na- the pinnacle of the food chain by win- ture.”15 That westward march, aimed ning a long, murderous struggle, “red”– at transforming the continent’s natural in the poet Tennyson’s phrase–“in resources into marketable wealth as rap- tooth and claw.”13 But the repugnance idly as possible, was executed under the aroused by evolutionary theory did not aegis of such slogans as ‘Manifest Des- surprise its wisest proponents. Years tiny,’ the ‘Conquest of Nature,’ and, before he published the Origin, for ex- above all, ‘Progress.’ ample, Darwin had begun to fear that The belief in ‘progress,’ a shorthand it would raise the specter of atheism. label for a grand narrative of history, was He clearly understood–and empathized post–Civil War America’s most popular with–the widespread impulse to deny, secular creed. It held that our history is, or gloss over, the disturbing implications or is rapidly becoming, a record of the of his theory. But he urged readers of the steady, cumulative, continuous expan- Origin to resist the impulse. “Nothing is sion of knowledge of–and power over– easier,” he warned, nature, a power destined to effect an overall improvement in the conditions than to admit in words the truth of the of life. On this view, nature has a criti- universal struggle for life, or more dif½- cal role in the unfolding of material cult–at least I have found it so–than con- progress–but a role largely de½ned by stantly to bear this conclusion in mind. human purposes. Because it is an indis- Yet unless it be thoroughly engrained in pensable source of our knowledge and the mind, the whole economy of nature our raw materials, nature is most pro- . . . will be dimly seen or quite misunder- ductively conceived as wholly Other– stood.14 an unequivocally independent, separate, But the perceived antireligious import hence exploitable entity. The combined of Darwinism was not the only reason authority of the progressive ethos and for its failure to win acceptance in Amer- the Christian faith accounts for much of ica. Equally if not more important was nineteenth-century America’s aversion the largely unremarked yet fundamen- to the Darwinian view of nature and, by tal conflict between the evolutionary the same token, the popularity of Social view of humanity’s embeddedness in Darwinism. Though seemingly an off- natural processes and the nation’s chief shoot of evolutionary biology, Social geopolitical project: the settlement and Darwinism was in fact a perversion of economic development of the continen- the new science. It turned on the idea tal landmass. As Tocqueville observed, of “the survival of the ½ttest,” a catch- most European settlers were “insensi- phrase given worldwide currency by ble” to the beauty and wonder of the Herbert Spencer, the most influential wilderness. “Their eyes,” he wrote, “are popularizer of evolutionary theory. It ½xed on another sight: [their] . . . own was Spencer who did most to transform the idea of biological evolution into a 13 “In Memoriam” (1850), which he had begun writing in 1833. 15 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in Ameri- 14 Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species ca, ed. Phillips Bradley (New York: Alfred A. (New York: Mentor, 1958), 74. Knopf, 1946), II, 74.

14 Dædalus Spring 2008 full-fledged rationale–Social Darwin- other nations over the ages, one histori- The idea of ism–for the ruthless practices of ‘free an concluded that “the story of . . . [the nature in America market’ capitalism, as exempli½ed by the United States] as regards the use of robber baron generation of American forests, grasslands, wildlife and water businessmen.16 sources is the most violent and most The massive incursion of white set- destructive in the long history of civi- tlers into the Western wilderness enact- lization.”17 ed the American belief in nation-build- It is not surprising that a people busi- ing progress. In the popular culture, ly plundering that Western cornucopia the successive stages of that great migra- had little use for Darwinism. The rav- tion were represented by an imaginary aging of the West was not easily recon- boundary–a moving boundary–separat- ciled with the view that human life is ing the built environment of the East inextricably enmeshed in natural pro- from the expanse of undeveloped, os- cesses. What made the conventional tensibly unowned–or, as it was called, idea of a separate nature especially pop- ‘free’–land of the West. Never mind ular, under the circumstances, was its that the land already was inhabited; the hospitality to either of the reigning– westward movement of the boundary and contradictory–conceptions of the represented the serial imposition of a national terrain. Most Americans, it bene½cent Civilization on an unruly Na- would seem, regarded that terrain as a ture, including its ‘savage’ inhabitants. hostile wilderness, a state of nature tol- The boundary’s westward movement erable only insofar as it could be subject- was a gauge of national progress, and ed to human domination. At the same in tacit recognition of its ideological sig- time, however, a vocal minority took the ni½cance, it was given a proper name opposite view. A cohort of gifted artists –the frontier–and accorded iconic status and intellectuals, many of them adher- as an actual line–usually a broken or ents of European Romanticism, regarded dotted line–imprinted on maps and Nature as the embodiment of ultimate documented by demographic data regu- meaning and value. Landscapes em- larly collected, revised, and published in bodying that Romantic conviction were of½cial reports of the United States Cen- represented in the paintings of Thomas sus. Eventually the word and the icon Cole, Frederic Church, and the other were compressed into a single term, ‘the members of the Hudson River School; frontier line,’ visual marker of the ‘con- in the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, quest of nature.’ Conquest was an accu- and a host of other poets, essayists, nov- rate name for it. After comparing Amer- elists, and philosophers; and in the work ica’s treatment of nature with that of of conservation activists like John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Teddy Roosevelt. In the press and the popular arts of mid- 16 Richard Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in century America, a sentimental, quasi- American Thought, 1800–1915 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944); Ron- religious cult of Nature helped to vent ald L. Numbers, Darwinism Comes to America the pathos aroused by the spectacle of (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ravaged forests, slaughtered bison, and 1998); Leo Marx, “The Domination of Nature ‘vanishing Americans.’ and the Rede½nition of Progress,” in Leo Marx and Bruce Mazlish, eds., Progress: Fact or Illu- sion? (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan 17 Fair½eld Osborn, Our Plundered Planet (Bos- Press, 1996), 201–218. ton: Little Brown, 1948), 175.

Dædalus Spring 2008 15 Leo Marx The ambiguity inherent in the idea of beauty is the product of “subtle deceits” on nature is central to the apocalyptic out- of light and color, and that in fact “all nature come of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s dei½ed nature paints like a harlot, whose epical account of America’s violent as- allurements cover nothing but the char- sault on the natural world. Melville was nel-house within.” All of which leads so impressed by the irrational ferocity of him to conclude that Ahab’s obsession is the assault, in fact, that he instructs his in large measure attributable to the mad- narrator, Ishmael, to seek out its origin dening blankness–the essential illusori- and its consequences. The inquiry rests ness–of nature, its capacity to provoke on two assumptions: ½rst, that the re- yet endlessly resist his rage for meaning. lations between American society and In the end, the mad captain’s anger over- nonhuman nature are typi½ed by whal- whelms his reason, and the tragic out- ing, a technologically sophisticated, come, as Ishmael interprets it, reveals for-pro½t industry devoted to killing the incalculable cost–and futility–of whales; and, second, that the psychic the human effort to grasp the ultimate roots of the enterprise are exempli½ed meaning of nature. by Captain Ahab’s obsession with wreaking revenge on a particular sperm The year 1970 is when the ecological whale whose distinguishing feature is ‘crisis’ caught up with the idea of nature. his preternatural whiteness. (The sperm Public anxiety about the devastation of whale, not coincidentally, is the largest the natural world had grown steadily in living embodiment of nature on the face the aftermath of Hiroshima and the on- of the earth.) What is it about the white- set of the nuclear arms race. But it was ness of this whale, Ishmael asks, that not until 1970, the year of the ½rst Earth provokes Ahab’s ungovernable hatred? Day, that the threat to the human habitat Melville devotes an entire chapter to the attracted nationwide attention. And it inquiry–a chapter without which, Ish- was in 1970 that the emerging environ- mael insists, the whole story would be mental movement ½rst displayed its po- pointless. litical power. In was then that President After an exhaustive analysis of every Nixon proposed, and Congress enacted, meaning of whiteness he can think of, the National Environmental Policy Act, it occurs to Ishmael that the uncanny the Clean Air Act, and the act establish- effect of the color–or is it the absence ing the Environmental Protection Agen- of color?–is not attributable to any one cy. A large cohort of scientists and engi- of its meanings, but rather to its af½nity, neers was recruited to work on the prob- like that of material nature itself, with lems involved in the accelerating rate of myriad, often antithetical meanings– air and water pollution, climate change, or, in a word, to its ambiguity. At times, and species extinction. At about that he observes, whiteness evokes disease, time, it became evident that the word terror, death; and at others, “the sweet environment was supplanting the word tinges of sunset skies and woods, and nature in American public discourse. the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the This was no coincidence. Natural sci- butterfly cheeks of young girls.” But entists had long recognized the ambigui- then, Ishmael recalls, the beauty of natu- ty and instability inherent in ordinary ral objects is no more inherent in their language, especially in words, like na- physical properties than their color is; ture, used to describe the biophysical actually, he realizes that their seeming world. For centuries, after all, ‘Nature’

16 Dædalus Spring 2008 conceived as a separate entity had served tion between human and other forms of The idea of as an all-purpose metaphysical Other. life; it encompasses all that is built and nature in America It had been depicted as the creation of (so to speak) unbuilt, the arti½cial and God and the habitation of Satan, as har- the natural, within the terrain we inhab- monious and chaotic, bene½cent and it. Besides, as the related verb, to environ, hostile, as something to be revered and indicates, most environments palpably something to be conquered. Over its his- are products of human effort. It is not tory, indeed, the word nature had been dif½cult to understand, then, why this encrusted with a rich deposit of meaning matter-of-fact word proved to be more and metaphor, and practicing scientists acceptable than nature to people coping often found themselves looking for ways with the practical problems created by to avoid, or circumvent, the imprecision the degradation of ‘nature.’ But there and ambiguity. is a troubling irony here. What recently In a revealing passage of the Origin, for has proven to be a serious shortcoming example, Darwin feels compelled to de- of the idea of a separate nature–its fend himself for having alluded to natu- hospitality to a virtually limitless range ral selection as “a ruling power or Dei- of moral, religious, and metaphysical ty.” It is dif½cult, he explains,” to avoid meaning–had for centuries been the personifying the word Nature,” and be- reason for its immense appeal as a sub- sides, “everyone knows what is meant ject of art and literature, theology and and is implied by such metaphoric ex- philosophy, or, indeed, virtually all pressions.” But Darwin is not apologiz- modes of thought and expression. ing. An accomplished writer of English prose, he appreciates the beauty and But to return to the ½nal decades of power of ½gurative language, and he is the twentieth century when, as I noted not about to dispense with it. Nonethe- at the outset, the loss of status and cur- less, as if to prove that he knows what rency suffered by the idea of nature be- the word nature actually means in scien- came obvious. In those years the work of ti½c practice, he grudgingly offers this avant-garde artists and intellectuals was stripped-down, or positivist, de½nition: ½lled with predictions of nature’s immi- “I mean by Nature,” he writes, “only the nent demise. In an influential 1984 essay, aggregate action and product of many Fredric Jameson, a prominent theorist of natural laws, and by laws the sequence postmodernism, argued that the disap- of events as ascertained by us.”18 pearance of nature was a necessary pre- Darwin’s recourse to this bloodless, condition for the emergence of the post- ungraspable, if scienti½cally unobjec- modern mentality. “Postmodernism is tionable de½nition of nature was pro- what you have,” he asserted, “when the phetic. It pre½gured the partial eclipse modernization process is complete and of nature by environment in our time. The nature is gone for good.”19 With char- signal merits of environment, as compared acteristic postmodern tendentiousness, with nature, are its unequivocal material- Jameson assumes that nature is a cultur- ity, and what might be called its ideolog- al construction–a mere product of ‘dis- ical neutrality or objectivity. It refers to course’–and emphatically not an actu- the entire biophysical surround–or en- viron–we inhabit; it implies no distinc- 19 Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cul- tural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, N.C.: 18 Darwin, Origin of Species, 88. Duke University Press, 1991), ix.

Dædalus Spring 2008 17 Leo Marx al topographical or biophysical entity. resurrecting and re½ning the premod- on From his idealist perspective, the domi- ern, organic idea of nature. Perhaps, she nature nant American idea of nature–nature implies, the desperation induced by the primarily conceived as a terrain or other accelerating ecological crisis will lead biophysical actuality–is meaningless. mankind to repudiate the mechanical In Jameson’s view, that usage, with its view of nature and reaf½rm a humane implicit claim to unmediated knowledge organicism.21 of the material world, is epistemologi- Among the prominent obituaries for cally naive. Nature in that sense, he is the idea of nature, however, the most saying, is gone for good because it epito- pertinent to my argument is Bill McKib- mizes the age-old illusion that it is possi- ben’s The End of Nature (1989). He con- ble to arrive at a direct, wholly reliable tends that nature came to an end, both relation with material reality. as a discrete biophysical entity and as a In The Death of Nature (1989), Caro- meaningful concept, when the Earth’s lyn Merchant laments the demise of a atmospheric envelope was penetrated– widely accepted idea of nature, but in and its ½ltering capacities damaged–by her view it died some four centuries ago. greenhouse gases and other manufac- The authentic, biologically grounded tured chemicals.22 By encompassing all concept of an organic nature actually of Earth’s space, the expanding techno- was supplanted–though perhaps only logical power of modern industrial soci- temporarily–by the mechanistic, male- eties has rid the planet of unaltered na- oriented Newtonian-Cartesian philoso- ture. The last remaining patches of pris- phy that accompanied the seventeenth- tine wilderness are now wrapped in a century Scienti½c Revolution. The basic layer of man-made atmosphere. model for that philosophy was the ma- In McKibben’s view, however, the chine, and it has most serious consequences of the deg- radation of material nature are concep- permeated and reconstructed human con- tual. They are at once psychological, sciousness so totally that today we scarce- moral, and spiritual. What chiefly con- ly question its validity. Nature, society, cerns him is the impoverishment of hu- and the human body are composed of in- man thought. “We have killed off na- terchangeable atomized parts that can be ture,” he writes, “that world entirely in- repaired or replaced from outside. The dependent of us which was here before ‘technological ½x’ mends an ecological we arrived and which encircles and sup- malfunction . . . . The mechanical view ported our human society.” It is as if the of nature now taught in most Western real meaning and value of the ancient schools is accepted without question as concept of nature only became apparent our everyday, commonsense reality . . . . after technological ‘progress’ had made The removal of animistic, organic as- it obsolete. We “have ended the thing sumptions about the cosmos constituted the death of nature.20 21 Carolyn Merchant, Radical Ecology: The But Merchant, a committed environ- Search for a Livable World (New York: Rout- mentalist, leaves open the possibility of ledge, 1992).

22 Subsequent observations of ‘global warm- 20 Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: ing’ are widely accepted in the scienti½c com- Women, Ecology, and the Scienti½c Revolution munity as evidence of the man-made transfor- (San Francisco: Harper, 1989), 193. mation of Earth’s atmospheric envelope.

18 Dædalus Spring 2008 that has de½ned . . . nature for us,” he fluence of cosmic loneliness or–in a The idea of writes, “–its separation from human word–atheism. nature in America society.”23 The tenability of the idea of wilder- The importance McKibben assigns to ness, the oldest and most popular Amer- the erasure of nature’s separateness dis- ican variant of the idea of nature, also tinguishes The End of Nature from other was called into question at the end of laments about the disappearance of na- the century. In a provocative 1995 essay, ture.24 To my knowledge, he is the only “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Get- writer who attaches vital signi½cance ting Back to the Wrong Nature,” Wil- to this seldom noted, seemingly banal liam Cronon, a prominent environmen- attribute of the received idea of nature. tal historian, precipitated a heated con- But exactly why is the independence troversy by asserting that the popular of nature so important? Although Mc- notion of a pristine American wilder- Kibben does not adequately answer this ness, or ‘virgin land,’ embodies a racist hovering question, he provides a telling or colonialist falsi½cation of the histori- clue to its profound signi½cance for him. cal record.26 Cronon had established “We have deprived nature of its inde- the empirical basis for this judgment pendence, and that is fatal to its mean- in Changes in the Land, his seminal 1983 ing,” he writes. And why is that? Be- study of the transformation of the New cause, he asserts, “nature’s indepen- England terrain, long before the arrival dence is its meaning, without it there is of Europeans, by the indigenous peo- nothing but us.”25 It is an astute obser- ples of North America. But now, with vation and a poignant confession: with- his 1995 essay, he shocked many envi- out nature there is nothing but us. For ronmentalists, for whom the idea of the McKibben, like many ardent environ- unsullied American wilderness is sacro- mentalists, nature is at bottom a theo- sanct, with plain talk about its covert logical or metaphysical concept. In his meaning. By the time of the alleged Eu- vocabulary, nature refers to the founda- ropean “discovery” of the “new world,” tional character–the ultimate mean- he argues, there no longer was anything ing–of the cosmos. But if the idea of “natural” about it. Far from “being the nature is to continue serving as an effec- one place on earth that stands apart tive repository of that belief, he is say- from humanity,” he writes, the Ameri- ing, it must not be deprived of its tradi- can wilderness is “entirely the creation tional status as a separate, discrete en- of the culture that holds it dear.” Actu- tity. To compromise its independence, ally, the mythic image of a “virgin, unin- as Darwinism inescapably does, and habited land” was an ideological weap- as McKibben movingly testi½es, is to on in the service of the white European expose its devotees to the skeptical in- conquest of the Americas, and it was “especially cruel when seen from the perspective of the Indians who had once 23 Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (New York: Random House, 1989), 96, 64. called that land home.”

24 Raymond Williams calls attention to the 26 Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground, 69–90. For idea of nature’s separateness in “The Idea of a comprehensive collection of the arguments, Nature,” Problems of Materialism and Culture pro and con, including Cronon’s essay, see J. (London: Verso, 1980), 67–85. Baird Callicott and Michael P. Nelson, eds., The Great New Wilderness Debate (Athens: University 25 McKibben, The End of Nature, 58. of Georgia Press, 1998).

Dædalus Spring 2008 19 Leo Marx And yet Cronon, an ardent environ- ness as a locus of value and meaning, he on mentalist and outdoorsman, cannot notes, is that, unlike wilderness, it “can nature bring himself to repudiate the idea of be found anywhere: in the seemingly wilderness. To be sure, he clearly ex- tame ½elds and woodlots of Massachu- plains what makes it objectionable. setts, in the cracks of a Manhattan side- “Any way of looking at nature that en- walk, even in the cells of our own body.” courages us to believe that we are sepa- Whereas wilderness is a particular kind rate from nature–as wilderness tends of place (one that exhibits no signs of to do–is likely,” he concedes, “to rein- human intervention), wildness is an force environmentally irresponsible be- attribute of living organisms that may havior.” But he also acknowledges that turn up anywhere; a blue jay or a daisy respect for wilderness entails respect in a Manhattan park, he contends, is for nonhuman forms of life. Like many no less wild than its counterpart in the environmentalists, in fact, he had re- Rocky Mountains. As might be expect- sponded to the prevalence of arrogant ed, Cronon’s critics were quick to note anthropocentrism–especially the un- that there is something tenuous, even feeling disregard for the well-being of quixotic, about his notion that a change animals–by embracing an ecocentric of vocabulary could resolve the debate version of species egalitarianism. Now, about the value of wilderness. Still, his seemingly contradicting himself, he proposal does call attention to the criti- concedes that the idea of the “autono- cal shortcomings that the idea of wilder- my of nonhuman nature . . . [may be] ness shares with the idea of a separate an indispensable corrective to human nature. As he warns, and as the devas- arrogance.” He admits that he is torn tation of the American wilderness at- between his viewpoint as a disinterested tests, the belief that we humans occupy scholar and as an environmental activist, a realm of being separate from the rest or, put differently, between historically of nature encourages what he all-too- informed skepticism about–and rever- politely refers to as “environmentally ence for–the contested idea of wilder- irresponsible behavior.” ness. In the end, Cronon fails to resolve his ambivalence. But his failure strongly In recent years several ecologically ori- suggests that the idea of wilderness, like ented writers, including Cronon, have the pre-Darwinian idea of nature as a endorsed a promising way to salvage the separate, largely independent entity, is venerable idea of nature.27 They propose incoherent and irremediably unstable. to rehabilitate the compelling distinc- In the event, however, Cronon propos- tion, favored by Hegel and Marx, be- es a way to rescue the notion of pristine, tween two fundamentally distinct, his- unaltered nature. He urges American torically grounded states of nature, to be environmentalists to follow the lead of called ½rst nature and second nature. In their patron saints, Henry Thoreau and this usage, ½rst nature is the biophysical John Muir, and replace the idea of wil- world as it existed before the evolution derness with the simpler, less problem- atic idea of wildness. (After founding the Sierra Club in 1892, Muir had chosen 27 William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chica- Thoreau’s famous epigram “In Wildness go and the Great West (New York: W. W. Nor- ton, 1991), xviiff; Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofem- is the preservation of the World” as its inist Politics (Boston: South End Press, 1991), of½cial motto.) The chief merit of wild- 117–118.

20 Dædalus Spring 2008 of Homo sapiens, and second nature is the The idea of arti½cial–material and cultural–envi- nature in America ronment that humanity has superim- posed upon ½rst nature. On this view, manifestly, nature is all. Unlike the tradi- tional idea of a separate nature, the ½rst nature/second nature distinction is con- sonant with the received history of na- ture, and especially with the primacy, in that history, of the process of biological evolution by natural selection and the emergence of life on Earth. During all but the ½nal minutes, as it were, of this historical narrative, ½rst nature was all that existed. But then, beginning with the emer- gence of life and–eventually–Homo sapiens, second nature took over, and gradually transformed, an increasingly large area of the planet’s surface. Biolo- gists have taught us that every organism modi½es its habitat in some degree, but the extent of humanity’s modi½cation of Earth exceeds that of other species by orders of magnitude. Second nature is in large measure a human artifact, and in recent centuries the rapidly accelerating expansion of humanity’s power–and its territorial reach–has had a devastating impact on global ecosystems. The result is a grave crisis in the relations, or puta- tive ‘balance,’ between ½rst and second nature. One of the singular merits of the ½rst nature/second nature distinction is the clarity it affords us in characterizing the uniqueness–for good and ill–of hu- manity and its role in the overall history of nature. By dividing the concept of na- ture along an historical, or evolutionary, fault line, the ½rst nature/second nature concept enables us to do full justice to humanity’s unmatched power to create a unique material and cultural environ- ment. At the same time, however, it has the inestimable merit of validating the idea of a single, subdivided yet funda- mentally uni½ed realm of nature.

Dædalus Spring 2008 21 Harriet Ritvo

Beasts in the jungle (or wherever)

When Byron wrote that “the Assyri- in zoos or in establishments like Wolf an came down like the wolf on the fold” Hollow. (“The Destruction of Sennacherib,” Located in Ipswich, just north of Bos- 1815), his audience had no trouble under- ton, Wolf Hollow is the home of a pack standing the simile or feeling its force, of gray wolves who live a sheltered sub- even though wolves had not threatened urban existence behind a high chain-link most British flocks since the Wars of fence. Their captivity has modi½ed their the Roses. Almost two centuries later, nomadic habits and their ½erce inde- expressions such as “the wolf is at the pendent dispositions. (The pack was door” remain evocative, although the established twenty years ago with pups, Anglophone experience of wolves has so that only inherent inclinations, and diminished still further. For most of us, not con½rmed behaviors, needed to be they are only to be encountered (if at all) modi½ed.) Their relationship with their caretakers seems affectionate and play- ful, sometimes even engagingly dog- Harriet Ritvo, a Fellow of the American Acad- like–so much so that visitors need to emy since 2005, is Arthur J. Conner Professor be warned that it would be very danger- of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- ous for strangers to presume on this su- nology. She is the author of “The Animal Estate: per½cial affability. The animals them- The English and Other Creatures in the Victori- selves give occasional indications that an Age” (1987) and “The Platypus and the Mer- they retain the capacities of their free- maid, and Other Figments of the Classifying roaming relatives–that though appar- Imagination” (1997); the coeditor of “Macro- ently reconciled to con½nement, they politics of Nineteenth-Century Literature: Na- are far from tame. When large, loud ve- tionalism, Imperialism, Exoticism” (1991); and hicles rumble past on nearby Route 133, the editor of Charles Darwin’s “The Variation the wolves tend to howl. And despite of Animals and Plants under Domestication” their secure enclosure within the built- (1998). She has a forthcoming book, “The Dawn up landscape of North American sprawl, of Green: Manchester, Thirlmere, and the Victo- their calls evoke the eerie menace that rian Environment,” to be published by the Univer- has immemorially echoed through the sity of Chicago Press. wild woods of fairy tale and fable. The symbolic resonance of large fero- © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts cious wild animals–the traditional rep- & Sciences

22 Dædalus Spring 2008 resentatives of what seems most threat- Mowgli in The Jungle Book (1894). But in Beasts in the ening about the natural world–has this way, as in others, Kipling’s animal jungle (or wherever) proved much more durable than their polity looked toward the past rather than physical presence. Indeed, their absence the future. By the late nineteenth centu- has often had equal and opposite ½gura- ry, human opinions of wolves and their tive force. The extermination of wolves ilk had indeed become noticeably mixed. in Great Britain, along with such other The cause of this amelioration, howev- unruly creatures as bears and wild boars, er, was not an altered understanding of was routinely adduced as evidence of the lupine character or an increased appre- triumph of insular (as opposed to con- ciation of the possibilities of anthropo- tinental) civilization in the early mod- lupine cooperation, but rather a revised ern period. As they dispersed around estimation of the very qualities that had the globe, British settlers and colonizers made wolves traditional objects of fear set themselves parallel physical and me- and loathing. taphorical challenges, conflating the The shift in European aesthetic sen- elimination of dangerous animals with sibility that transformed rugged moun- the imposition of political and military tains into objects of admiration rather order. In North America, hunters could than disgust is a commonplace of the claim bounties for killing wolves from history of aesthetics. For example, in the seventeenth century into the twenti- the early eighteenth century, even the eth, although by the latter period wolves relatively modest heights of what was had abandoned most of their historic to become known as the English Lake range, persisting only in remote moun- District impressed Daniel Defoe as tains, forests, and tundras. In Africa “eminent only for being the wildest, and (especially) Asia, imperial of½cials most barren and frightful of any that I celebrated the “extermination of wild have passed over in England, or even in beasts” as one of “the undoubted advan- Wales itself.”2 The increasingly Roman- tages . . . derived from British rule.”1 tic tourists who followed him gradually Very occasionally, large aggressive learned to appreciate this harsh, dramat- predators could symbolize help rather ic landscape, so that a century later the than hindrance. They served as totems noted literary opium-eater Thomas De for people whose own inclinations were Quincey could characterize the vistas conventionally wol½sh or leonine. And that had horri½ed Defoe as a “paradise alongside the legendary and historical of virgin beauty.”3 Of course, this altered accounts of big bad wolves existed a mi- perception had complex roots, but it nority tradition that emphasized coop- is suggestive that it coincided with im- eration rather than competition. From provements in transportation and other this perspective, the similarities of wolf aspects of the infrastructure of tourism. society to that of humans implicitly opened the possibility of individual ex- 2 Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island change and adoption. A slender line of of Great Britain, ed. P. N. Furband and W. R. imagined lupine nurturers ran from the Owens (New Haven: Yale University Press, foster mother of Romulus and Remus, 1991), 291. to Akela, who protects and mentors 3 Thomas De Quincey, Literary Reminiscences from the Autobiography of an English Opium Eater, 1 Edward Lockwood, Natural History, Sport, and vol. 3, The Works of Thomas De Quincey (Boston: Travel (London: W. H. Allen, 1878), 237. Houghton Mifflin, 1851), 310–311.

Dædalus Spring 2008 23 Harriet As economic and technological develop- Further, none offered signi½cant resist- Ritvo ments made the world seem safer and ance to human domination of their ter- on nature more comfortable, it became possible ritory. (If they did, policies could be to experience some of its extremes as reversed. For example, hippopotami, thrilling rather than terrifying. Or, to which enjoyed protection in some parts put it another way, as nature began to of southern Africa, were slaughtered seem a less overwhelming opponent, the with of½cial encouragement in Uganda, valence of its traditional symbols began where their belligerent attitude toward to change. Ultimately (much later, after river traf½c interfered with trade.4) their population numbers and geograph- Predators inclined to kill the species des- ic ranges had been radically reduced), ignated for protection received no pro- even wild predators began to bene½t tection themselves, either physical or from this reevaluation. The ferocity and legal. On the contrary, in many settings danger associated with wolves and their people simply replaced large predators at ½gurative ilk became a source of glam- the top of the food chain and showed no our, evoking admiration and sympathy mercy to their supplanted rivals. from a wide range of people who were Deep ancient roots can be unearthed unlikely ever to encounter them. As rep- for holistic or ecological thinking. Al- resentatives of the unsettled landscapes though most of the British pioneers of in which they had managed to survive, game preservation had enjoyed the clas- they inspired nostalgia rather than an- sical education prescribed for privileged tagonism. Victorian boys, the works of Charles Supplementing these symbolic shifts Darwin may have offered more readily were shifts in scienti½c understanding, accessible arguments for understanding which rede½ned high-end predators as biological assemblages as interconnect- a necessary element of many natural ed wholes. Darwin provided many illus- ecosystems. Late-nineteenth-century trations of the subtle and complex re- attempts at wild animal protection were lationships among the organisms that modeled on the hunting preserves of Eu- shared a given territory. For example, in ropean and Asian elites. Thus the imme- On the Origin of Species, he explained the diate antecedents of modern wildlife frequency of several species of wildflow- sanctuaries and national parks were ers in southern England as a function designed to protect individual species of the number of domestic cats kept in that were identi½ed as both desirable nearby villages. The cats had no direct (whether intrinsically or as game) and interest in the flowers, but more cats in danger of extinction, whether the bi- meant fewer ½eld mice, which preyed on son in North America or the giraffe in beehives–therefore fewer mice meant Africa. They were much less concerned more bees to fertilize the flowers.5 Nev- with preserving the surrounding web of life. In fact, most early wildlife-manage- ment policies had the opposite effect. 4 Harriet Ritvo, The Animal Estate: The English Although not all of the species targeted and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age (Cam- for protection provided conventional bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), hunting trophies–for example, by the 284–289. end of the nineteenth century, many 5 Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species [1859] great ape populations received some (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, form of protection–all were herbivores. 1964), 73–74.

24 Dædalus Spring 2008 ertheless, it was not until the last half of this ur-condition, but even a moderately Beasts in the the twentieth century that wildlife man- long chronological perspective suggests jungle (or wherever) agers routinely considered individual that any such effort is bound to be quix- species as components of larger systems, otic. The environment in which modern and that the standard unit of manage- animals have evolved has never been sta- ment became the ecosystem rather than ble. Less than twenty thousand years the species. ago, glaciers covered much of North In consequence, large predators were America and Eurasia. After their gradual rede½ned as essential components (even release from the burden of ice and water, indicators) of a healthy environment most northern lands continued to expe- rather than blots on the landscape. They rience signi½cant shifts in topography often began to receive legal protection, and climate–and, therefore, in flora and however belated and ineffective. And fauna. These natural changes have been there has been a movement to reintro- supplemented for thousands of years by duce them to areas that have been osten- the impact of human activities. The the- sibly preserved in their wild form or that oretical and political problems presented are in process of restoration. Thus in re- by ‘wilderness’ are knottier still. In a cent decades wolves have reoccupied groundbreaking essay published more several of their former habitats in the than a decade ago, William Cronon ar- western United States, both as a result gued that wilderness and civilization (or of carefully coordinated reintroduction ‘garden’) were not mutually exclusive by humans, as in Yellowstone National opposites, but that they rather formed Park, and as a result of independent (but part of a single continuum. Far from unimpeded) migration from Canada. It being absolute, “the one place on earth is interesting that the reemergence, or that stands apart from humanity,” wil- even the prospective reemergence, of the derness was itself “a quite profoundly wolf has inspired a parallel reemergence human creation.”7 Cronon’s formula- of traditional fear and hostility among tion sparked (and continues to spark) neighboring human populations. agonized resistance on the part of envi- ronmentalists who base their commit- I have been using several terms as if ment on the notion of untouched nature. their meanings were clear and de½nite, If wildness in landscape has been ef- when in fact they are contested and am- fectively (if controversially) problema- biguous. The cultural critic Raymond tized, the same cannot be said for wild- Williams characterized ‘nature’ as “per- ness in animals. The Oxford English Dic- haps the most complex word in the Eng- tionary de½nes the adjective ‘wild’ unam- lish language.”6 The term ‘wilderness’ is biguously and emphasizes its zoological similarly problematic. In the context of application. The ½rst sense refers to ani- preservation or restoration, it often col- mals: “Living in a state of nature; not locates with words like ‘pristine’ and tame, not domesticated: opp. to tame.” ‘untouched,’ and therefore connotes a In a standard lexicographical ploy, condition at once primeval and static. This connotation suggests that the ½rst 7 William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilder- task of landscape stewards is to identify ness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human 6 Raymond Williams, Keywords (New York: Place in Nature (New York: Oxford University Oxford University Press, 1976), 184. Press, 1996), 69.

Dædalus Spring 2008 25 Harriet ‘tame’ is de½ned with equal con½dence to extract any general de½nition from Ritvo and complete circularity as (also the ½rst their practices. The impact of domesti- on nature sense) “reclaimed from the wild state; cation varied from kind to kind, as well brought under the control and care of as from creature to creature. The innate man; domestic; domesticated. (Opp. to aggression of the falcons and ferrets wild.)” who assisted human hunters was merely But outside the dictionary these terms channeled, not transformed; when they are harder to pin down and their inter- were not working, they were con½ned relationships are more complex. Like like wild animals in menageries. Then as Cronon’s wilderness and garden, the now, people exerted much greater sway wild and the tamed or domesticated ex- over their dogs than over their cats, who ist along a continuum. In a world where were mostly allowed to follow their own human environmental influence extends instincts with regard to rodents and re- to the highest latitudes and the deepest production. Medieval cattle, the pro- seas, few animal lives remain untouched viders of labor as well as meat, milk, and by it. At least in this sense, therefore, few hides, led more constrained lives than can be said to be completely wild: for ex- did contemporary sheep; and pigs were ample, it would be dif½cult so to charac- often left to forage in the woods like the terize the wolves that were captured, se- wild boars they closely resembled. dated, airlifted to Yellowstone, and then With hindsight, even these relatively kept in ‘acclimatization pens’ to help tame cattle could appear undomesti- them adapt to their new companions cated, especially as wildness gained in and surroundings. And as the valence of glamour. Thus changes in the animals’ the wild has increased, and its de½nition physical circumstances were complicat- has become more obviously a matter of ed by changes in the way they were per- assertion rather than description, the ceived. In the late eighteenth century, boundaries of domestication have also for example, a few small herds of un- blurred. ruly white cattle, who roamed like deer Not that they were ever especially through the parks of their wealthy own- clear. As twenty-½rst-century wolves ers, were celebrated as aboriginal and belong to a long line of animals whose wild. As the Earl of Tankerville, whose wildness has been compromised, tame- Chillingham herd was the most famous, ness has conversely also existed on a put it, his “wild cattle” were “the an- sliding scale. According to the oed, both cient breed of the island, inclosed long ‘wild’ and ‘tame’ have persisted for a since within the boundary of the park.”8 millennium, remaining constant in form The “ancient breed” was sometimes al- as well as core meaning, while the lan- leged to be the mighty aurochs (the ex- guage around them has mutated beyond tinct wild ancestor of all domestic cattle, easy comprehension, if not beyond rec- which had been eliminated in Britain by ognition by modern Anglophones. But Bronze Age hunters; the last one died this robustness on the level of abstrac- in Poland in the seventeenth century), tion has cloaked imprecision and ambi- which gave these herds an ancestry dis- guity on the level of application or refer- tinct from that of ordinary domestic cat- ence. Although medieval farmers and hunters may have had no trouble distin- 8 C. A. B. Tankerville and L. Hindmarsh, “On guishing livestock animals from game the Wild Cattle of Chillingham Park,” Athenae- or vermin, it would have been dif½cult um 565 (August 25, 1838): 611.

26 Dædalus Spring 2008 tle. To increase or underscore their dis- continuing appeal of wildness, and so Beasts in the jungle (or tinctiveness, the white cattle were never limited the persuasive force of scienti- wherever) milked, and if their meat was required ½c evidence, that a recent president of for such ceremonial occasions as the the Chillingham Wild Cattle Associa- coming-of-age of a human heir, they tion has nevertheless asserted that “al- were hunted and shot, not ignominious- though there is still much that is not ly slaughtered. Through the nineteenth known about the origins of the Chilling- century, their autochthonic nobility con- ham Wild Cattle, one fact that is certain tinued to inspire the effusions of such is that they were never domesticated.”11 distinguished poets and painters as Sir Only a few people possessed the re- Walter Scott and Sir Edward Landseer, sources necessary to express their admi- as well as the expenditure of newly ration for the wild, and their somewhat wealthy landowners eager to bask by paradoxical desire to encompass it with- association in the prestige of wild nobil- in the domestic sphere, on such a grand ity and ancient descent. But even at the scale. But numerous alternative options height of their renown, it was clear that emerged for those with more restricted their claims to wildness included a large acres and purses. An increasing variety measure of wishful thinking. Skeptics of exotic animals stocked private me- persuasively wondered whether, even nageries. The largest of these were on a assuming that the nineteenth-century suf½ciently grand scale to have also in- emparked herds lived in a state of na- cluded a cattle herd, if their owners had ture, that state represented a historical been so inclined–for example, those of constant or a relatively modern restora- George III or the thirteenth Earl of Der- tion.9 Many who investigated the back- by, which accommodated large animals ground of the herds concluded that they like kangaroos, cheetahs, zebras, and an- were feral at best (at wildest, in other telopes. Smaller animals required more words)–that they were the descendants modest quarters, and parrots, monkeys, of domesticated animals, whether orig- canaries, and even the celebrated but ill- inally owned by Roman settlers or by fated wombats owned by the poet Dante later farmers. Modern anatomical and Gabriel Rossetti could be treated as pets. genetic research has con½rmed these Breeders attempted to enhance or invig- doubts, connecting the emparked herds orate their livestock with infusions of with the ordinary domestic cattle of the exotic blood. If they were disinclined or medieval period.10 But so great is the unable to maintain their own wild sire, they could, in the 1820s and 1830s, pay a stud fee to the newly established Zoolog- 9 For an extended discussion of the history of ical Society of London for the services this debate, see Harriet Ritvo, “Race, Breed, and of a zebu or a zebra. In Australia, Russia, Myths of Origin: Chillingham Cattle as Ancient Algeria, and the United States, as well as Britons,” Representations 39 (Summer 1992): 1– 22. in Britain and France, the acclimatiza- tion societies of the late nineteenth cen- 10 For summaries of recent research see Ste- phen J. G. Hall and Juliet Clutton-Brock, Two Hundred Years of British Farm Livestock (London: Hall, “Running Wild,” Ark 16 (1989): 12–15 British Museum (Natural History), 1989); Ste- and 46–49. phen J. G. Hall, “The White Herd of Chilling- ham,” Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 11 Ian Bennet, “Chillingham Cattle,” Ark 18 England 150 (1989): 112–119; and Stephen J. G. (1991): 22.

Dædalus Spring 2008 27 Harriet tury targeted an impressive range of vival. What was at stake was not mere- Ritvo species for transportation and domesti- ly adaptation to a demanding environ- on nature cation, from the predictable (exotic deer ment, since several other British hill and wild sheep) to the more imaginative breeds look very much like the Herd- (yaks, camels, and tapirs).12 So dif½cult wicks and share their physical and emo- (or undesirable) had it become to distin- tional toughness. The Herdwicks’ spe- guish between wild animals and tame cial claim to consideration was their ones that exotic breeds of domestic dogs connection to their native ground, itself were exhibited in Victorian zoos, and a kind of national sacred space. Not on- small wild felines were exhibited in ly were the sheep acknowledged to pos- some early cat shows. sess detailed topographical information The popular appeal of wild animals about the hills they inhabited, but their has continued to increase as they have owners claimed that they transmitted it become more accessible, either in the mystically down the generations, from flesh or in the media. So entangled are ewe to lamb. So well recognized was wildness and domesticity that it is now their attachment to their home territo- necessary to warn visitors to North ries that when a farm was sold, the res- American parks that roadside bears may ident Herdwicks were conventionally bite the hands that feed them, and it is included in the bargain, on the theory now possible for domesticated animals that if they were taken away, they would to represent nature. This extended sym- soon manage to return. And despite bolic reach was demonstrated in 2001, strong historical indications that the when foot-and-mouth disease struck ancestral Herdwicks had arrived in the British livestock. Because the disease vicinity of the Lake District by boat, and spreads rapidly and easily, the govern- the further fact that all British sheep de- ment prescribed a cull not only of all in- scend from wild mouflons originally fected herds and flocks, but of all appar- domesticated in the eastern Mediterra- ently healthy livestock living in their nean region, they were celebrated as vicinity. Although outbreaks were wide- indigenous, “peculiar to that high, ex- spread, the greatest number of cases oc- posed, rocky, mountainous district.”13 curred in the Lake District, the starkly An article in the preeminent Victorian dramatic landscape that had been dis- agricultural journal asserted that the paraged by Daniel Defoe and praised by Herdwicks possessed “more of the char- Thomas De Quincey; it is now the site acters of an original race than any other of England’s largest national park. Vid- in the county” and that they showed “no eo and print coverage of the cull, which marks of kindred with any other race.”14 took the spectacular form of soldiers Twenty-½rst-century journalists report- shooting flocks of sheep and then immo- ing on the threatened toll of foot-and- lating them in enormous pyres, thus fea- mouth disease adopted similar rhetoric. tured some of the nation’s most cher- ished countryside as background. 13 John Bailey and George Culley, General View The ovine victims also had iconic sta- of the Agriculture of Northumberland, Cumberland, tus. Many of them belonged to the local and Westmorland [1805] (Newcastle: Frank Gra- Herdwick breed, and at ½rst the inten- ham, 1972), 245. sive cull seemed to threaten its very sur- 14 William Dickinson, “On the Farming of Cumberland,” Journal of the Royal Agricultural 12 Ritvo, Animal Estate, 232–242. Society of England 13 (1852): 264.

28 Dædalus Spring 2008 As the sheep were nativized, they were of natural history (or botany and zoolo- Beasts in the also naturalized. A reporter for the In- gy) requires that individual kinds be jungle (or wherever) dependent newspaper feared that if the labeled, but for many plants and animals Herdwicks disappeared, the whole ecol- (those that, unlike giraffes, for example, ogy of the region might be changed “be- have very similar relatives) it has often yond recognition.”15 And since the dra- been dif½cult for naturalists to tell where matic bare uplands of the Lake District one kind ends and the next begins. Dar- have been maintained by nibbling flocks win’s theory of evolution by natural for at least a millennium, his concern selection provided a theoretical reason was not completely unreasonable. Thus, for this dif½culty, while his shrewd ob- whether technically indigenous or not, servations that “it is in the best-known and although they are incontestably countries that we ½nd the greatest num- domesticated, the Herdwicks have be- ber of forms of doubtful value” and that come compelling symbols of the appar- “if any animal or plant . . . be highly use- ently untamed landscape they inhabit ful to man . . . varieties of it will almost –more compelling than the numerous universally be found recorded” offered a wild birds and small mammals with more pragmatic explanation.16 The clas- which they share it. Like the landscape si½cation of domesticated animals has itself, they seem wilder than they are; epitomized this problem. That is, none that is, they appear to be independent of them has become suf½ciently differ- and free-ranging, but their lives (and, ent from its wild ancestor to preclude indeed, their very existence) are ulti- the production of fertile offspring (the mately determined by human econom- conventional if perennially problematic ic exigencies. They are both accessible de½nition of the line between species), (that is, there are a lot of them and they and some mate happily with more dis- are everywhere, not only in the ½elds but tant relatives. Nineteenth-century zoo- grazing and napping beside the roads keepers enjoyed experimenting along and even on top of them) and also inac- these lines, and zoogoers admired the cessible (that is, they are skittish and resulting hybrids between horses and tend to retreat when approached). The zebras, domestic cattle and bison, and armed assault on the Herdwick sheep dogs and wolves.17 was therefore perceived as an attack on Despite these persuasive demonstra- both the domesticated countryside and tions of kinship, however, ever since the the unspoiled natural landscape. In both eighteenth-century emergence of mod- the sheep and their environment the ern taxonomy, classi½ers have ordinarily wild and the tame had inextricably allotted each type of domestic animal merged. its own species name. While recogniz- ing the theoretical dif½culties thus pro- If vernacular usage illustrates the in- duced, most modern taxonomists have creasing slippage between wildness and continued to follow conventional prac- tameness in animals, scienti½c classi½- tice. Domestic sheep are still classi½ed cation has made a similar point from the opposite direction. The species concept 16 Darwin, Origin of Species, 50. has a long and vexed history. The study 17 Harriet Ritvo, The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination 15 Ian Herbert, “Foot and Mouth Crisis: Cum- (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, bria,” Independent, March 27, 2001, 5. 1997), 92–95.

Dædalus Spring 2008 29 Harriet as Ovis aries while the mouflon is Ovis ori- gered human resistance, and local chal- Ritvo entalis, and dogs are Canis familiaris while lenges to their endangered status inev- on nature the wolf is Canis lupus. The archaeozool- itably follow even moderate success. If ogist Juliet Clutton-Brock explains this domestic dogs were returned to their practice as ef½cient (it would be unnec- ancestral taxon, wolves would become essarily confusing to alter widely accept- one of the most common animals in the ed nomenclature) as well as scienti½cally lower forty-eight states, rather than one grounded, at least to some extent (most of the rarest. Their survival as wild ani- domestic animal populations are repro- mals depends on the dog’s continuing ductively isolated from wild ones by hu- de½nition as domesticated–an indica- man strictures, if not by biological tion of the extent to which unsettled ones).18 But it also constitutes a simulta- landscapes and their inhabitants are the neous acknowledgment of the arti½ciali- product of human ideas about what is ty of the distinction between wild ani- natural and what to do about it. mals and domesticated ones, and of its importance and power. Vernacular un- derstandings can trump those based on anatomy and physiology. The implications of making or not making such distinctions extend beyond the intellectual realm. They construct the physical world as well as describing it. Although the howls of the wolf may retain their primordial menace, the wolves who make them have long van- ished from most of their vast original range, and are threatened in much of their remaining territory. To persist or to return, they need human protection, not only physical but legal and taxonomic. With the advent of dna analysis in re- cent decades, the taxonomic stakes have risen, so that even animals that look and act wild may be found genetically un- worthy. For example, efforts to preserve the red wolf, which originally ranged across the southeastern states, have been complicated by suggestions that it is not a separate species, but a hybrid of the gray wolf and the coyote. No such asper- sions have been cast upon the pedigree of the gray wolf, but nevertheless every attempted gray wolf restoration has trig-

18 Juliet Clutton-Brock, A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals (London: British Mu- seum (Natural History), 1987), 194–197.

30 Dædalus Spring 2008 Camille Parmesan

Where the wild things were

Georges Fabre was a forester in late- now loose soil became mudslides pour- nineteenth-century France. In the re- ing down into the valleys and towns be- gion known as the Cévennes, villages low. Once bountiful fresh springs and were doing well: the silk and chestnut clear streams became silted and un- industries were booming, and shep- drinkable. herds banded together to make the year- “On the 4th of October, 1861,” wrote ly ‘transhumance,’ bringing thousands Fabre in his diary, “clouds from the of sheep up to the rich pastures of Mont southeast, which had amassed for three Aigoual in springtime. Life was good– days on the high summits of the Aigoual, too good. burst suddenly and poured into the val- Clearing of the land for pasture and ley such quantities of water and stones crops had been going on for at least ½ve that all the roads were cut off and the thousand years, but population booms lands silted up . . . . On [the] 28th of Oc- in the late 1700s greatly overtaxed the tober 1868, the disaster reoccurred . . . land. Clearing and cutting trees for pas- local people were astonished. Flood wa- tureland and ½rewood had denuded the ter from the Herault [river] had never old forested lands. Whole mountain- before been so sudden nor so strong; it sides were barren. By 1856, the normal reached second stories.” heavy rains of this region caused abnor- In 1875, the French National Forestry mal floodwaters. When rains came, the Commission gave Fabre a monumental task: to repair the environmental prob- Camille Parmesan is associate professor in the lems in the Cévennes. Over the next Section of Integrative Biology at the University thirty years, Fabre, with the help of bot- of Texas at Austin. Her work on butterfly range anist Charles Flahaut, restored some shifts has been highlighted in many scienti½c and 3,500 hectares, reaching 11,800 hectares popular press reports, such as in “Science,” “Sci- by the time the Parc de Cévennes was ence News,” “The New York Times,” “The Lon- created. To recover a working water- don Times,” National Public Radio, and the re- shed, these two unintentional environ- cent bbc ½lm series “State of the Planet” with mentalists argued the need to restore the David Attenborough. land as it was before the clear-cutting. This was not an easy task: they had to © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts win over angry locals, who feared the & Sciences loss of pastureland for their sheep. They

Dædalus Spring 2008 31 Camille poured over diaries and interviewed the giant dragonflies join the dance in the Parmesan elderly–the ones who had been there air. It appears to be as it always has been. on nature Before. They ½gured out which hillsides The Society for Ecological Restoration had been beech woods; which live oak, was founded in 1988–recognition that cherry, and chestnut; which swathed in many areas had been degraded to the ex- pines and ½rs. Flahaut started an arbo- tent that preservation alone would not retum–to experiment with trees from be enough, that time and energy needed around the world–½nding which spe- to be put into recreating the landscape cies would do well in this harsh environ- and the native biodiversity to restore ment, with its poor soils. the system back to health. Fabre and Fla- haut’s restoration of Cévennes biodiver- Fabre and Flahaut were ahead of their sity might be the ½rst large-scale, suc- time. They designed a new forest that cessful ecological restoration project. included exotic Scots and Black Austri- Even now, most restoration projects are an pines, but they also made an effort miniature compared to the scale of the to nurture the few remaining stands of ‘Aigoual Epic’ some 130 years ago. Scale, native beech forest, as well as the na- however, is not what is most notable tive sweet chestnut and cherry groves. about his project. The mark of these two This was not conservation in its strict- men was in realizing that man and na- est sense, but these actions were also far ture are not separate. Fabre was a vision- from the response of many modern for- ary for recognizing the dependence of esters to similar circumstances: planting humans on what we now call a ‘stable, acres of a single species of nonnative but functioning ecosystem.’ fast-growing pine, which culminates in a In practice, much of modern society, ‘forest’ that is devoid of flowers, insects, even now, clings to the misconception and birds. Such a sea of green is in reality that human culture is separate from na- a biologically sterile wasteland. ture. This fallacy is an overriding theme It wasn’t until one hundred years later in many cultures, but it is perhaps most that the Cévennes area became a park, obvious in the urban cultures of indus- of½cially guiding and limiting activities. trial nations, where water is well known When one walks through the Parc de to come from a tap. Even within the con- Cévennes now, it appears as wild and servation community, this view often untouched as can be. On the hike to the unconsciously pervades conservation Cascade D’Orgon, one can see Cirque planning. The catholic nature of this at- eagles lazily gliding on a spring thermal, titude makes for strange bedfellows. seeming to be just enjoying the sheer Consider a staunch capitalist viewing fun of it after a long cold winter. Pea- nature as something to harness and tame cock and tortoiseshell butterflies bask to serve Man, alongside an environmen- on the rocks. The beech woods are a talist viewing nature as a treasure to be fantasy land–all silver gnarled trunks preserved for its own sake. Underlying rising from deep copper floors. Later, both views is the tacit assumption of na- toward summer, one can spot Cleopatra ture as something separate from humans and speckled wood butterflies flitting –interacting in either positive or nega- from heather to basket-flower to mint to tive ways, but acting as separate entities. thyme. Only the wild roses are ignored, full of scent but no sweet nectar. Local How does the human as an animal ½t black honeybees and bumblebees and into this paradigm? Homo sapiens ½rst

32 Dædalus Spring 2008 appeared about 1.5 to 1.8 million years wise, it is clear that human beings have Where the ago. Many groups hold dear to the idea managed and shaped natural ecosystems wild things were that our emergence was somehow spe- since the dawn of time. The invention of cial–that we are fundamentally differ- a hunting tool ef½cient enough to take ent from every other species on Earth. down big game appears to have allowed Perhaps it is easy to believe this now, human tribes to hunt to extinction many given that no other species appears to in- of Earth’s large mammals, at least as far habit our niche. We are able to mold our back as twelve thousand years ago. This local environments to ½t our needs on a vision–that humans and nature are not scale that dwarfs what any other species two domains but one–has been more currently around us is able to do. How- recently joined by environmental econo- ever, at our inception, perhaps we did mists, driven by Herman Daly, Richard not appear so special. There were sever- Norgaard, and others. al other primate species that walked on One planet. One system with ½nite two legs; made and used tools for hunt- resources. Sustainability of human soci- ing; gathered fruits, nuts, and vegetables ety relies on the sustainability of nature. from the land; and lived in social, family This has formally been accepted in theo- clusters. From the perspective of our use ry, if not in practice, by 189 nations who of resources and interactions with our have signed and rati½ed the Convention environment, we weren’t special by any on Biological Diversity (cbd).1 The goal means. We were simply the ones that now clear, the question becomes how to survived. There is even some evidence achieve it. In nations that have had high that we hastened the extinction of our human impact for thousands of years– main competitors: the occasional skel- much of Asia, Africa, and Europe–it is eton of Neanderthal Man sporting an clear that preservation, through creation injury to the head that appears to have of parks systems and hunting bans, will been inflicted by a heavy weapon. We not successfully maintain biodiversity. are animals; and as animals, we are just Perhaps paradoxically, active manage- as dependent upon, and connected to, ment of natural ecosystems shaped by nature as any other wild animal on this prolonged human contact must go along planet. with the restoration and preservation of This recognition underlies a new vi- wilderness. An extremely clear example sion that has swept through the conser- of this can be found in Europe. vation community–that there is, in fact, From Great Britain to Sweden to no dichotomy of worlds. This idea was Switzerland to France, the highest di- not new in society–the pantheistic versity of flowering herbs, birds, and movement so beautifully encapsulated butterflies is found in traditionally man- by the works of Thoreau, Wordsworth, aged meadows. The natural state over and others had at its core the oneness of much of Europe is forests. Small mead- Man, God, and Nature. What conserva- ows must have occurred naturally be- tion science did was to specify and quan- fore man, perhaps because conditions tify the ways in which the very existence were slightly too wet or the soil too thin of human culture and society relies on for trees. But, generally, forests advanced goods and services supplied by nature. as glaciers retreated some twelve thou- The evidence that man depends on and is affected by the health of natural 1 Convention on Biological Diversity, United ecosystems is incontrovertible. Like- Nations Environmental Program, www.cbd.int.

Dædalus Spring 2008 33 Camille sand years ago. Man soon followed, and fundamentally altering the natural sys- Parmesan immediately began clearing small patch- tem being preserved. on nature es of woodland to create pastureland for Taking management actions to main- their domestic animals and farmland for tain biodiversity were great leaps for the crops. Over thousands of years, the na- conservation community. These actions tive flowers, birds, and butterflies colo- signaled acceptance that pure preserva- nized and flourished in these man-made tion–putting a fence up around a patch meadows. Native species are now so de- of land–was no longer enough. Instead, pendent upon these man-made mead- the community recognized that conser- ows that if the land were not managed, vation of biodiversity often meant man- and reverted to its natural, forested state, aging the land through controlled burns, then these species would go locally ex- weeding out invasive species, and bring- tinct. ing grazers and browsers in to eat off ex- Stability of these exceptionally di- cess plant material resulting from nitro- verse systems depends on human man- gen enrichment. Sometimes it has meant agement. To preserve these habitats, restoring the land completely from the the historical means of keeping this land bottom up, as Fabre did. The community from reverting to forest must be main- rallied. New cohorts have been trained tained. Meadows must be either grazed in this mindset. Long-term conservation for a brief period or cut for hay once or planning has laid out guidelines for dy- twice during the year. Strict ‘preserva- namic management and restoration of tion’–putting up a fence and keeping old and upcoming preserves. The com- man out–results in natural reforesta- munity has become invigorated with a tion: woody shrubs and trees taking over ‘can-do’ proactive attitude. within a few years. Similar active management is becom- Then came climate change. ing more commonplace in the ‘wild’ Climate change presents an unprece- areas of North America, necessitated by dented challenge. It cannot just be add- spillover from human activity degrading ed to the long list of degrading pressures these areas. Many systems are adapted with which managers must deal. Cli- to a particular regime of ½res–they need mate change truly is fundamentally dif- ½res of the right temperature at the right ferent: different impacts, different ac- time of year at a particular frequency. tions needed to mitigate future impacts, Fire suppression can kill off native ½re- and different suites of adaptation to help dependent species and create shrubby current reserves continue to preserve undergrowth in place of open forest. biodiversity. Few of the conservation Nitrogen pollution from industry and community’s existing tools, techniques, automobile emissions lead to streams technologies, and strategies are effective clogged with green algae and can com- against a globally changing climate. pletely alter which species dominate the What is it about climate change that landscape. Exotic plants and animals makes it so insurmountable? First is its transported across the world can destroy global nature. We’re seeing impacts of the land outright or outcompete natives current warming on every continent and and take over. To keep natural systems in every ocean. We’re seeing its effects in intact, various forms of ongoing man- every type of plant and animal that has agement usually must intervene to keep been studied–from butterflies in Fin- these human-caused degradations from land to ½sh in the North Sea, from foxes

34 Dædalus Spring 2008 in Canada to trees in Sweden, from birds by the very species for which they were Where the wild things in Antarctica to star½sh in Monterey founded. In another hundred years, a na- were Bay, California.2 Second, climate change tion’s carefully planned reserve system is conducting the most massive reloca- won’t work as intended. There is no ac- tion of species since the last ice age. For- cepted active management scheme that ty percent of wild species are showing will keep the integrity of biodiversity changes in their distributions–shifting within a preserve intact in the face of cli- their ranges north and south toward the mate change. poles and up mountains. An astonishing Even worse, it is the ‘wildest’ land- 62 percent are showing changes in their scapes that are being hit hardest by cli- seasonal timing: spring is earlier and fall mate change. Though Earth is domi- is later. Birds arriving for their spring nated by humans, there are still a few migration, butterflies emerging from places that even the most cynical ecol0- wintering, trees lea½ng out after winter gist considers relatively untouched. A dormancy, and flowers blooming for the few pcbs and traces of ddt notwith- ½rst time are all about two weeks earlier standing, the harsh landscapes of the than they were thirty years ago across boreal tundra, the bizarre life that the northern hemisphere. Globally, we thrives on ice-covered polar seas, the have estimated that recent, human-driv- craggy peaks of the Grand Tetons, Mt. en climate change has affected half of all Whitney, and Mt. McKinley: these are wild plants and animals in some form or places that still evoke a sense of time another.3 before man–places we still think of as Each species has a range of climates ‘wild.’ These areas–the few remaining within which it can survive and repro- nearly pristine areas–are being strong- duce. Temperatures and rainfall/snow- ly affected by anthropogenic climate fall that fall outside the ‘climate enve- change. Warming has been strongest at lope’ for that species mark geographic the poles–up to 4°C increase in annual areas in which that species cannot live. mean temperature (compared to a 0.7°C As Earth warms, the climate envelopes global increase). As sea ice gets thinner for many species are shifting their loca- and shrinks in area, so too shrink animal tions. About 40 percent of wild plants populations for which ice is their home: and animals are relocating accordingly, from the polar bear and the ringed seal attempting to track their climate enve- in the Arctic, to the Adelié and Emperor lopes across land and sea. Species unable penguins in the Antarctic. These animals to move are becoming endangered, as are retreating toward the poles, and are the climate around them is no longer rapidly reaching the end of the Earth as suitable for them. The obvious result of they know it. this process is that many preserves will The other havens for cold-adapted no longer contain the climates required species–on mountaintops around the world–are also showing signs of warm- 2 C. Parmesan, “Observed Ecological and Evo- ing stress. The Cévennes is again among lutionary Impacts of Contemporary Climate the ½rst in the world–this time the ½rst Change,” Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systemat- to show clear signs of mountain species ics 37 (2006): 637–669. being pushed up and off the mountains. 3 C. Parmesan and G. Yohe, “A Globally Co- The elegant glide of the Apollo butter- herent Fingerprint of Climate Change Impacts fly–its alabaster wings only occasional- in Natural Systems,” Nature 421 (2003): 37–42. ly revealing bright dots of red–can no

Dædalus Spring 2008 35 Camille longer be seen on plateaus that reach ing threat is the increasing acidity of Parmesan on only to 850 meters; these populations the oceans, caused directly by increased nature have all perished with warming winters. atmospheric carbon dioxide. The pH To catch a glimpse of this French treas- of tropical waters has already dropped ure one must be on a mountain of more from 8.2 to 8.1, as carbon dioxide is ab- than 900 meters–where proper winters sorbed and converted to carbonic acid. still exist. As pH continues to drop, the ability of Deep in the cloud forests of Central animals to construct hard shells will de- America, it has become harder to ½nd cline dramatically. Some coral biologists their local treasures–brightly speckled fear that ‘business as usual’ projections amphibians that truly are jewels of the could lead to tropical corals being unable clouds. Many of these frog species have to build and maintain reefs as early as served as poster children for the preser- 2050.6 vation of tropical cloud forests. Ironi- We’re entering an age of vanishing cally, now that many sites have success- wilderness, when the wild places were. fully been protected, global warming To have any hope of preserving our bio- has crept in from behind and staked its diversity in the face of climate change, claim. The golden toad of Monteverde we need, like Fabre and Flahaut, to be Preserve in Costa Rica has the dubious futurists, pragmatic but farsighted. It is honor of being the ½rst species believed time for radical notions. to have been driven extinct by global One such notion is to transplant spe- warming.4 Among a group of species cies that otherwise have no hope. While called ‘harlequin’ frogs for their clown- several conservation scientists have like colors, seventy-four species have broached this idea in publications and gone extinct in the past thirty years– meetings, it clearly is anathema to many all in areas that still appear to be excel- applied conservation biologists–for lent cloud forest habitat. Their loss is whom the thought of intentionally in- still a mystery, but the fact that most ex- troducing an exotic species into an area tinctions were within one narrow eleva- in which it never lived goes against their tional band suggests the influence of a most fundamental ethics. Huge amounts changing climate.5 of time and money are being spent on At the other end of spectrum, systems keeping exotics out of preserves, for in- that we associate with hot beaches, bath- vasive exotics are one of the prime caus- warm waters, and cold drinks–species es of endangerment of many native spe- that we might think would be hot-adapt- cies. ed–are also suffering. Sixteen percent Should we, then, consider moving the of tropical coral reefs worldwide were polar bear to Antarctica, which currently killed off by heat during the single ex- is losing sea-ice habitat at a slower rate treme El Niño of 1997 and 1998. A com- than is the Arctic? With little thought, the clear answer is no. Antarctica already 4 J. A. Pounds, M. P. L. Fogden, and J. H. has its own fauna–with loads of tasty Campbell, “Biological Response to Climate bear treats all dressed up in their best Change on a Tropical Mountain,” Nature 398 tuxedos. Penguins have never evolved (1999): 611–615.

5 J. A. Pounds et al., “Widespread Amphibian 6 O. Hoegh-Guldberg et al., “Coral Reefs Un- Extinctions from Epidemic Disease Driven by der Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidi½- Global Warming,” Nature 439 (2006): 161–167. cation,” Science 318 (5857) (2007): 1737–1742.

36 Dædalus Spring 2008 defenses against large terrestrial preda- zone, shrubs and trees create a dark sur- Where the wild things tors, for none have existed. Introducing face above the snow in winter. Whereas were polar bears would mean a high risk of tundra creates a landscape of unbroken extinction for several penguin species. snow, reflecting the sun’s energy, and The known cost is far greater than the hence cooling the climate, dark trees ab- unknown good. sorb the sun’s energy, locally warming But consider as well the case of the the climate. Do we use this knowledge American pika, which is less clear-cut. to modify climate locally? Do we cre- Paleological records show that it lived ate novel vegetation structure–the ulti- in the lowlands during the last ice age. mate in species’ invasion–for the sake As the ice retreated, the once continu- of small, local climate modi½cation? ously distributed pika gradually shifted These are not scienti½c questions; upward–an easy move. Now, it survives they are ethical ones. Science can pro- in isolated mountaintop ‘islands’ on var- ject which species will be most at risk of ious mountain ranges throughout the extinction, but it cannot help with how western United States. Populations be- that information should be used. Once low about seven thousand feet are rapid- we accept the premise that there are no ly going extinct, with past physiological more wild places, it becomes easier to studies suggesting thermal stress is the emulate Fabre and Flahaut. cause.7 Do we watch this species grad- Every system is disturbed or managed ually go extinct on all but the highest by mankind: it is only the degree that mountains? Or do we move the Ameri- varies. Many species will go extinct be- can pika to more northerly mountains, cause of climate change. It is up to man- where it doesn’t now exist? Is this an kind to decide whether to let that pro- acceptable suggestion if the new habitat cess play out, or to intervene. If action doesn’t have any other pika species, but is the chosen course, then when and unacceptable if such obvious competi- how, and for whom? tors exist? What about the case of no The most obvious action available other pika species, but other small mam- would actually alleviate many of the im- mals that could potentially use similar pending ethical dilemmas–to reduce niches? Where do we draw the line? greenhouse-gas emissions drastically and prevent the worst-case scenario Just as climate shapes vegetation, so from becoming reality. The global cli- can vegetation shape climate. A clear- mate system has a long memory. Global cut can be up to 2°F hotter and 30 per- temperature will continue to rise, for cent dryer than the adjacent forest inte- the carbon dioxide now in the atmos- rior. Thus forestation or reforestation phere will continue to affect earth’s cli- will tend to make the local climate cool- mate and continue to cause rising seas er and wetter–that is, if it’s in the tem- for a few hundred years. The choice is perate or tropical zones. In the boreal not whether to stop climate change, but whether to cut emissions drastically now 7 A. T. Smith, “The Distribution and Disper- so that we warm ‘only’ another 2°C by sal of Pikas: Influences of Behavior and Cli- 2100, or whether to continue with busi- mate,” Ecology 55 (1974): 1368–1376; E. A. Bee- ver, P. F. Brussard, and J. Berger, “Patterns of ness as usual and allow Earth to reach Apparent Extirpation among Isolated Popula- a climate it hasn’t seen in a few million tions of Pikas (Ochotona princeps) in the Great years–some four to six degrees warmer Basin,” J. Mammal 84 (2003): 37–54. than it is now.

Dædalus Spring 2008 37 Camille Mitigation (preventing damaging cli- grappling. Even if one accepts the ex- Parmesan mate change from happening in the ½rst tinction of one bird, the answer isn’t on nature place) is easier, cheaper, and ultimately obvious. One may argue to preserve the more successful than adaptation (coping habitat because it will allow one more with change after it comes). But this phi- generation to experience this particular losophy seems neither to have pervaded bird, which may have a particularly me- the minds of individuals nor the hearts lodious song. There is also the hope that of most governments. Having participat- a given preserve will continue to be good ed in ten years of meetings, reports, and habitat for other native species–perhaps policy sessions (all with similar recom- those less beautiful but also less vulner- mendations), followed by pathetically able to climate change, and perhaps slow changes in governmental policy for new species that will enter as they and even less real reduction in emis- themselves are forced from their former sions, I’m pessimistic that drastic emis- homes. Preservation and restoration sion reductions will come in time. cannot be a bad thing, even if we may not be able to divine how the return on Thus we return to the ethical dilemmas investment will play out over the cen- that continued climate change will im- turies. pose. If we act decisively and globally Perhaps that is the message–to con- and make major reductions in green- tinue to aid nature in ways we know house-gas emissions, then our ethical how, in hopes that Nature will eventual- choices may be relatively painless. In- ly recover. Species will disappear from action will create choices on a grander our parks. Species will go extinct. The scale, involving more areas and more unknowns are the extent, the when, and species. We are coming up against such the where–not the fundamental pro- choices now–conservation groups are cess. The greatest challenge facing con- hesitating to buy habitats on barrier is- servationists will be in letting go of con- lands that are currently in good shape, servation in the narrow sense, and set- but that are likely to be undersea in a ting conservation goals that more fun- hundred years. Such decisions have to damentally preserve the essence of what be made now, not in the future. As glo- we mean by ‘biodiversity.’ This will bal warming increases, the choices will mean that dif½cult decisions will have become harder. Which species will we to be made, such as who to save and who be willing to sacri½ce because of overrid- to let go, when to ½ght and when to give ing costs, potential loss of other species, up. There may be no true wilderness unknown ecosystem consequences, or left–but let us hope that a new genera- simply because the money in hand could tion of conservation futurists will pre- be spent on projects with more certain serve a world where wild things still live. conservation returns? Do we save the charismatic polar bear while ignoring the unglamorous Houston toad? How do we think about the future? Do we preserve and restore habitat for a particular bird species that all projec- tions say cannot live there one hundred years from now? This is the reality with which the conservation community is

38 Dædalus Spring 2008 Gordon H. Orians

Nature & human nature

People working in quite different ½elds Throughout human history, people with different methodologies and research have pondered their relationship to the agendas nevertheless often shared a veiled living and nonliving components of the antipathy, trying to keep their distance environments in which they have lived: from the implications of two ideas: Our Where did we and all the other living minds are just what our brains non-mirac- organisms around us come from? How ulously do, and the talents of our brains long have we been here? In what ways had to evolve like every other marvel of are we different from other species? nature. Their effort to keep this vision at How should we relate to them? Do we bay was bogging down their thinking, have any responsibilities to them? If so, lending spurious allure to dubious brands what are they? of absolutism and encouraging them to Human cultures have generated a rich see small, bridgeable gaps as yawning variety of answers to these and similar chasms. questions. Most of these answers reflect the intimate contacts people had with –Daniel Dennett, preface to Freedom nature because nature, both benign and Evolves1 terrifying, influenced the consequences of most of their activities. Moreover, our Gordon H. Orians, a Fellow of the American ancestors could not have failed to notice Academy since 1991, is Professor Emeritus of Bi- the many striking similarities between ology at the University of Washington. His re- themselves and some of the other spe- search has focused on behavioral ecology, partic- cies that shared habitats with them. For ularly such topics as mate selection, habitat se- people lacking knowledge of both the lection, foraging theory, and the cues animals age of the Earth and the processes by use to make their decisions. He is the author of which life evolved, such similarities “Some Adaptations of Marsh-Nesting Black- must have seemed puzzling. birds” (1980) and “Red-Winged Blackbirds: De- The dominant view throughout West- cision-Making and Reproductive Success” (with ern intellectual history has been to posit L. D. Beletsky, 1996). Currently, he is writing a an unbridgeable gap between humans book on environmental aesthetics (with Judith Heerwagen). 1 Daniel Dennett, Freedom Evolves (London: Penguin Books, 2003). I thank Leda Cosmides © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts and Judith Heerwagen for helpful comments & Sciences on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Dædalus Spring 2008 39 Gordon H. and other animals. This belief has often dren show no trace of the arrogance Orians been combined with the position that which urges adult civilized men to draw on nature other species were created specially with a hard-and-fast line between their own human needs in mind: nature and that of all other animals. Children have no scruples over allowing It was with human needs in mind that the animals to rank as their full equals. Un- animals had been carefully designed and inhibited as they are in the avowal of distributed. Camels, observed a preacher their bodily needs, they no doubt feel in 1696, had been sensibly allotted to Ara- themselves more akin to animals than to bia, where there was no water, and savage their elders, who may well be a puzzle to beasts “sent to deserts, where they may do them.”3 less harm.” It was a sign of God’s provi- The fact that human bodily functions dence that ½erce animals were less proli½c are shared with animals is, not surpris- than domestic ones and that they lived in ingly, one of the many challenges to dens by day, usually coming out only at the belief in an unbridgeable gap be- night, when men were in bed. Moreover, tween humans and other animals. One whereas other members of wild species response has been to propose that other all looked alike, cows, horses, and other fundamental differences trump the obvi- domestic animals had been conveniently ous metabolic similarities. One interest- variegated in color and shape, in order ing ‘solution’ was to suggest that physi- “that mankind may the more readily dis- cal modesty about bodily functions dis- tinguish and claim their respective prop- tinguished humans from beasts. A pas- erty.” The physician George Cheyne in sage in the diary of New England clergy- 1705 explained that the Creator made the man Cotton Mather, written in 1700, il- horse’s excrement smell sweet, because he lustrates this perspective: knew that men would often be in its vicin- ity.2 I was once emptying the cistern of nature, and making water at the wall. At the same In striking contrast, the sharp division time there came a dog, who did so too, be- between humans and other animals that fore me. Thought I; “What mean and vile has dominated Western thought is alien things are the children of men . . . . How to Eastern philosophy. In some of those much do our natural necessities debase us, traditions a reincarnated human soul and place us . . . on the same level with the can take many shapes and forms. A hu- very dogs.” man can become a ½sh; a ½sh can be- My thought proceeded. “Yet I will be a come a God. Thus, all living things are more noble creature; and at the very time spiritually connected. Lacking a religion when my natural necessities debase me that grants souls only to one species, into the condition of the beast, my spirit Eastern philosophers readily accepted shall (I say at that very time!) rise and the notion that our species is historically soar” . . . . linked to others. Accordingly, I resolved that it should Even in the West, most children do not be my ordinary practice, whenever I step share the view that a great gap exists be- to answer one or the other necessity of tween humans and other animals. “Chil- nature to make it an opportunity of shap-

2 K. Thomas, Man and the Natural World: A His- tory of the Modern Sensibility (New York: Pan- 3 Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo (London: theon Books, 1983), 19. Hogarth Press).

40 Dædalus Spring 2008 ing in my mind some holy, noble, divine Among the ‘casualties’ caused by more Nature thought . . . . recent scienti½c advances are the claims & human nature that possessing a culture, language, mu- In the nineteenth century, one of the sic, self-awareness, and an ethical sense great arguments against vaccination was are uniquely human traits. Despite the that inoculation with fluid from cows discovery that these traits are shared would result in the ‘animalization’ of with at least some other species, new human beings. Why eating other spe- ways continued to be found to defend cies, a nearly universal practice among the gap. Among nonscientists, belief in those who opposed vaccination, did the gap is now based primarily on the not have the same effect was never ex- presumed existence of a component, plained! Bestiality became a capital of- such as a soul, that is implanted in hu- fense in Britain in 1534 and, with one mans, but in no other species, at some brief interval, remained so until 1861. point after conception by some super- Incest, by contrast, was not a secular natural process. Differences among reli- crime at all until the twentieth century. gions concerning when a soul is believed Though these and other beliefs about to be implanted in a human body ½gure the gap between humans and other spe- prominently in current debates over the cies may seem quaint to us now, some of ethics of abortion. today’s defenses of the gap will probably Natural and social scientists who still seem equally quaint to our descendants. believe in an unbridgeable gap between people and other animals, but who are cienti½c advances have repeatedly S reluctant to invoke some supernatural challenged the notion of a gap. New in- process, generally base their belief on a formation about the functioning of the claim that the evolution of human con- physical world, most notably that the sciousness, combined with our remark- Earth was not the center of the universe, able ability to learn, has emancipated us raised some concerns, but they were rel- from the control of our genome. If so, atively quickly accommodated by reli- it follows that there is no such thing as gious leaders and their followers. In 1859, ‘human nature.’ Instead, a human being Charles Darwin presented by far the is born with a mind that is a blank slate. most serious challenge. He offered a hy- As expressed by José Ortega y Gasset, pothesis that explained the processes by “Man has no nature; what he has is his- which life evolved over long time spans, tory.” This view dominated Western demonstrating that the appearance of psychology, sociology, and anthropology design did not require the operation of a during much of the twentieth century. designer. Even more importantly, he also Today, however, given the amazing suggested that humans had evolved to- recent advances in cognitive neurology, gether with other forms of life via those few scientists ascribe to such an extreme same processes, thereby effectively re- view. What has replaced it in the minds moving us from the pedestal most peo- of most (but not all) scientists,5 if not ple thought we occupied. The repercus- sions of this dangerous idea still rever- 4 berate powerfully today. 5 For alternative views, see R. C. Lewontin, S. Rose, and L. J. Kamin, Not in Our Genes: Bi- ology, Ideology, and Human Nature (New York: 4 Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea Pantheon Books, 1984); S. J. Gould, “Biological (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955). Potential vs. Biological Determinism,” in S. J.

Dædalus Spring 2008 41 Gordon H. among the general public, is the belief the structure and functioning of organ- Orians that, although behavior may be the prod- isms. Genes that govern development on nature uct of complex interactions between were not discovered until 1985 because heredity and environment during an in- geneticists had concentrated their atten- dividual’s maturation, for humans devel- tion on the transmission of inherited opmental influences overwhelmingly characteristics from adult organisms to overpower residual genetic influences. their offspring. Studying almost exclu- Humans are, accordingly, free to devise sively the part of dna (only about 1.5 remarkably diverse kinds of cultures and percent of human dna) that codes for to establish rich arrays of behavioral proteins, they ignored the regulatory norms. Thus, humans differ fundamen- component (about 3 percent of human tally from other animals in that environ- dna) that governs development. mental influences so soundly trump ge- Differences in the adult forms of dif- netic influences on the development of ferent animal species result from differ- human behavior that genes can safely ences in where and when regulatory be ignored. Some scientists have even genes are turned on and off. The factors argued that the human genome is too that govern the formation and pattern- small to encode much more than a blank ing of the bodies and body parts of mul- slate. ticellular organisms are referred to as the Most scientists have discarded blank- molecular tool kit, in the sense that a few slate models. A major reason is that such tools in a carpenter’s tool kit can be used models are unable to account for most to build many things. The number of de- of the diverse array of problems that hu- velopmental genes in the tool kit of the mans and other animals routinely solve. human genome turns out to be suf½cient All efforts to account for the rates at to generate a complex neural network which children accomplish the extraor- capable of yielding such surprising phe- dinarily complex task of language learn- nomena as the deep structure shared by ing, for example, employing only a blank all human languages.6 slate, have failed. Although belief that a child is born Another reason for abandoning blank- with a ‘blank-slate brain’ is no longer slate models is that geneticists have scienti½cally justi½ed, a rich research shown that genes in all organisms are agenda remains to explore the nature organized into two functional elements and extent of genetic and environmen- –transcription factors and promoters. tal influences on components of human Promoters are the sequences of dna behavior. Great variability exists. In con- that determine whether the adjacent sidering differences among people, some coding regions will be expressed. Pro- traits, such as the ability to learn a lan- moters, and the various transcription guage early in life, are entirely genetical- factors that act on them, are largely re- ly determined–almost everyone with- sponsible for the cascade of events dur- out brain damage has this ability, and ing early development that determine when they do not, it is usually because of a rare mutation. Other traits that differ among people, such as which language a Gould, ed., Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History (New York: Norton, 1977); P. R. Ehrlich, Human Natures: Genes, Cultures 6 S. B. Carroll, Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The and the Human Prospect (Washington, D.C.: New Science of EvoDevo (New York: W. W. Nor- Island Press, 2000). ton, 2005).

42 Dædalus Spring 2008 person speaks, are completely environ- Empty the haunted air, and gnomes Nature mentally determined. mine– & human nature The distinction is not only of intellec- Unweave a rainbow. tual interest. Social policy is often based As he expressed in this poem, “Lami- on assumptions about the degree of ge- na,” part of which I just quoted, John netic versus environmental influence on Keats thought that Isaac Newton had human behavior. For example, until re- destroyed the beauty and mystery of cently, psychiatrists blamed mothers for the rainbow by explaining how it was the behavioral dif½culties of their autis- formed. Keats was not alone, then or tic or schizophrenic children by accus- now. Even today, many people for the ing them of failing to engage emotional- same reason resist having nature, and ly with them. Today we know that au- especially human nature, explained. tism and schizophrenia are highly heri- The physicist Richard Feynman re- table. The likely environmental influ- sponded in this way to a friend who as- ences on the expression of those traits serted that scientists miss the beauty of include toxins, pathogens, and develop- a flower by studying it: mental accidents. Mothering contrib- utes almost nothing to the probability The beauty that is there for you is also that a child develops either disorder. there for me, too. But I see a deeper beau- Many mothers suffered unnecessarily, ty that isn’t so readily available to others. believing that they had caused their chil- I can see the complicated structure of dren’s disorders. the flower. The color of the flower is red. Does the fact that the plant has color Fortunately, the persistence of the be- mean that it evolved to attract insects? lief in the West that an unbridgeable gap This adds a further question. Can insects exists between humans and other ani- see color? Do they have an aesthetic mals has not suppressed people’s desire sense? And so on. I don’t see how study- to understand the workings of nature. ing a flower ever detracts from its beauty. Indeed, understanding the functioning It only adds. of nature has been regarded as a high Feynman postulated the wrong pollina- calling, an endeavor by which the mind tor for red flowers (he should have in- and methods of the creator might be voked birds), but his point is correct. better appreciated. As any adult who enjoys the pleasure of Nevertheless, some people have resis- food or sex should know, understanding ted efforts to understand natural pro- the biological function of an activity in cesses better, fearing that knowledge no way diminishes the emotions that would rob nature of its wonder. typically accompany it. Indeed, steps to Do not all charms fly subvert the intended biological conse- At the mere touch of cold philosophy? quences of the behavior may even en- There was an awful rainbow once in hance those emotions. heaven: Nevertheless, resistance to having our We know her woof, her texture, she is emotions explained, and the belief that given explaining them will destroy their beau- In the dull catalogue of common things. ty and our sense of wonder, is still so Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings, strong that Richard Dawkins was mo- Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, tivated to write a book, Unweaving the

Dædalus Spring 2008 43 Gordon H. Rainbow, which deals extensively with The survival value of emotions should Orians on this issue. not surprise us. Emotions are the major nature motivators of human behavior. Our ac- Why human nature has evolved, in tions are strongly influenced by what part, as a result of the interactions of we like or dislike, what we ½nd pleasur- our ancestors with nature is obvious. able or unpleasant. Until recently, it was Our ancestors lived in environments commonly assumed that ‘irrational’ devoid of modern conveniences. Their emotional responses prevented us from survival, health, and reproductive suc- making appropriate responses to prob- cess depended on their ability to seek lems we were trying to solve. However, and use environmental information emotions are fundamental to ‘rational’ wisely. They had to know how to inter- action. As Aristotle said, “Thought by pret signals from animate and inanimate itself moves nothing.” Modern cogni- environments and how to adjust their tive psychologists and neuroscientists behavioral responses to them. They con½rm that emotions, rather than be- needed to understand and evaluate re- ing the antithesis of rationality, greatly lationships between habitats and re- aid thinking and decision making. Peo- sources. ple can reason and deliberate as much These responses may well develop as they want, but if no emotions are at- ontogenetically via learning, but not tached to the various options in front via inef½cient, unstructured blank-slate of them, they never reach a decision or learning mechanisms. Ef½ciencies are conviction. Moral choices do not, indeed achieved if an organism selectively re- cannot, come about through cool Kant- tains certain information while ignoring ian rationality. or paying less attention to other types Thus, evolutionary processes have de- of environmental information. It should signed the human mind (and the minds therefore be no surprise that human of all other species that have them) to learning about the natural environment assist in making decisions that enhance is caused by content-rich, domain-spe- survival and reproductive success. An- cialized mechanisms that evolved for tonio Damasio put it succinctly: “The speci½c functions, just as they do in oth- brain is for making decisions about how er animals. to enhance reproductive success.”7 The Evolutionary biologists expect emo- psychological mechanisms that support tional responses to evolve in response decision making are adaptations that to conditions that strongly influence natural selection has molded over evolu- survival and reproductive success, that tionary time. is, ½tness. Those of our ancestors who An adaptation is an evolved response did not enjoy food and sex, for example, to a past environmental problem that were more poorly represented genetical- persistently confronted individuals for ly in future generations than those who long enough periods of evolutionary did enjoy–and hence sought out–food time to have caused signi½cant cumula- and sexual partners. Similarly, individu- tive directional selection. To study an als who selected inferior environments adaptation, scientists do not need to in which to live should have been less represented genetically in future genera- 7 Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Hap- tions than individuals who made better pens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Con- habitat choices. sciousness (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999), 35.

44 Dædalus Spring 2008 identify those precursors. They need to For example, an observer may ask of Nature identify only the design of the adapta- an environment: How easy would it be & human nature tion and the forces of selection respon- to enter it, explore it, and ½nd my way sible for that design. It is useful to un- back if necessary? How valuable would derstand the origin of an adaptation, the acquired knowledge be? In other but questions about origins and subse- words, when we look at trees in a land- quent history often deal with different scape, we think of them not just as ob- historical causes. We can study the func- jects with recognizable characteristics tion of an adaptation without knowing by which they can be named and clas- about or understanding the details of its si½ed, but rather as objects suggesting origin. opportunities for doing things, such as Adaptations tend to be possessed by picking fruit, seeing further, hiding bet- all or nearly all members of a species, al- ter, or climbing to safety.9 We see rivers though some of them are restricted to not simply as morphological compo- one sex or are expressed only at certain nents of the landscape, but rather in ages. Moreover, environments that fail terms of their ability to provide water, to support normal development can sup- “a basic necessity for the maintenance press their expression. Adaptations are of life, or . . . as channels along which we special purpose, not general purpose, in can move if we have the means to do so, functional design because the environ- or as obstacles to impede our passage if mental problems to which adaptations we have not.”10 are responses are speci½c problems, not “Our senses are not transparent win- general problems. A general-purpose dows onto the world. Instead, our senses mechanism is unlikely to be an ef½cient are adaptations that select, distill, aug- way to solve speci½c problems. ment, and (sometimes) deceive. We The preferences that motivate re- tend to accept our sensations as truth- sponses to environments are evolution- ful reflections of reality. But in fact, our ary outcomes of complex processes that senses evolved not to decipher the truth, include perceiving things and spaces, but to enhance our chances of survival. selectively extracting information from We perceive ‘ugliness’ even though there them, and reacting to them in terms of their potential value. Discerning ‘value’ involves asking what an environment 9 For investigations of human responses to offers. J. J. Gibson, in 1979, introduced tree shapes and other components of the envi- 8 ronment, see R. G. Coss, “The Role of Evolved the concept of affordance. Affordance Perceptual Biases in Art and Design,” in Evolu- refers to what an object or environment tionary Aesthetics, ed. E. Voland and K. Gammer offers to an individual viewer at a par- (New York: Springer, 2003), 69–130; G. H. ticular time. The perceiver assesses what Orians and J. H. Herwagen, “Evolved Responses could be done with that object or in that to Landscapes,” in The Adapted Mind: Evolution- ary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, ed. environment, and evaluates the conse- J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby (New quences of doing those things. The ob- York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 555–579. server asks of an object not only, ‘What is it?’ but also, ‘What’s in it for me?’ 10 J. Appleton, The Symbolism of Habitat: An Interpretation of Landscape in the Arts (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990), 25; R. G. Coss and M. Moore, “All That Glistens: 8 J. J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Water Connotations in Surface Finishes,” Eco- Perception (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979). logical Psychology 2 (1990): 367–380.

Dædalus Spring 2008 45 Gordon H. is nothing in the world that is objectively mental information concerns the loca- Orians ugly.”11 tion of things in space. Where were prey on nature What an environment affords is not animals yesterday? Where did I cache static. Affordances vary with season and the food I could not carry back to camp? weather, and the age and current needs Where are the trees that bear nutritious of individuals. A farmer whose crops fruit? Where are the safe hiding places are suffering from lack of rain values an that I may need to use in an emergency? approaching storm differently than a However, an environment consists of family preparing to enjoy a picnic in the more than its physical and biological woods does. We cannot simply measure components that provide resources and the features of an environment and com- the conditions under which we seek pute its affordance. them. Friends, enemies, potential repro- An evolutionary result of making and ductive partners, and dependent off- acting upon such evaluations is that in- spring are all important components of dividuals should be able to recognize the the environment, too. Indeed, the great kinds of environments in which they importance of other members of our function well and to prefer them. That own species is reflected in the composi- is, high-quality environments should tion of modern universities: humans are evoke positive emotions, whereas low- the subject matter of the majority of de- quality environments should fail to do partments, including the largest ones. so. People should prefer to be in the en- vironments in which they thrive because The processes by which life has evolved they would bene½t from not wasting have no foresight. Therefore, all adap- time in unsatisfactory environments. In- tations are to past environments. They dividuals unable to distinguish between tell us about the past, not the present good and poor environments would or the future. A corollary is that adapta- have spent much time in poor environ- tions need not be appropriate under cur- ments. They should have left fewer sur- rent conditions. Indeed, some of them viving offspring than individuals who may be maladaptive if conditions have were better able to assess environmental rapidly changed, as they recently have quality. for humans. Thus we should expect to Decisions are based on a combination ½nd some ‘ghosts of environments past’ of information currently impinging on in the human psyche. The biological an individual, the accumulated memory world, like the mental world of Ebene- related to the signi½cance of informa- zer Scrooge, is replete with ghosts. There tion that impinged on the individual in are ghosts of habitats, predators, para- the past (ontogenetic memory), and in- sites, competitors, mutualists, and con- formation stored in the organism’s ge- speci½cs past, as well as ghosts of mete- nome (genetic memory). The brain se- ors, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and lectively stores information that has droughts past.12 Some ghosts are the proven to be relevant to the welfare of products of ancient events; others derive the individual in which it resides. Much from recent events. But how long are relevant ontogenetically stored environ- 12 A. Öhman and S. Mineka, “Fear, Phobias 11 David Huron, Sweet Anticipation: Music and and Preparedness: Toward an Evolved Module the Psychology of Expectation (Cambridge, Mass.: of Fear and Fear Learning,” Psychological Review mit Press, 2006). 108 (2001): 483–522.

46 Dædalus Spring 2008 adaptations to past environments likely nature have important implications for Nature to persist? Why do they persist? Which the design of work places, living spaces, & human nature of our response patterns were formerly, and health-care facilities. but no longer are, adaptive? A major People have clearly intuitively under- challenge in the study of the evolution of stood the restorative value of interac- human behavior is identifying, charac- tions with nature for a long time. The terizing, and interpreting ghosts–and gardens of ancient Egypt, the walled gar- determining their longevity. dens of Mesopotamia, and the gardens One reason we should expect behav- of merchants in medieval Chinese cities ioral ‘ghosts’ in the human psyche is the indicate that, for centuries, people have relatively small number of generations gone to considerable lengths to maintain that lie between us and our ancestral and enhance their contacts with nature. hunters and gatherers. Only about ten More recently, the belief that exposure thousand years have elapsed since the to nature fosters psychological and phys- ½rst appearance of agriculture in the ical health has formed part of the justi½- fossil record. Only during the past ½ve cation for providing parks and other na- thousand years have more than half of ture in cities and for preserving wilder- the human population engaged in agri- ness. culture. In the absence of strong selec- In addition to visual stimulation, the tion against a trait, its persistence under sounds of nature and the sounds we pro- today’s radically altered conditions is at duce ourselves have the power to affect least plausible. us strongly.13 Beethoven is reported to As Ebenezer Scrooge discovered, have said, “I leave my music to heal the ghosts, no matter how inconvenient world.” Philip V of Spain was cured, so they may seem to be, can yield positive it is claimed, of his melancholia by the bene½ts. If emotional responses evolved singing of a brilliant castrato, Farinelli, because they enabled people to solve who sang the same four arias to him life’s problems better, exposure to high- every night for ten years. The “Chalice quality environments should be restora- of Repose” project in Missoula, Mon- tive; that is, it should reduce feelings of tana, offers live music, usually including tension and stress. Stress reduction con- harpists and singers, to persons in the sistently emerges as one of the key ben- last stages of terminal illness. Skeptical e½ts reported by users of wilderness doctors have been convinced of the val- areas. Patients recovering from surgery, ue of the music by observing that pa- in hospitals with either views of natural tients on very high levels of painkillers vegetation or simulated views that de- requested either lower levels of or no pict natural scenes with water, recover pain killers after a visit by the Chalice more rapidly and have less postopera- team. In the 1920s, muzak introduced tive anxiety than do patients with no music into elevators in skyscrapers to access to natural views or who are pre- help calm passengers. Many clinics em- sented with simulations of abstract de- ploy music therapy to calm patients and signs. Many studies have shown that reduce the need for general anesthetics. even a brief exposure to nature–real or Music therapy has been widely used in via photographs–leads to positive emo- many societies since antiquity. In fact, tional feelings, reductions in stress, and better performance on demanding tasks. The positive responses people have to 13 Huron, Sweet Anticipation.

Dædalus Spring 2008 47 Gordon H. Americans spend more money on music States will depend to a large degree on Orians than on sex or prescription drugs! our willingness to exploit options that on nature fall under ‘reconciliation ecology.’ Rec- Human responses to nature are biased onciliation ecology is the science of in- in certain directions by our evolution- venting, establishing, and maintaining ary history, by the ways that people lived new habitats to conserve species diver- and the problems they had to solve. Who sity in places where people live, work, we are today has been molded by our and play.14 Reconciliation ecology is an intimate interactions with the physical applied science that assists us in design- and biological components of the natu- ing habitats so that we can share them ral world, including that component with other species. As the ancient Chi- formed by our fellow humans. There- nese sage said: “The careful foot can fore, the increasing isolation of people walk anywhere.” Nature needs us to from nature poses serious problems walk carefully. So does human nature. for our attempts to live sustainably on Earth. It is easy for people not to miss what they never had and never saw. Consider the passenger pigeon. Two hundred years ago there were billions of them. It is estimated that one out of every two land birds in North America was a pas- senger pigeon. John James Audubon wit- nessed a flock that took three days to fly past him near Cincinnati in 1813. He de- scribed it as follows: “The light of the noonday was obscured as by an eclipse.” Today there are none. But how many Americans are aware of what we lost, and how many of us feel that our lives have been diminished by the loss? Similarly, a few hundred years ago sea turtles were so abundant that ships sometimes sank when they struck vast shoals of them. The turtles may have consumed more plants in the Caribbe- an than the herds of bison did on the plains. Today all marine turtle species are rare, but few of us miss them or are even aware of the remarkable phenome- non that has been lost. We are unlikely to care about our en- vironments and other species and be motivated to preserve them unless we 14 M. L. Rosenzweig, Win-Win Ecology: How the live and interact with them and directly Earth’s Species Can Survive in the Midst of Human experience how they enrich our lives. Enterprise (New York: Oxford University Press, Conservation success in the United 2003).

48 Dædalus Spring 2008 Cass R. Sunstein

Precautions & nature

All over the world, there is increasing that it is incoherent; it purports to give interest in a simple idea for regulation guidance, but it fails to do so, because of risk: In cases of doubt, follow the Pre- it condemns the very steps that it re- cautionary Principle.1 Avoid steps that quires. The regulation that the principle will create a risk of harm. Until safety requires always gives rise to risks of its is established, be cautious; do not re- own–and hence the principle bans what quire unambiguous evidence. In a catch- it simultaneously mandates. I therefore phrase: better safe than sorry. aim to challenge the Precautionary Prin- In ordinary life, pleas of this kind seem ciple not because it leads in bad direc- quite sensible, indeed a part of ordinary tions, but because read for all that it is human rationality. It can be hazardous worth, it leads in no direction at all. The to interfere with natural processes, and principle threatens to be paralyzing, for- we often refuse to alter the status quo bidding regulation, inaction, and every because of a salutary fear of adverse side step in between. It provides help only effects. Shouldn’t the same approach be if we blind ourselves to many aspects followed by rational regulators as well? of risk-related situations and focus on a My central claim here is conceptual. narrow subset of what is at stake. Protec- The real problem with the Precaution- tion of nature often makes sense, but the ary Principle in its strongest forms is 1 The literature is vast. See, for general discus- Cass R. Sunstein, a Fellow of the American Acad- sion, Poul Harremoes et al., eds., The Precau- emy since 1992, is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of tionary Principle in the 20th Century: Late Lessons Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago. He is from Early Warnings (London: Earthscan, 2002); Arie Trouwborst, Evolution and Status of the Pre- the author of numerous publications, including cautionary Principle in International Law (Lon- “The Second Bill of Rights: fdr’s Un½nished don: Kluwer Law International, 2002); Tim Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever” O’Riordan and James Cameron, eds., Interpret- (2004), “Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precaution- ing the Precautionary Principle (London: Camer- ary Principle” (2005), “Infotopia: How Many on May, 2002); Joel Tickner, ed., Precaution, Environmental Science and Preventive Public Policy Minds Produce Knowledge” (2006), and “Worst (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002); Car- Case Scenarios” (2007). olyn Raffensberger and Joel Tickner, eds., Pro- tecting Public Health and the Environment: Imple- © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts menting the Precautionary Principle (Washington, & Sciences D.C.: Island Press, 1999).

Dædalus Spring 2008 49 Cass R. Precautionary Principle is not a helpful ti½c certainty should not be used as a Sunstein way of identifying when, and how much, reason for postponing [regulatory] on nature protection of nature makes sense. measures, taking into account that poli- cies and measures to deal with climate For those interested in precautions, the change should be cost-effective so as to initial question is this: what exactly does ensure global bene½ts at the lowest pos- the principle mean or require? There are sible cost.” at least twenty de½nitions, and they are The widely publicized Wingspread not compatible with one another. We Declaration, from a meeting of environ- can imagine a continuum of understand- mentalists in 1998, goes further: “When ings. At one extreme are weak versions an activity raises threats of harm to hu- to which no reasonable person could ob- man health or the environment, precau- ject. At the other extreme are strong ver- tionary measures should be taken even sions that would require a fundamental if some cause and effect relationships are rethinking of regulatory policy. not established scienti½cally. In this con- The most cautious and weak versions text the proponent of the activity, rather suggest, quite sensibly, that a lack of de- than the public, should bear the burden cisive evidence of harm should not be of proof.” The ½rst sentence just quoted a ground for refusing to protect natural is a mildly more aggressive version of processes. Controls might be justi½ed the statement from the Rio Declaration. even if we cannot establish a de½nite It is more aggressive because it is not connection between, for example, low- limited to threats of serious or irrever- level exposures to humanly introduced sible damage. But in reversing the bur- carcinogens and adverse effects on hu- den of proof, the second sentence goes man health. Thus the 1992 Rio Declara- further still. Of course everything de- tion states, “Where there are threats of pends on what those with the burden serious or irreversible damage, lack of of proof must show in particular. full scienti½c certainty shall not be used In Europe, the Precautionary Principle as a reason for postponing cost-effec- is sometimes understood in a still stron- tive measures to prevent environmental ger way, as asking for a signi½cant mar- degradation.” gin of safety for all decisions. Accord- The Ministerial Declaration of the ing to one de½nition, the Precaution- Second International Conference on the ary Principle means “that action should Protection of the North Sea, held in Lon- be taken to correct a problem as soon don in 1987, is in the same vein: “Accept- as there is evidence that harm may oc- ing that in order to protect the North Sea cur, not after the harm has already oc- from possibly damaging effects of the curred.”2 The word “may” is the crucial most dangerous substances, a Precau- one; almost all of the time, there will tionary Principle is necessary which may be “evidence that harm may occur,” if require action to control inputs of such “may” is not understood to require some substances even before a causal link has threshold of probability. In a compara- been established by absolutely clear sci- bly strong version, the Final Declara- enti½c evidence.” Similarly, the United tion of the First European “Seas At Risk” Nations Framework Convention on Cli- conference says that if “the ‘worst case mate Change offers cautious language: “Where there are threats of serious or 2 http://www.logophilia.com/WordSpy/pre- irreversible damage, lack of full scien- cautionaryprinciple.asp.

50 Dædalus Spring 2008 scenario’ for a certain activity is serious hopelessly vague. How much precaution Precautions enough, then even a small amount of is the right amount of precaution? By & nature doubt as to the safety of that activity is itself, the principle does not tell us. It is suf½cient to stop it taking place.”3 also tempting to object that the principle The weak versions of the Precaution- is, but should not be, cost-blind. Some ary Principle state a truism–uncontro- precautions simply aren’t worthwhile, versial in principle and necessary in because they cost so much and help so practice only to combat public confu- little. But the most serious problem lies sion or the self-interested claims of pri- elsewhere. The real problem is that the vate groups demanding unambiguous principle offers no guidance–not that it evidence of harm (which no rational is wrong, but that it forbids all courses of society requires). Because the weakest action, including regulation. It bans the versions are unobjectionable, even ba- very steps that it requires. nal, I will not discuss them here. To To understand the objection, it will be make analytic progress, let us under- useful to anchor the discussion in some stand the principle in the strong way to concrete problems: suggest that regulation is required when- • Genetic modi½cation of food has be- ever there is a potential risk to health, come a widespread practice.4 The safety, or nature, even if the supporting risks of that practice are not known evidence remains speculative and even with precision. Some people fear that if the economic costs of regulation are genetic modi½cation will result in high. To avoid palpable absurdity, the serious ecological harm and large risks idea of ‘potential risk’ will be under- to human health; others believe that stood to require a certain threshold of genetic modi½cation will result in scienti½c plausibility. To support regu- more nutritious food and signi½cant lation, no one thinks that it is enough if improvements in human health. someone, somewhere, urges that a risk is worth taking seriously. But under the • Many people fear nuclear power, on Precautionary Principle as I shall under- the ground that nuclear power plants stand it, the threshold burden is mini- create various health and safety risks, mal, and once it is met, there is some- including some possibility of catastro- thing like a presumption in favor of reg- phe. But if a nation does not rely on ulatory controls. nuclear power, it might well rely in- I believe that this understanding of stead on fossil fuels, and in particular the Precautionary Principle ½ts with on coal-½red power plants. Such plants the understandings of some of its most create risks of their own, including enthusiastic proponents, and that with risks associated with global warming. relatively modest variations, this under- China, for example, has relied on nu- standing ½ts with many of the legal for- clear energy, in a way that reduces mulations as well. greenhouse gases and a range of air- pollution problems.5 It is tempting to object that the Precau- tionary Principle, thus understood, is 4 Alan McHughen, Pandora’s Picnic Basket (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

3 Final Declaration of the First European “Seas 5 See Ling Zhong, “Note: Nuclear Energy: At Risk” Conference, Annex 1, Copenhagen, China’s Approach Towards Addressing Global 1994. Warming,” Georgetown International Environ-

Dædalus Spring 2008 51 Cass R. • There is a possible conflict between stringent regulation really compelled by Sunstein the protection of marine mammals the Precautionary Principle? on nature and military exercises. The United The answer is that it is not. In some States Navy, for example, engages in of these cases, it should be easy to see many such exercises, and it is possible that in its own way, stringent regulation that marine mammals will be threat- would actually run afoul of the Precau- ened as a result. Military activities in tionary Principle. The simplest reason the oceans might well cause signi½cant is that such regulation might well de- harm; but a decision to suspend those prive society of signi½cant bene½ts, and activities, in cases involving potential hence produce a large number of deaths harm, might also endanger military that would otherwise not occur. In some preparedness, or so the government cases, regulation eliminates the ‘oppor- contends.6 tunity bene½ts’ of a process or activity, In these cases, what kind of guidance and thus causes preventable deaths. If does the Precautionary Principle pro- this is so, regulation is hardly precau- vide? It is tempting to say, as is in fact tionary. Consider the case of genetic standard, that the principle calls for modi½cation of food. Many people ob- strong controls. In all of these cases, ject to genetic modi½cation, with the there is a possibility of serious harms, thought that ‘tampering with nature’ and no authoritative scienti½c evidence can produce a range of adverse conse- demonstrates that the possibility is close quences for the environment and for to zero. Put to one side the question of human health. But many other people whether the Precautionary Principle, believe that a failure to allow genetic understood to compel stringent regula- modi½cation might well result in num- tion in these cases, is sensible. Let us ask erous deaths, and a small probability of a more fundamental question: is more many more. The reason is that genetic modi½cation holds out the promise of producing food that is both cheaper and healthier–resulting, for example, in mental Law Review 12 (2000): 493. Of course, it is possible to urge that nations should reduce ‘golden rice,’ which might have large reliance on either coal-½red power plants or bene½ts in developing countries. The nuclear power, and move instead toward so- point is not that genetic modi½cation lar power. For general discussion, see Godfrey will de½nitely have those bene½ts, or Boyle, ed., Renewable Energy: Power for a Sus- that the bene½ts of genetic modi½cation tainable Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press in association with the Open University, outweigh the risks. The claim is only 1996); Allan Collinson, Renewable Energy (Aus- that if the Precautionary Principle is tin, Tex.: Steck-Vaughn Library, 1991); Dan taken literally, it is offended by regula- E. Arvizu, “Advanced Energy Technology and tion as well as by nonregulation. Climate Change Policy Implications,” Florida Regulation sometimes violates the Coastal Law Journal 2 (2001): 435. But these al- Precautionary Principle because it would ternatives pose problems of their own, involv- ing feasibility and expense. give rise to substitute risks, in the form of hazards that materialize, or are in- 6 See Testimony of Vice Admiral Charles W. creased, as a result of regulation.7 Con- Moore, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Readiness and Logistics, before the House Re- sources Committee, Subcommittee on Fish- 7 See the discussion of risk-related trade-offs eries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, June in John Graham and Jonathan Wiener, Risk vs. 13, 2002. Risk (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

52 Dædalus Spring 2008 sider the case of ddt, often banned or We should now be able to see the Precautions regulated in the interest of reducing sense in which the Precautionary Prin- & nature risks to birds and human beings. The ciple, taken for all that it is worth, is par- problem with such bans is that in poor alyzing: it stands as an obstacle to regu- nations, they eliminate what appears to lation and nonregulation, and to every- be the most effective way of combating thing in between. malaria–and thus signi½cantly under- mine public health. In practice, the Precautionary Principle Or consider the ‘drug lag,’ produced is widely thought to provide concrete whenever the government takes a highly guidance. How can this be? I suggest precautionary approach to the introduc- that the principle becomes operational tion of new medicines and drugs into if and only if those who apply it wear the market. If a government insists on blinders–only, that is, if they focus on such an approach, it will protect people some aspects of the regulatory situation against harms from inadequately tested but downplay or disregard others. What drugs; but it will also prevent people accounts for the particular blinders that from receiving potential bene½ts from underlie applications of the Precaution- those very drugs. Is it ‘precautionary’ to ary Principle? When people’s attention require extensive premarketing testing, is selective, why is it selective in the way or to do the opposite? In the context of that it is? Much of the answer lies in a medicines to prevent aids, those who series of identi½able mechanisms. Let favor ‘precautions’ have asked govern- us begin with a popular idea about the ments to reduce premarketing testing, sanctity of nature. precisely in the interest of health. The Sometimes the Precautionary Princi- United States, by the way, is more pre- ple operates by incorporating the belief cautionary about new medicines than that nature is essentially benign and that are most European nations–but by fail- human intervention is likely to carry ing to allow such medicines on the mar- risks–as in the suggestion that the Pre- ket, the United States fails to take pre- cautionary Principle calls for stringent cautions against the illnesses that could regulation of pesticides or genetically be reduced by speedier procedures. modi½ed organisms. Many people fear More generally, a sensible government that any human intervention will create might want to ignore the small risks losses from the status quo and add that associated with low levels of radiation, these losses should carry great weight, on the ground that precautionary re- whereas the gains should be regarded sponses are likely to cause fear that out- with some suspicion or at least be taken weighs any health bene½ts from those as less weighty. For example, “[h]uman responses.8 intervention seems to be an ampli½er in judgments on food riskiness and con- tamination,” even though “more lives Press, 1995); Cass R. Sunstein, “Health-Health are lost to natural than to man-made dis- Tradeoffs,” in Cass R. Sunstein, Risk and Rea- son (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 133–152. Telephones and Brain Tumours,” International 8 Ibid. For some counterevidence in an im- Journal of Oncology 22 (2003): 399 (discussing portant context, see Lennart Hardell et al., evidence of an association between cellular “Further Aspects on Cellular and Cordless telephones and cancer).

Dædalus Spring 2008 53 Cass R. asters in the world.”9 Studies show that “not true.”13 A scienti½c revolution has Sunstein on people overestimate the carcinogenic shown that nature “is characterized by nature risk from pesticides and underestimate change, not constancy,” and that “natur- the risks of natural carcinogens. People al ecological systems are dynamic,” with also believe that nature implies safety, so desirable changes including many “in- much that they will prefer natural water duced through human action.”14 In any to processed water even if the two are case, nature is often a realm of destruc- chemically identical.10 tion, illness, killing, and death. Hence A belief in the benevolence of nature the claim cannot be that human activity plays a major role in the operation of is necessarily or systematically more de- the Precautionary Principle, especially structive than what nature does. Nor is among those who see nature as harmo- it clear that natural products are com- nious or in balance. In fact, many of paratively safe.15 Organic foods, favored those who endorse the principle seem by many people on grounds of safety and to be especially concerned about new health and creating annual revenues of technologies. Most people believe that $4.5 billion in the United States alone, natural chemicals are safer than man- are, according to one account, “actually made chemicals.11 (Most toxicologists riskier to consume than food grown with disagree.) On this view, the principle synthetic chemicals.”16 If the Precau- calls for caution when people are inter- tionary Principle is seen to raise doubts vening in the natural world. Here of about pesticides, but not about organic course we can ½nd some sense: nature foods, it is probably because the health often consists of systems, and interven- risks that come with departures from tions into systems can cause serious ‘nature’ register as especially trouble- problems. But there is a large problem some. with this understanding of the Precau- Some of the most serious risks we tionary Principle. What is natural may face are a product of nature. Nothing is not be safe at all.12 more natural than exposure to sunlight, Consider in this light the familiar idea which people rarely fear. But such expo- that there is a ‘balance of nature.’ Ac- sure is associated with skin cancer and cording to one account, this idea is other harms, producing serious health problems that (unfortunately) have not been the occasion for invoking the Pre- cautionary Principle. Tobacco smoking 9 Paul Rozin and Carol Nemeroff, “Sympa- kills 400,000 Americans each year, even thetic Magical Thinking: The Contagion and Similarity ‘Heuristics,’” in Heuristics and Bi- though tobacco is a product of nature. ases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment, ed. To say all this is not to resolve speci½c Thomas Gilovich, Dale Grif½n, and Daniel issues, which depend on complex ques- Kahneman (Cambridge: Cambridge Universi- ty Press, 2002). 13 See Daniel B. Botkin, “Adjusting Law to 10 Ibid. Nature’s Discordant Harmonies,” Duke Envi- ronmental Law & Policy Forum 7 (1996): 25, 27. 11 See Paul Slovic, The Perception of Risk (Lon- don: Earthscan Publications, 2000), 291. 14 Ibid., 33.

12 See James P. Collman, Naturally Dangerous 15 See Collman, Naturally Dangerous. (Sausalito, Calif.: University Science Books, 2001). 16 Ibid., 31.

54 Dædalus Spring 2008 tions of value and fact. But the false be- tirely visible. In fact this is a form of sta- Precautions lief in the benevolence of nature helps to tus-quo bias. The status quo marks the & nature explain why the Precautionary Principle baseline against which gains and losses is thought, quite incorrectly, to provide are measured, and a loss from the status a great deal of analytical help. quo seems much worse than a gain from the status quo seems good. People tend to be loss-averse, which If loss aversion is at work, we would means that a loss from the status quo is predict that the Precautionary Principle seen as more undesirable than a gain is would place a spotlight on the losses in- seen as desirable.17 When we anticipate troduced by some risk and downplay the a loss of what we now have, we can be- bene½ts foregone as a result of controls come genuinely afraid, in a way that on that risk. Recall the emphasis, in the greatly exceeds our feelings of pleasure United States, on the risks of insuf½cient when we anticipate some supplement testing of medicines as compared with to what we now have. So far, perhaps, the risks of delaying the availability of so good. The problem comes when in- those medicines. If the ‘opportunity dividual and social decisions downplay bene½ts’ are offscreen, the Precaution- potential gains from the status quo, and ary Principle will appear to give guid- ½xate on potential losses, in such a way ance notwithstanding the objections I as to produce overall increases in risks have made. At the same time, the neg- and overall decreases in well-being. lected opportunity bene½ts sometimes In the context of risk regulation, there present a devastating problem with the is a clear implication: people will be use of the Precautionary Principle. In the closely attuned to the losses produced context of genetic engineering of food, by any newly introduced risk, or by any this is very much the situation. We can aggravation of existing risks, but far ½nd the same problem when the Precau- less concerned with the bene½ts that are tionary Principle is invoked to support foregone as a result of regulation. Loss bans on nonreproductive cloning. For aversion often helps to explain what many people, the possible harms of makes the Precautionary Principle op- cloning register more strongly than the erational. The opportunity costs of reg- potential therapeutic bene½ts that would ulation often register little or not at all, be rendered unattainable by a ban on the whereas the out-of-pocket costs of the practice. activity or substance in question are en- Loss aversion is closely associated with another cognitive ½nding: people are far more willing to tolerate familiar 17 See Richard H. Thaler, “The Psychology of risks than unfamiliar ones, even if they Choice and The Assumptions of Economics,” are statistically equivalent.18 For exam- in Quasi-rational Economics (New York: Russell ple, the risks associated with driving Sage Foundation, 1991), 137, 143 (arguing that “losses loom larger than gains”); Daniel Kahne- do not occasion a great deal of concern, man, Jack L. Knetsch, and Richard H. Thaler, even though in the United States alone, “Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect tens of thousands of people die from and the Coase Theorem,” Journal of Political motor vehicle accidents each year. The Economy 98 (6) (1990): 1325, 1328; Colin Camer- relevant risks are simply seen as part of er, “Individual Decision Making,” in The Hand- book of Experimental Economics, ed. John H. Ka- life. By contrast, many people are quite gel and Alvin E. Roth (Princeton, N.J.: Prince- ton University Press, 1995), 587, 665–670. 18 See Slovic, The Perception of Risk, 140–143.

Dædalus Spring 2008 55 Cass R. concerned about risks that appear new- Furthermore, “a class whose instances Sunstein er, such as the risks associated with ge- are easily retrieved will appear more nu- on nature netically modi½ed foods, recently intro- merous than a class of equal frequency duced chemicals, and terrorism. Part of whose instances are less retrievable.”21 the reason for the difference may be a Consider a simple study showing peo- belief that with new risks, we are in the ple a list of well-known people of both domain of uncertainty (meaning that sexes, and asking them whether the list we cannot assign probabilities to bad contains more names of women or more outcomes) rather than risk (where prob- names of men. In lists in which the men abilities can be assigned), and perhaps it were especially famous, people thought makes sense to be cautious when we are that there were more names of men, not able to measure probabilities. But whereas in lists in which the women the individual and social propensity to were more famous, people thought that focus on new risks outruns that sensible there were more names of women.22 propensity. It makes the Precautionary This is a point about how familiarity Principle operational by emphasizing, can affect the availability of instances. A for no good reason, a mere subset of the risk that is familiar, like that associated hazards actually involved. with smoking, will be seen as more seri- ous than a risk that is less familiar, like It is well-established that in thinking that associated with sunbathing. But sa- about risks, people rely on certain heu- lience is important as well. “For example, ristics, or rules of thumb, which serve the impact of seeing a house burning to simplify their inquiry.19 Should we on the subjective probability of such ac- be fearful of nuclear power, terrorism, cidents is probably greater than the im- abduction of young children, or pesti- pact of reading about a ½re in the local cides? The availability heuristic is par- paper.”23 So too, recent events will have ticularly important for purposes of un- a greater impact than earlier ones. The derstanding people’s fear and their inter- point helps explain much risk-related est in precautions.20 When people use behavior, including decisions to take the availability heuristic, they assess the precautions. Whether people will buy magnitude of risks by asking whether insurance for natural disasters is great- examples can readily come to mind. If ly affected by recent experiences.24 If people can easily think of such exam- floods have not occurred in the immedi- ples, they are far more likely to be fright- ate past, people who live on flood plains ened than if they cannot. In fact, the be- are far less likely to purchase insurance. lief in the benevolence of nature often In the aftermath of an earthquake, insur- stems from the availability heuristic, as ance for earthquakes rises sharply–but people recall cases in which ‘tampering’ it declines steadily from that point, as resulted in serious social harm. vivid memories recede. Note that the use of the availability heuristic, in these con- 19 See Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic, and Amos Tversky, Judgment Under Uncertainty: 21 Ibid., 11. Heuristics and Biases (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). 22 Ibid.

20 See Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, 23 Ibid. “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases,” in ibid., 3, 11–14. 24 Slovic, The Perception of Risk, 40.

56 Dædalus Spring 2008 texts, is hardly irrational. Both insurance replaced with a principle of ‘resilience,’ Precautions and precautionary measures can be ex- based on an understanding that nature, & nature pensive, and what has happened before and society, are quite able to incorporate seems, much of the time, to be the best even strong shocks, and that the ulti- available guide to what will happen mate dangers are therefore smaller than again. The problem is that the availabili- we are likely to fear. It would follow ty heuristic can lead to serious errors, in from Wildavsky’s ‘resilience’ principle terms of both excessive fear and neglect. that people should be less concerned The availability heuristic helps to ex- than they now are with the risks associ- plain the operation of the Precautionary ated with (for example) arsenic, global Principle for a simple reason: sometimes warming, and the destruction of the a certain risk, said to call for precau- ozone layer. tions, is cognitively available, whereas Unfortunately, the principle of ‘re- other risks, including the risks associat- silience’ is no better than that of ‘pre- ed with regulation itself, are not. For caution.’ Some systems, natural and example, it is easy to see that arsenic is social, are resilient, but many are not. potentially dangerous; arsenic is well Whether an ecosystem, or a society, is known as a poison, forming the ½rst ‘resilient’ cannot be decided in the ab- word of a well-known movie about poi- stract. In any case resilience is a matter soning, Arsenic and Old Lace. By contrast, of degree. Everything depends on the there is a relatively complex mental op- facts. The resilience principle should eration in the judgment that arsenic reg- be understood as a heuristic, one that ulation might lead people to use less safe favors inaction in the face of possibly alternatives. In many cases where the damaging technological change. Like Precautionary Principle seems to offer most heuristics, the resilience principle guidance, the reason is that some of the will work well in many circumstances, relevant risks are available while others but it can also lead to systematic and are barely visible. And when people seek even deadly errors. to protect nature against human inter- A better approach would be to ac- vention, it is often because the dangers knowledge that a wide variety of ad- of intervention are visible and familiar verse effects may come from inaction, while the dangers of nonintervention regulation, and everything between. are not. Such an approach would attempt to consider all of those adverse effects, I have not suggested any particular sub- not simply a subset. When existing stitute for the Precautionary Principle. knowledge does not allow clear assess- But none of the arguments here supports ments of the full range of adverse ef- the views of Aaron Wildavsky, an acute fects, such an approach would develop and influential political scientist with a simplifying devices, helping to show special interest in risk regulation, who the appropriate course of action in the also rejects the Precautionary Princi- face of uncertainty. When societies face ple.25 In Wildavsky’s view, the notion of risks of catastrophe, even risks whose ‘precaution’ should be abandoned and likelihood cannot be calculated, it is appropriate to act, not to stand by and merely to hope. A sensible approach 25 See Aaron Wildavsky, But Is It True? (Cam- bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995), would attempt to counteract, rather 433. than to embody, the various cognitive

Dædalus Spring 2008 57 Cass R. limitations that people face in thinking Sunstein about risks. An effort to produce a fair on nature accounting of the universe of dangers should also help to diminish the danger of interest-group manipulation. To be sure, public alarm, even if ill- informed, is itself a harm, and it is likely to lead to additional harms, perhaps in the form of large-scale ‘ripple effects.’26 A sensible approach to risk will attempt to reduce public fear even if it is base- less. My goal here has been not to deny that point, but to explain the otherwise puzzling appeal of the Precautionary Principle and to isolate the strategies that help make it operational. At the in- dividual level, these strategies are hardly senseless, especially for people who lack much information or who do the best they can by focusing on only one aspect of the situation at hand. But for govern- ments, the Precautionary Principle is not sensible, for the simple reason that once the viewscreen is widened, it becomes clear that the principle provides no guid- ance at all. Rational nations should cer- tainly take precautions. But they should not adopt the Precautionary Principle.

26 See the discussion of the social ampli½ca- tion of risk in Slovic, The Perception of Risk.

58 Dædalus Spring 2008 Philip E. Tetlock & Michael Oppenheimer

The boundaries of the thinkable

Be it conservatism or liberalism, transformation into a capitalist state? Marxism or libertarianism, or our topic Or a good paci½st endorse military inter- at hand–environmentalism–all ‘isms’ vention in Darfur? Or a good environ- come with conceptual boundaries–and mentalist support pollution trading per- litmus tests for which opinions fall in- mits, French-style nuclear-energy pro- side or outside the bounds of reason- grams, or the Copenhagen Consensus’s ableness for that ‘ismatic’ worldview. low-priority ranking of the threat posed Can a good conservative back abortion by global warming? rights or higher marginal tax rates? Or These questions resist precise answers a good liberal condone racial pro½ling? because ‘isms’ don’t obey the norms of Or a good communist support China’s classical logic (notwithstanding the oc- casional efforts of thought police to lay out well-de½ned necessary and suf½cient Philip E. Tetlock holds the Mitchell Endowed conditions for category inclusion and Chair at the Walter A. Haas School of Business exclusion). ‘Isms’ are best viewed as fuz- at the University of California, Berkeley. He is zy sets with porous, shifting boundaries the author of “Expert Political Judgment: How –and as organized around prototypes. Good is It? How Can We Know?” (2005) and This means that although it is easy at coeditor of “Unmaking the West: What-If Sce- any given juncture in history to design narios That Rewrite World History” (with Geof- a prototypic ‘ismatic’ belief system (in- frey Parker and Richard Ned Lebow, 2006). formed observers can rattle off with high interjudge agreement the positions, Michael Oppenheimer is Albert G. Milbank Pro- pro and con, that the prototypical ‘true fessor of Geosciences and International Affairs believer’ should take), it is hard to say at at Princeton University. He is the author of more what point one has added or subtracted than eighty journal articles and coauthor of enough features to or from the prototype “Dead Heat: The Race Against the Greenhouse that it no longer falls in its original cate- Effect” (with Robert H. Boyle, 1990). He is also gory–and the liberal has become a con- a science advisor to Environmental Defense, but servative or vice versa (hence the fre- the views expressed here are his own. quent need for transition categories like ‘neoconservatives’ and ‘neoliberals’). © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts Political psychologists have a long- & Sciences standing interest in how communities

Dædalus Spring 2008 59 Philip E. of cobelievers de½ne the boundaries of sacred status to both moral values, such Tetlock & the thinkable and where they set their as a commitment to be good custodians Michael Op- penheimer thresholds for issuing fatwas, excommu- of the planet for the sake of future gen- on nicating deviants, excluding former par- erations, and scienti½c values, such as a nature ticipants from coalitions, or just shun- commitment to abandoning preconcep- ning someone at a cocktail party. Our tions about what constitutes good cus- starting point is Tetlock’s sacred value todianship in response to dissonant evi- protection model (svpm),1 which takes dence, these organizations inevitably as its starting point an undeniable fact straddle the boundaries of politics, sci- of political life: the tendency of like- ence, and increasingly religion. Strad- minded souls to coalesce into communi- dlers, so de½ned, are especially vulnera- ties of cobelievers dedicated to defend- ble to the most psychologically painful ing and advancing shared values. The type of value conflict–that between svpm posits that cobelievers seek reas- competing sacred values. The canonical surance from each other that their be- dilemmas are those in which either ½- liefs are not mere social conventions delity to scienti½c norms requires ac- but rather are anchored in backstop or knowledging evidence that undercuts sacred values beyond challenge. These a policy stance one prefers on moral values can be as diverse as the causes grounds, or ½delity to moral-political around which human beings cluster: objectives requires ignoring or discount- in pro-life communities, it would be bi- ing evidence that one knows has proba- zarre to challenge the sacred mission tive scienti½c value. Hypothetical exam- of saving the unborn; in libertarian ples of the former dilemma might be: communities, it would be bizarre to ‘I detest the nuclear power industry but challenge the sacred status of property increasingly see it as a key part of the rights; and in scienti½c communities or solution to global warming,’ or ‘I ½nd groups relying on scienti½c expertise, it emissions trading ethically distasteful would be bizarre to challenge the notion but must admit that it seems to work that assertions about nature can be test- quite well.’ Examples of the latter might ed objectively (within a range of uncer- be: ‘If I acknowledge this flaw in these tainty) and deep truths revealed. Those computer models of global climate, crit- foolish enough to ask why sacred values ics will seize on it to stall even more,’ or are so special–what is wrong with stem ‘If I concede that this geoengineering cell research or faking data or redistribu- proposal has merit, it opens the door to tive taxation?–reveal themselves to be a wave of far more dangerous schemes.’ dim-witted or ill-intentioned outsiders These sources of ambivalence compli- who just don’t get it. cate applying the svpm, for it is much Here it is worth pausing to note that easier to predict the behavior of individ- our topic at hand–elite environmental- uals and organizations not torn by clash- ist organizations–already poses a spe- ing sacred values–those with no com- cial challenge to our analytic framework. punctions about suppressing inconven- Insofar as these organizations attach a ient facts or about inventing convenient ones. With these caveats, we push forward. 1 P. E. Tetlock, “Social-Functionalist Frame- Drawing on a long list of social scientists works for Judgment and Choice: The Intuitive Politician, Theologian, and Prosecutor,” Psycho- over the past century, especially Emile logical Review 109 (2002): 451–472. Durkheim, the svpm identi½es two typ-

60 Dædalus Spring 2008 ical methods that moral communities by becoming a superpatriot or a super- The bound- use to defend sacred values: moral out- environmentalist. As with moral out- aries of the thinkable rage and moral cleansing. The model rage, moral cleansing can be triggered also identi½es a powerful class of vari- by merely seriously entertaining taboo ables capable of modulating moralistic trade-offs, even if one ultimately returns responses: real-world constraints. to the ideological fold and ‘does the right The model de½nes moral outrage as thing.’ an aversive arousal state, with cognitive, The svpm accepts that people are of- affective, and behavioral components: ten sincere when they express moral out- harsh trait attributions to norm viola- rage and engage in moral cleansing. But tors, anger and contempt aimed at them, the model also portrays a delicate mental and enthusiastic support for thought po- balancing act. People regularly run into lice charged with enforcing both norms decision problems in which the costs of and the meta-norm of punishing those upholding sacred values become very who fail to punish norm violators. It is steep–arguably prohibitive. If parents worth stressing that the model predicts dedicated their net worth to reducing sharp reactions against even those to a probability of zero all threats to caught contemplating taboo trade-offs their children’s safety, for example, they or contaminated compromises. The psy- would rapidly impoverish themselves. cho-logic here is that of ‘constitutive Likewise, a society committed to guar- incommensurability’: our commitments anteeing state-of-the-art health care for to other people require us to deny that all citizens would soon devote an unac- certain things are comparable (e.g., valu- ceptable proportion of its gdp to the ing lives in dollars). Constitutive incom- project. The model predicts that when mensurability arises whenever treating there is no pressure to confront secular- a value as commensurable subverts one sacred trade-offs, people and political of the values in the trade-off calculus. In movements will adopt the low-mental- this sense, taboo trade-offs are morally effort solution of accepting their own corrosive. The longer observers believe side’s no-trade-off rhetoric at face value. that a decision maker has contemplated Such low-effort options are easiest to an indecent proposal, the harsher their deploy in the political sphere when one’s assessments of that person’s character, movement is in an oppositional role (as even if that person ultimately comes environmentalists mostly feel they have around and makes the right choice and been during the Bush administration) af½rms the sacred value. and has no responsibility for making Moral cleansing is identity repair, ef- policy.2 However, trade-off denial is not forts by those who feel contaminated by an option when one is compelled to de- psychological proximity to norm viola- velop and advance politically viable solu- tions to persuade in-group members tions, not just denounce the solutions not to direct moral outrage at them. proposed by others. For instance, the closer one’s working relationship with a norm violator, the greater one’s need will be to engage in 2 P. E. Tetlock, K. Hannum, and P. Micheletti, symbolic acts of moral cleansing that “Stability and Change in Senatorial Debate: reaf½rm one’s solidarity with the moral Testing the Cognitive Versus Rhetorical Style Hypotheses,” Journal of Personality and Social community. In the antique language of Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition 46 psychoanalysis, one overcompensates (1984): 979–990.

Dædalus Spring 2008 61 Philip E. Having laid our framework, we now tic National Wildlife Refuge (anwr), Tetlock & explore the potential utility and limita- Michael Op- nuclear power, emissions trading, and penheimer tions of this model for understanding geoengineering of the climate. In each on the evolution of policy stands of envi- case, we identify how the most ardent nature ronmentalist organizations in the Unit- environmental organizations have de- ed States over the last twenty-½ve years. ½ned the issue as a matter of principle Our approach is of necessity largely an- (What are the sacred values at stake? ecdotal, and based mostly on the experi- What options should be considered ences of one of us (Oppenheimer) as a taboo?) and examine how successful professional environmentalist between these organizations have been in mobi- 1981 and 2001–as well as an observer lizing uniformly solid opposition to pol- of environmental policy and occasional icy options that threaten to breach the advocate up to the present. The subjec- principle/taboo boundary: Were there tive and impressionistic nature of our ever–or are there now–signi½cant dis- approach underscores the relative scar- senters within the environmentalist city of academic literature analyzing the community? Were these dissenters the structure, modus operandi, funding, targets of moral outrage? Did those and motivations of U.S. environmental linked to the dissenters feel the need to organizations and individual environ- engage in moral cleansing? In each case, mental activists, a shortcoming that we also pose questions viewed as taboo cries out to be recti½ed, given the cur- by morally resolute boundary defenders rent centrality of ‘green’ politics. We but as mandatory by those who see envi- hope this essay will encourage others to ronmentalism as the application of the dig into the extensive archival material analytical tools of science to public poli- available and to interview key partici- cy. The recurring identity-de½ning ques- pants in the debates. tions will be: What would change your Our overview of how several contro- mind? How far would the generalized versies have played out in the environ- cost-bene½t calculus need to tip for you mental community and larger political to modify or even abandon your policy arena underscores how hard it is to ½t positions? any one-size-½ts-all theoretical model. Terms that theorists casually bandy Legally protected since 1960, the Arc- about have sharply contested meanings tic National Wildlife Refuge (anwr) in the real world. For instance, ‘taboo’ occupies the far northeast corner of proves to be a Rashomon concept, con- Alaska, running from the Arctic Ocean noting principle and resolve to those south across the Brooks Range into the determined to defend the boundaries of Yukon Valley. It has been referred to the thinkable, and rigidity and dogma- (not uniquely) as America’s Serengeti tism to those determined to cross the because of the annual caribou migration boundary. Whose de½nition prevails in that passes through, in addition to the the battle for public opinion and politi- grizzly bears, wolves, and other resident cal-regulatory favor determines whose fauna, an appellation that neatly sums policy agenda prevails. up its iconic status. Here we consider four examples of With the convergence of two oil sup- how this political-psychological tug-of- ply crises in the 1970s and the consider- war has unfolded in environmental poli- ation of the Alaska Lands Act to deter- cy debates: the disposition of the Arc- mine disposition of hundreds of millions

62 Dædalus Spring 2008 of acres of land among federal, state, and one point of view, its remoteness means The bound- Native American governance as a de- that the vast majority of Americans will aries of the layed consequence of Alaska statehood, never visit it, and many may never have thinkable the issue of whether to allow drilling for heard of it. But the success in protect- oil in the area became pointed. Distrust ing the anwr region over thirty years of the environmental reliability and ½s- has reinforced its uniqueness, made it cal probity of oil companies, who were more renowned as a special place, and already developing a pipeline and dril- strengthened the utility of taboo as a ling complex to the west at Prudhoe Bay, political gambit. ran high. Views on native rights some- Although trade-offs have been dis- times conflicted, with some based on cussed, such as bartering permission to sacred views of the land and others on drill in anwr for agreement to increase ½nancial interest in drilling. The U.S. the stringency of Corporate Average Fu- environmental movement became com- el Economy Standards for motor vehi- mitted to opposing drilling entirely (Op- cles, it is unclear whether these discus- penheimer visited the area in 1975 and sions ever came close to being a serious testi½ed in Congress in favor of leaving it ‘deal.’ For one thing, the deal would not pristine, a position he maintains today), have been a simple trade-off: those who and the ½nal legislation forbade drilling might bene½t directly from drilling (oil without further permission from Con- companies) are not the same group as gress. Such permission, fought over spo- those who might suffer from an increase radically for thirty years, has never been in fuel-economy stringency (auto com- granted, as environmental opposition panies and their workers). Yet a third has remained steadfast. group, environmentalists and those they Among the cases we examine, anwr represent, would lose from drilling but is the only one in which a taboo seems gain from increased stringency on fuel to have functioned as a nearly absolute economy, but different constituencies bar to repositioning. How have environ- within the movement might see the mentalists managed to be so successful gains and losses differently. Such com- in holding the taboo line on anwr? promises are not easily arranged. Fur- We see a number of possibilities. First, thermore, the total reserves in the Ref- the attack has not been nearly as fero- uge correspond to only about six months cious as it could have been if the oil in- of U.S. consumption, which, even if eco- dustry itself had been more committed nomically recoverable, is equivalent to to prevailing. The industry is worried an amount of consumption that could about drilling costs, and the bad pub- be avoided by a small increment in ve- licity and legal liabilities that would at- hicle fuel economy without any trade- tach to accidents–and may well per- off (making the trade-off look super½- ceive other drilling opportunities as cial). more pro½table investments. To some To gauge how robust this–or any degree, the political ½ght over anwr other taboo–has become, one needs may be a diversionary maneuver while to subject it to counterfactual stress these ½rms attempt to gain access to testing and explore the willingness of other, less noticed reserves. Second, the respondents to change their minds in remoteness of anwr may paradoxical- response to increasingly tough hypo- ly add to anwr’s allure and iconic sta- thetical arguments: for example, if oil tus as untouched natural land. From companies could reduce the likelihood

Dædalus Spring 2008 63 Philip E. of signi½cant spills to zero; if the value atively low operating costs. On the ‘con’ Tetlock & Michael Op- of reserves exceeded ½ve or more years’ side are the threat of radiation releases penheimer worth of consumption; or if excess (and resulting cancer incidence) during on pro½ts could be used in part to compen- mining and transport of fuel and plant nature sate local communities or to protect en- operation (including core meltdown); dangered species elsewhere. no implemented plan for long-term A more directly relevant hypothetical waste disposal; possible diversion of would be trading complete protection wastes for weapons production; target- of a large, imminently threatened area ing of plants by terrorists; and in the of Arctic wilderness (the Kamchatka United States, high cost of construction Peninsula, for example) for permission despite various subsidies. Accidents at to drill in anwr. It is unclear what Three Mile Island and Chernobyl–and transnational entity would have such since then, the continual stories of leaks power, but assuming it existed, the will- at aging plants–have kept public con- ingness of the environmental commu- cern at the level where a majority in the nity to entertain such a trade would still United States do not want one built in be highly doubtful. their neighborhood. Yet nuclear power The most resolute antiutilitarian de- delivers 20 percent of U.S. electricity, re- fender of the taboo would be a respon- cently renovated plants have been oper- dent who refuses to participate on the ating smoothly and ef½ciently, and some ground that the questioning process is countries have had a fairly good record morally corrosive (to compare is to de- of safety and ef½ciency, if not a solution stroy): a process akin to asking how to the waste-storage issue. much money it would take to sell your Perhaps more than any other example, children to slave traders. The next level nuclear power is an issue that carries down would be those who insist that iconic status on both sides. In contrast there is no remotely plausible cost-ben- to the skepticism expressed by many en- e½t calculus that would change their vironmentalists, the ‘other side’ poses minds. The next levels down now put support for nuclear power as a litmus us on a potentially slippery-slope con- test of environmentalists’ seriousness tinuum of af½xing increasingly plausi- about clean energy, and attempts to posi- ble numerical values to questions that tion opponents as Luddites: ‘You want open the door–to varying degrees un- to reduce carbon dioxide emissions? If der varying contingencies–to compro- you are serious, rather than just an en- mise. These latter respondents may emy of electric power companies, eco- pride themselves for their pragmatism nomic growth, and progress for humani- but risk the moral wrath of the taboo de- ty, surely you must support nuclear pow- fenders should the bar on anwr devel- er, or at least be willing to contemplate it opment ever come under serious politi- as a serious part of solving the problem.’ cal threat. Substitute acid rain or air pollution for carbon dioxide (or the desire to avoid The pros and cons of nuclear power building hydropower dams on iconic have been discussed at great length else- rivers like the Colorado), and you have where, and we shall not repeat them in the raw outlines of a conversation go- detail. On the ‘pro’ side are electricity ing back many decades. In fact, many of production free of direct emission of air these conversations seem to have less to pollution and greenhouse gases, and rel- do with speci½c electric-power options

64 Dædalus Spring 2008 as they do with symbolism, as in: ‘Are environmentalists, several senators re- The bound- you man enough to accept nuclear pow- versed their support for global-warming aries of the thinkable er?’ Such rhetorical gambits have proba- legislation proposed by Senators Mc- bly only intensi½ed the polarization. Cain and Lieberman and voted against Meanwhile, many environmentalists it due to the insertion of a provision en- see nuclear power as a symptom of couraging nuclear power. But since the mega-project-itis: a bloated, highly sub- legislation had no chance of passage sidized (through public-research fund- anyway, this outcome was more a visible ing and limits on liability for accidents), way to take a shot across the bow, rather unnecessarily centralized way to gener- than a ½rm, ½nal position. However, it ate power, attention to which deflects is expected that the issue will be revived political and ½nancial resources from again over the next two years because lower-impact, distributed technologies the chances of successful federal legisla- that increase ef½ciency and employ re- tion have increased. Then the trade-offs newable options, like solar power. involved in supporting the building of Are environmentalists in fact willing new nuclear plants (using existing tech- to countenance relaxation of the appar- nology) to reduce carbon-dioxide emis- ent taboo without exiling those guilty of sions may become quite pointed because doing so? Here the record is less clear. the problems with nuclear power that Recently, some environmental leaders provide the rational basis for taboo re- have indicated a willingness to reconsid- main. er the movement’s near-total aversion to Theoretical solutions to all the techni- nuclear power;3 and while this arguably cal problems of nuclear power abound; new stance has elicited criticism for ‘go- whether they can be implemented at a ing soft,’ in fact the same groups still cost competitive with other carbon-free work together at about the same level of options is an unanswered question. Un- cooperation (and sometimes lack there- til it is answered, the question of wheth- of ) on the same issues as they did previ- er the taboo is absolutely applicable to ously. Although there have been skepti- all nuclear technology, or just the cur- cism and annoyance over the perceived rent versions, will remain hypothetical. taboo violations, there is little evidence Rather, the skirmish in the political are- of either ostracism or a perceived need na may be over whether an arguably for moral cleansing. Of course, the ‘re- faulty and expensive technology with lit- consideration’ may be little more than a tle immediate prospect for expansion is repositioning to divert, deflect, or tran- worth further subsidy and other induce- scend the ‘manliness’ argument, and op- ments to get controls on greenhouse-gas ponents of altering the view may read it emissions. as such, reducing their need to ostracize. The question of whether an ‘irratio- In any event, the repositioning was nal’ taboo is at work may be buried un- part of the ½rst steps in wheeling-and- der layers of plausible argument and dealing over climate-change legislation, counterargument. The only way we providing a real-life test of just how ta- know to answer the question is via sys- boo nuclear power is: despite the appar- tematic counterfactual stress testing. ent shift in attitude on the part of some The nuclear industry argues that it can build reactors that produce very low lev- 3 See “Old Foes Soften to New Reactors,” The els of waste that can be safely disposed New York Times, May 15, 2005. of, and that entail no signi½cant poten-

Dædalus Spring 2008 65 Philip E. tial for attack or diversion for produc- reductions dependent on an economic Tetlock & tion of weapons. If all this could be ac- calculus rather than environmental tar- Michael Op- penheimer complished at a cost competitive with gets; that the ability of electric utilities on other sources, would–and should–a to switch to low-sulfur-content coal un- nature majority of opponents relent? The sign der a trading system would shift the dis- of a taboo–in something resembling tribution of employment in the coal- the original anthropological sense of the mining industry; and that the entire sys- term (unconditional disgust unmediated tem of accounting for emissions reduc- by reason)–is a categorical ‘no,’ coupled tions and trading was too complex and with deep annoyance that you would would allow gaming, lessening the actual even ask the question. emissions reduction obtained. One environmental group, the Envi- After remaining buried in the econom- ronmental Defense Fund (now named ic literature for decades with scant atten- Environmental Defense), took an ag- tion paid to it in the policy arena, the gressive pro-trading stance, to the dis- idea of controlling pollution by distrib- pleasure of most of its colleagues in the uting free or through auction a limited movement. Many of the latter never number of rights-to-pollute (called fully embraced the system and stood emissions allowances), which could be aside from taking a position on the draft traded as commodities, was implement- legislation, of which they otherwise ap- ed on a large scale in the 1990 Clean Air proved, because of the presence of this Act Amendments. The triggering event feature (and its potential side effects, was the emergence of bipartisan consen- noted above). Years later, when the ef- sus on the need to reduce acid rain. And fectiveness of the trading system was the outstanding success of the program beyond dispute, some environmentalists in reducing pollution at much lower cost made a point of emphasizing (correctly) than command-and-control approaches that the concomitant costs savings were that mandate particular technologies partly attributable to reductions in rail has led to its being labeled the favored rates for shipping coal, not the inherent means to limit emissions of the green- ef½ciency of trading. house gases, both in the United States But despite considerable opprobrium (assuming such a program will be imple- (low to moderate moral outrage), it mented at the federal level) and in Eu- would go too far to assert that Environ- rope (where it is currently in use to im- mental Defense was ostracized. Support plement the Kyoto Protocol). for trading began a long series of dis- But the early history of emissions putes between those in the advocacy trading was marked by controversy, and community that supported flexible, in- many critics remain. Its initial rejection centive-based approaches to regulation in some quarters as a proposed solution and those who preferred command-and- to the acid-rain problem reflected nu- control regulation. These disputes are merous concerns, including: that the still evolving, and today center on the creation of a property right and a mar- global-warming problem. Some individ- ket in pollution amounted to letting pol- uals and organizations attacked pro- luters buy their way out of an obligation, trading groups directly, while others posing an ethical issue involving poten- wriggled uncomfortably on the side- tial inequities; that trading would result lines, occasionally indulging in acts that in a geographic distribution of pollution may ½t the description of moral cleans-

66 Dædalus Spring 2008 ing. The attacks were often not for sup- were already positively disposed toward The bound- porting trading per se but for other per- trading. The period also provided gov- aries of the thinkable ceived wrongdoing involving issues of ernments with the opportunity to learn procedure within the environmental more about the ef½cacy of trading. Fur- coalition. But the substantive differences thermore, many in the eu retained a over trading aggravated these controver- belief in the possibility of reengaging the sies. Despite such stresses and strains, United States even before the end of the cooperation in the community has re- Bush administration. Consequently, the mained the dominant mode and no eu proceeded to become the world’s group has been banished for support of leading experimenter in trading green- emissions trading. house-gas allowances and, ironically, is On the other hand, many of those now a strong proponent of this approach opposed to trading have softened their while the United States stands aside (for positions in response to, ½rst, the reality the moment). Thus, the taboo has be- of the effectiveness of the acid-rain pro- come the accepted practice. gram as a regulatory scheme and, sec- Emissions trading still engenders ar- ond, the political and economic reality gument but less over its ethical basis and of the ef½cacy of trading. In the ½rst cat- more over its consequences in speci½c egory fall certain environmental organi- applications. Mercury emissions from zations that either opposed or remained coal-burning electric power plants pro- neutral with respect to the trading ele- vide a case in point. Mercury is a neuro- ments of Title iv of the 1990 Clean Air toxin with no known dose threshold for Act Amendments. Some of these soon causing damage, particularly in fetuses. gave the highest compliment to the orig- The Bush administration proposed to inators of Title iv, including Environ- control mercury emissions with a trad- mental Defense, by claiming partial ing system that would inevitably create credit for its design once its success was disparities in emissions reduced at one clear. An example of the second case is location versus another, and therefore the European Union (and some environ- in human exposure (in contrast to car- mentalists therein), which originally bon dioxide, which becomes globally opposed designing implementation of uniform after emission, or to acid-caus- the Kyoto Protocol around an emissions- ing emissions, for which a separate set trading system. Nevertheless, the agree- of regulations limits local exposure and ment reached in 1997 embodied the trad- from which no signi½cant geographic ing framework with a structure generally ‘hot spots’ of acid rain have been pro- following the lines of the U.S. proposal. duced by the trading program). The re- The eu, having grudgingly ceded to the action was immediate and uniformly United States on this point, and then, negative in the environmental commu- along with other Kyoto parties, suffered nity. If there were supporters of this the rebuff of U.S. withdrawal from the approach among trading proponents, Kyoto process in 2001, nonetheless they kept their counsel. maintained emissions trading as a key This episode underscores at least one means for implementing the Protocol. strong, and arguably rational, basis for The intervening four years had seen too the taboo in speci½c instances: trading much negotiation on the details of the can result in dramatic inequities in local system to countenance ripping it up and impacts. So the idea of trading aggravat- starting over, and some non-eu parties ed a long-standing dispute between lo-

Dædalus Spring 2008 67 Philip E. cal environmental groups (sometimes the expected returns to the government Tetlock & unfairly and derisively called ‘nimby’ from the auctions), the latter proposal Michael Op- penheimer groups, i.e., Not in My Back Yard), who raises issues related to monetizing life– on focus on local pollution, and the nation- one of the most taboo subjects of all. nature al, professionalized groups, who often see issues through the prism of national A very current example is provided by or global environmental consequences. proposals to geoengineer the climate in For the latter groups, obtaining larger response to the threat of global warm- overall cuts in pollution appeared at ing. The idea here is to take action to op- times to take precedence over these lo- pose the effect of the buildup of green- cal concerns. It is fair to say that the house gases by implementing measures sensitivity of the national groups has that would either remove the warming substantially increased after a consid- gases, e.g., carbon dioxide, from the at- erable drubbing by the locals, who mosphere after emission, or alter the brought pressure to bear on the nation- Earth system so as to reduce sunlight als through the media and also via fun- suf½ciently to negate the warming. An ders such as foundations. Risking the example is a proposal to loft particles death of a small number of identi½able that reflect sunlight high in the atmos- people, usually poor, for the greater sta- phere in suf½cient quantity to cancel the tistical good was just not a viable posi- increasing greenhouse effect. tion for a movement that draws a sub- There are many good reasons to op- stantial part of its membership and sup- pose such approaches without resort to port from egalitarian progressives–and stigmatizing them altogether as taboo. is often accused of reflecting the tastes Many are arguably more costly than and preferences of affluent profession- measures to reduce emissions and avoid als. In effect, ignoring equity concerns much of the warming in the ½rst place. became a new and effectively enforced They raise complex political issues be- taboo–as we can now see by the uni- cause any country could effectively de- form response in the case of mercury. cide to geoengineer everyone’s climate It is worth reconnoitering the ever- unilaterally. Finally, and most salient, shifting boundaries of the thinkable. many or all such proposals entail poten- Assuming no local inequities, would tial side effects that could in the end ri- opponents of trading accept it if all per- val the consequences of warming. For mits were auctioned, eliminating the example, reflecting particles could add onus created by a seemingly free ‘right to the damage of the ozone layer, and to pollute’ that is established when they would do nothing to reverse acidi½ca- are distributed to polluters (e.g., power tion of the oceans by dissolved carbon companies), as they largely were under dioxide. Furthermore, such geoengineer- the acid-rain program? And, assuming ing only masks warming, and should the local inequities cannot be brought down approach become unsustainable, a large to zero, would suf½cient compensation greenhouse-gas buildup, and accompa- to local communities alleviate the dis- nying warming, would be revealed. parate impacts that would occur in the It is not just the ability to cite such case of a pollutant, like mercury, with consequences but the expectation of local impacts? Although it seems plausi- unintended consequences that troubles ble that the former proposal would gain opponents. After all, such proposals are some adherents (especially considering effectively experiments on the whole

68 Dædalus Spring 2008 Earth system, and uncertainties in pre- lingly presented or the climate does in- The bound- dicting how the system would respond deed get out of control. aries of the thinkable are vast. To tease apart the relative importance But beyond this point, and drawing of the various reasons for opposing geo- strength from it, lies a principle that engineering, consider two tests of the many environmentalists and scientists limits of this taboo: First, if our knowl- adhere to: it is simply wrong to ½x one edge changed suddenly and it became environmental problem by increasing apparent that Earth were headed into an the risk of another. It is better to relieve ice age, would we entertain ways, such the prime causes (e.g., fossil-fuel com- as speeding up greenhouse-gas emis- bustion and deforestation) than to ap- sions, to maintain the stable global cli- ply massive engineering techniques mate of the last several millennia? Sec- with uncertain outcomes. Some also fear ond, would geoengineering be an ap- that the very existence of a last-resort propriate response to natural warming, option would reduce pressure to remedi- were the latter shown to be large, life- ate emissions. It is this principle that has threatening, and imminent? placed geoengineering into the nearly taboo category, relegated to slender con- The environmental movement repre- sideration over at least twenty-½ve years sents a complex amalgam of ideas, inter- in voluminous analyses of how to solve ests, and styles of thinking. Some envi- the climate problem. The recent publi- ronmentalists (and environmental or- cation of a special issue of the journal ganizations) have a clear commitment Climatic Change dedicated to papers on to the scienti½c method–and they feel geoengineering was accompanied by an that the scienti½c norm of falsi½cation unusual advance campaign to deflect the requires them to view a broad range of inevitable criticism and shield the scien- their beliefs as testable hypotheses. The tists publishing the papers from collegial inability to answer the question, ‘What abuse. would it take to convince you that you Yet the uneasy feeling that countries are mistaken?’ would be a source of pro- could postpone action on greenhouse fessional discomfort. The thought exper- gases long enough to make emergency iments with which we end each section engineering measures necessary to avoid are the types of questions that such ad- draconian consequences (like complete vocates would likely be willing to enter- meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet) tain. At the other end of the epistemic provides a strong rationale for at least continuum, some organizations may be allowing theoretical research to proceed. caricatured as displaying a quasi-reli- The issue of whether to allow or encour- gious devotion to protecting natural sys- age small-scale demonstration experi- tems. Some of the thought experiments ments is much more controversial. with which we close each section are, One could argue that the perception quite literally, unthinkable–and those of a rapidly changing climate has already who ‘play the game’ do not understand allowed reality to lessen the taboo. Nev- the moral stakes. Yet within such or- ertheless, geoengineering is likely to ganizations are cleavages on how to ap- remain a more or less taboo subject, at proach particular issues. Many ‘expert’ least in the sense of marginalization groups have several dyed-in-the-wool compared to other remedies, unless a values-based staff members, and some consequence-free approach is compel- staffers at values-driven organizations

Dædalus Spring 2008 69 Philip E. are devoted to a science-based approach. ate reasonable scienti½c and economic Tetlock & Even the views and approaches of indi- objections that cannot be reduced to an Michael Op- penheimer vidual environmentalists shift from is- emotive ‘ugh’ reaction. (Distinguishing on sue to issue, with greater or less focus on reasons from rationalizations is a deep nature science versus other values. problem with which social psychologists From a scienti½c point of view, the have wrestled for many decades.) And, rigorous articulation of a belief system– even if we had a sure½re method of iden- with airtight partitioning of facts and tifying true cases of taboo cognition, it values, crystal-clear speci½cation of strikes us as unfair to characterize an trade-off functions, and candid ac- entire school of thought as upholding a knowledgement of what would count as taboo when there is as much diversity falsifying evidence–is an unalloyed (if within and between organizations and often unattainable) good. But it would individuals as we ½nd among environ- unfairly handicap environmentalists to mental organizations. hold them to burdensome standards of The core complication may well be introspective rigor that no other political that taboos are hard to maintain in any movement accepts. What are the limits community of cobelievers in which the that attach to willingness to acknowl- funding sources are as diverse as those edge trade-offs between one’s epistemic for environmental organizations. Each commitments to objectivity and one’s has its own culture, preferred issues, and moral-political commitments to like- specialized approaches to solving them. minded souls struggling for causes one Donors, be they foundations or individ- deems just? We suspect that the short- uals, can shift support from one to an- term challenges of policy campaigning other, making enforcement of a mono- require sweeping such nettlesome trade- lithic party line dif½cult, if not impos- offs under the rhetorical rug, but the sible. Such diversity can be viewed as long-term challenges of governance ul- both political weakness and strength. timately require thinking more deeply It is a weakness inasmuch as concerted about how we think. cooperation is necessary to pull togeth- We again stress the exploratory nature er minimum winning coalitions in com- of our survey of the boundaries separat- petitions for power in democratic poli- ing the ‘thinkable’ from the ‘unthink- tics. And it is a strength inasmuch as di- able.’ But our modest effort has brought versity signals a degree of openness to to light serious complications that we debate and compromise within at least hope future, more systematic efforts will portions of the environmental commu- address. On one hand, we discover what nity. This very American combination seem to be strong pockets of taboo cog- of characteristics leads us to suspect that nition–policy domains in which even the ‘boundaries of the thinkable’ among speculative forms of cost-bene½t analy- environmentalists will be subject to fre- sis (would you change your mind if . . . ?) quent challenges in the twenty-½rst cen- are likely to provoke sharp resistance. tury–challenges driven by technological On the other, we discover numerous ex- innovations, economic pressures, shift- ceptions and quali½cations. It requires ing political alignments, and new data more presumptuousness than we can on the fragility or robustness of the com- muster to label strong policy positions as plex natural systems that make life pos- examples of taboo cognition when the sible on this odd planet on the outskirts defenders of these positions can gener- of the Milky Way.

70 Dædalus Spring 2008 Margaret Schabas

Nature does nothing in vain

Man alone among living things knows likely to continue declining. It takes on that he has evolved. Man alone is able average a million years for a species to to decide what direction or directions branch off and distinguish itself; no new he desires his own future evolution to phyla have surfaced for over one hun- follow, and can set about acquiring the dred million years. Our phenomenologi- knowledge he needs to achieve the de- cal experience of biodiversity is thus al- sired results. most exclusively one of decreasing num- –Thomas Goudge, Ascent of Life bers. Where Darwin once saw an entan- gled riverbank teeming with life, our vi- sion of the earth’s future landscape is as According to recent scienti½c ½ndings, desolate as the moon. we are responsible for the elimination But perhaps such worries are unwar- of three species every hour, a rate ap- ranted? Insofar as evolutionary theory proaching that holocaust of species as- commits us to some degree of interspe- sociated with the age of dinosaurs.1 ci½c competition, it seems counterpro- Secretary General of the United Nations ductive to preserve and prolong the life Ban Ki Moon recently declared that “the of each and every species. Who is to say global response to these challenges [of that two million species is not preferable biodiversity] needs to move much more to twenty? Moreover, why not strive to rapidly.”2 But even if we could signi½- preserve variation within a speci½c spe- cantly reduce gas emissions and put a cies, especially given that the taxonomic halt to global warming, biodiversity is units themselves are so contested? Since subspecies are potential species, perhaps Margaret Schabas is professor of philosophy and our attention is better placed there. head of the philosophy department at the Univer- Numbers aside, there are many argu- sity of British Columbia. She is the author of “A ments in favor of preserving, if not en- World Ruled by Number” (1990) and “The Nat- hancing, biodiversity. Some are conse- ural Origins of Economics” (2005). She has also quentialist, appealing to values instru- coedited two collections, “Oeconomies in the Age 1 I wish to thank the following for comments of Newton” (2003) and David Hume’s “Political and criticisms (with the usual disclaimer): Em- Economy” (2008). ma Spary, Loïc Charles, Staffan Müller-Wille, Lorraine Daston, and John Beatty. © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences 2 International Herald Tribune, May 23, 2007.

Dædalus Spring 2008 71 Margaret mental to the welfare of Homo sapiens, marked, the ozone layer is a political ob- Schabas such as the medical potential of tropi- ject. on nature cal plants. Other arguments are deontic, Any effort to single out what is meant appealing to intrinsic values, such as the by ‘nature,’ let alone demarcate its part beauty of the wilderness or the sancti- in ‘the environment’ is most likely futile. ty of life. None are entirely persuasive, ‘Nature,’ as David Hume warned us in however, for the simple reason that they 1740, is one of the most ambiguous and assume we can, in some meaningful equivocal words in the English language. sense, alter the pace of the evolutionary It is the repository of anything and ev- process and thus ensure greater longev- erything. But one possible means to ac- ity either for humans or for other spe- quire at least a feeble hold on its set of cies. Implicit in these arguments is the meanings is to look at distinctions belief that we can step outside of a realm drawn by speci½c sciences and to exam- called ‘Nature’: that human agency can ine them as they have evolved over time. be partitioned and treated as a separate We have perhaps no other means of ac- sphere that does not follow the same de- cess, since we lack the view from no- terministic chains found in the biologi- where and must thus be content with cal realm. our own contingent historical reach. So My objective here is to make sense let me propose here, for the sake of argu- of that assumption, and to take an ment, that the ‘natural realm’ be under- approach quite different from those stood as the sum of physical phenomena who subscribe to the movement known studied by natural scientists at a given as deep ecology. While deep ecologists point in time. Let me contrast this with wish to level man with nature and to the ‘social realm,’ taken to be the sum of steer us away from anthropocentric val- social phenomena as studied by social ues, they overlook the fact that their scientists. concept of nature is itself replete with What I will argue, from my stand- social concepts that are in turn steeped point as a historian and philosopher of in natural discourse. To put it another science, is that the natural and social way, what remains underexamined is realms were much more closely con- the sense in which ecology itself embod- joined in scienti½c discourse a couple ies a complicated amalgam of the social of centuries back; hence, the separate and the natural. domains that currently exist are of rela- ‘Nature’ has long held the promise of tively recent origin. Furthermore, inso- a realm separate from human influence. far as these two realms–the natural and To commune with ‘nature’ mandates the social–have become increasingly just such a distinction. A sharp contrast distinct and disentangled, at least at the could be drawn between the lush vege- conceptual level, I will propose that if tation of the Jamaican forest and the ce- we can ‘step out of nature’ and alter the ment buildings of the South Bronx. But rate of extinction, the motivation for just as the cement harks from bauxite this will come from our understanding mines found in the Jamaican interior, of the social realm. the nearby forest receives rain laced with acid from distant cement factories. The case for distinct sciences goes back There is, arguably, no place in the sub- at least to Aristotle, who argued that the lunar region immune from human agen- observable features of our world could cy. As Bruno Latour provocatively re- be partitioned into distinct clusters,

72 Dædalus Spring 2008 plants, stars, etc. Approaching environ- correspond to what we commonly call Nature does mental studies with Aristotelian eyes ‘the economy’ at present: a separate hu- nothing in vain already creates confusion, since the phe- man arena for the production, distribu- nomena are part natural, part social. tion, and consumption of goods and ser- Even if one were to take a very simplistic vices. Instead, oeconomia also came to de½nition of nature–that nature is what denote order more generally. The term is left over after one subtracts human was used in a variety of contexts in the agency–the latter itself is part natural eighteenth century: the animal oecono- and part social. One central challenge my, the oeconomy of the body, even the for environmental studies, then, is to oeconomy of the stars. sort out what it means to view us part- The oeconomy of nature treated God ly as biological creatures, one species as the supreme director, planner, and among many, and partly as social crea- provider of nature’s larder. In his popu- tures bent on enhancing our welfare. lar tract Oeconomia naturae (1749), Lin- Since the boundary between the natural naeus attended to the proportions of and the social has a history that possess- predator to prey, taking into account es a range of meanings–some contradic- rates of propagation, distribution, and tory–we must negotiate the distinction longevity. God had established perfect between us as objects and as agents. It is ratios across the entire organic realm, not self-evident. thus ensuring the provision of food for The study of biodiversity, or ecology each of his offspring. Supply met de- more generally, tends to fall under the mand and the market cleared, so to purview of natural scientists. Yet the speak. Nevertheless, a wide array of haz- very term ecology bears witness to the ards, such as an earthquake or a particu- conflation of the natural and the social. larly dry season, could disrupt the bal- In 1866 Ernst Haeckel coined oecologie ance. Linnaeus thus formulated more to replace the oeconomy of nature, a term elaborate mechanisms to restore equi- that gained currency in the latter half librium, appealing to insects to expand of the seventeenth century and received their numbers and swoop in, like police, considerable enrichment in the hands to restore law and order. of Carl Linnaeus, Charles Lyell, and Until Linnaeus, the term oeconomia Charles Darwin. The term oeconomia, as was mostly employed in the Aristote- expounded upon by Xenophon and Aris- lian sense of household management. totle, pertained to the wise management Linnaeus was the ½rst to offer a nascent of a household and, at its broadest reach, concept of an economy, of multiple pro- the doctrine of virtue ethics. And while ducers and consumers in a state of ex- commerce and trade were extensive in change such that ends and means were antiquity, and their analysis subsumed aligned. Linnaeus’s oeconomy of nature under discussions of household manage- included not only plants and animals ment, there was no concept of an econo- (including humans), but also the earth’s my per se. In the early modern period, crust and atmosphere, since organisms economic discourse shifted focus to the decay and excrete vapors. His account crown as steward of a national or pro- devised an early version of the hydrolog- vincial household. Frugality, foresight, ical cycle. It had been a given since an- and prudence were the traits to cultivate tiquity that matter (the four elements), in place of the prodigality and impetuos- while constantly in flux, was conserved ity of medieval princes. Still, it did not within the sublunar region. Linnaeus

Dædalus Spring 2008 73 Margaret brought additional order to this totality well documented. But the term acquired Schabas by embedding organisms in an intricate a new and signi½cant set of meanings. on nature system of exchange and equilibrium: Darwin discerned that speciation meant “We see Nature resemble a well-regulat- that the aggregate quantity of life could ed state in which every individual has increase, as distinct varieties came to his proper employment and subsistence, seize upon unoccupied stations in the and a proper gradation of of½ces and of- oeconomy. Darwin supported this in- ½cers is appointed to correct and restrain sight with an experiment. Taking two every detrimental excess.” equal plots of land–one planted with Although Linnaeus subscribed to the one grass, the other with distinct genera Biblical account of creation, he attempt- of grasses–he found that the harvest ed to ½ll in more of the story whereby yielded a much greater biomass in the long ago the individual pairs of each spe- latter case, suggesting that nature was cies had multiplied, migrated, and dis- not a zero-sum game. Frequent extinc- tributed themselves around the globe. tions also implied that nature was not In his view, the oeconomy of nature was full. Diversi½cation meant that human completely full of life, with no waste or populations could grow in tandem with void. Needless to say, God would not tol- other organisms, not in spite of them. erate the extinction of any one of his cre- There were, in short, gains from trade ations, nor admit of novelty, since this such that the oeconomy of nature could would imply that the original plan was expand inde½nitely. less than perfect. Goethe, while director Haeckel’s clever move to cover up the of the Finanzverwaltung for Weimar in the economic roots of this discourse ran its 1770s, echoed such sentiments when he course. With the advent of game theo- declared that “nature is the perfect oe- retical models, ecologists are rediscover- conomy.” She did not waste her curren- ing their economic heritage. They now cy nor act in vain. model foraging behavior as a market, Charles Lyell, writing in the early complete with an interest rate. Similarly, 1830s and in full possession of the con- economists are embracing their biologi- cept of extinction, was far more inclined cal roots, not just in the form of main- to see imperfection in the oeconomy of stream environmental economics or the nature. His equilibrium was a dynami- more dissenting eco-economics, but also cal one, and he identi½ed a much longer with game theoretic accounts that em- list of mechanisms that restored a bal- ploy evolutionary models. ance. Geological depositions or volcan- Economics thus comes in the back ic eruptions necessarily meant both the door as well as the front. It is critical migration of organisms and ongoing to the understanding of ecology as a extinction, which in turn, he speculated, mode of inquiry, not only because na- meant that new species were forged to ture itself is understood in terms of ef- ½ll the gaps. Still, Lyell adhered to a be- ½ciency and scarcity–an economy– lief in a ½xed quantity of life and thus but also because the trope of steward- believed that the entry and exit of spe- ship runs deeply through the discourse. cies sustained a balance. Clearly, to sort out the role of human Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) is re- agency on the question of biodiversity plete with references to the oeconomy of is inherently an economic problem, if nature, and his intellectual debts to Lin- understood as the management of scarce naeus and Lyell on this are explicit and resources between alternative ends. We

74 Dædalus Spring 2008 have become the stewards of nature, tableau economique (1758–1767) exploited Nature does now itself understood more as a compet- numerous physiological and mechanical nothing in vain itive marketplace than a storehouse. Yet analogies between the body politic and another debate that brings in economics the human body, most famously the cir- (and will not be expanded upon here) is culation of wealth that mimicked the over the very value or worth of nature circulation of blood. But his analysis taken as whole, an estimation that im- went much beyond the level of analogi- plicitly underwrites all of ecological the- cal trade. Inspired by the iatromechani- ory.3 cal ideas of Descartes and Borelli, the physiology of Boerhaave and Hales, and We have already seen that Linnaeus the metaphysics of Malebranche, phys- had a well-developed theory of an econ- iocracy was self-consciously and explic- omy, arguably more thought-out than itly a branch of natural philosophy. anyone else’s at the time. He also wrote More fundamentally, for Quesnay, extensively on political economy and only nature could produce wealth, via promoted its place in the Swedish uni- the gifts of rain, sunlight, and soil in the versities and academies. In his eyes, eco- agrarian sector. For every seed planted nomic welfare was inextricably linked in the spring we reap two in the fall. “We to botany since only the proper manage- strictly owe the net product of the soil, ment and hence knowledge of plants to Providence, and to the bene½cence of could free us from want, waste, or fam- the Creator, to his rain that beats down ine: “The pillar for all economics is to and changes it to gold.” Manufacturing, know the great economy of nature.” by contrast, was sterile. It merely trans- By the 1750s economic discourse was formed leather into shoes but produced widely pursued; François Quesnay, Da- no genuine wealth or net product. vid Hume, and Adam Smith were the As preposterous as this sounds to our three most prominent contributors. ears, it contains a kernel of truth. To Each one had sustained interests in the acquire genuine wealth as a species we natural sciences, and viewed economic must extract something from outside theory as part of a more general search our sphere; and thus, to put it ½gura- for natural regularities. Quesnay was tively, it is only through nature’s gifts explicit in his search for a natural order that we can truly augment our physical in the study of wealth. A renowned phy- wealth. The labor used to make shoes sician at Versailles, he contributed to must in turn be fed, and that grain can metaphysics and physiology, notably only genuinely enhance our well-being a treatise entitled Essai physique sur l’oe- if we, at the end of the day, get some- conomie animale (1736). In the late 1750s, thing from nothing. Quesnay himself he forged a set of economic ideas that expanded his sphere of nature’s gifts to came to be known as physiocracy, or include mining, ½shing, and lumbering. ‘rule of nature.’ His celebrated series of His thoughts on these sectors remained incomplete, but a charitable reading might permit his argument to segue to- 3 For an excellent overview of this question, ward the industrial era that lurked on see Matt Price, “Economics, Ecology, and the the horizon. Value of Nature,” in Lorraine Daston and Fer- nando Vidal, eds., The Moral Authority of Na- The contributions to political econo- ture (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, my by Hume and Smith are legendary, 2004), 182–206. but less well known are their respective

Dædalus Spring 2008 75 Margaret and sustained interests in natural histo- Again, numerous elements of natural- Schabas ry. Hume clearly knew the extant argu- historical modes of thinking are present on nature ments regarding the adaptation of spe- in his political economy, including the cies for his Dialogues Concerning Natural processes of equilibration and adapta- Religion (drafted in the late 1740s), but tion of means and ends. He begins his he also injected these ideas into his es- account by asserting that we are one spe- says on economic topics, his Political cies among many, and share the same Discourses (1752). This is manifest in the tendency toward geometric rates of re- broad temporal brushstrokes by which production. But one of our distinctive he paints the ebb and flow of wealth, its traits is the propensity to truck, barter, migration from one region to another, and exchange–one not observed, he and in the emphasis on self-equilibrat- claims, in other animals. This inclina- ing mechanisms. Hume draws numer- tion unleashed a long and expansive ous analogies between economic phe- process of trade and commerce; and nomena and plants and animals, sug- as markets grew, so too did the process gesting too that his mind, like Linnaeus, of specialization by trade and the divi- was prone to seeing these as part of one sion of labor more generally. Smith’s seamless web. He emphasized the migra- natural-historical account of commerce tion of economic opportunity and main- is couched in epigenetic terms. Our tained that the causal path was unidirec- wealth expands without any planning or tional. Once commerce has flourished intentionality. An array of mechanisms in one region, it will necessarily decline enables the stock of human characteris- due to high wages. The capital will flow tics–such as frugality or courage, pru- to another region, and enhance commer- dence or trust–to expand and contract, cial flourishing elsewhere. and thus fuel commercial ends. As Smith Hume’s economic essays are the ½rst conjectured, in the commercial era each ones to portray us as one species among and every one of us is, in some sense, others. We are, he claims, more like becoming more and more a merchant. apes than angels; our efforts to acquire However, one of the underexamined fea- wealth and our faculties of reason are tures of the economics of both Hume not fundamentally different from that and Smith is the extent to which they of other animals high up in the chain focus on the evolution of commerce as of being. There is evidence that Hume the unfolding of institutions and the en- came under the sway of the protoevolu- hancement of certain habits and cus- tionary thought of the French savants toms. Maupertuis, Tremblay, and Buffon, pre- cisely as he was working on his econom- There were thus many points of con- ic essays. Certainly, and like so many of tact between economics and biology his contemporaries, he contemplated the long before the famous epiphany experi- salient fact of a much-expanded history enced by Darwin upon reading Malthus. to the earth. As Karl Marx observed in an 1862 letter Smith also read natural history for to Engels, Darwin had simply read clas- much of his career, and was particular- sical political economy into the world ly interested, starting in the 1740s, in of plants and animals. Subsequent his- the work of Linnaeus. His 1756 Letter to torians of science, Robert Young most the Edinburgh Review ferried the ideas of notably, have expanded on the strong Réamur and Buffon over to Scotland. similarities, but what has not been ful-

76 Dædalus Spring 2008 ly acknowledged is the extent to which are organized, such as monetary sys- Nature does pre-Malthusian political economy was tems. From a God’s-eye view, Searle ar- nothing in vain itself saturated with biological concepts, gues, there are no social properties in the a discourse that, in turn, was indebted to world. We Homo sapiens engage in cer- notions of oeconomia. This is exempli½ed tain activities, banking for example, but by the robust adherence to the concept the God’s-eye view sees money simply of laissez faire, which emerged in the late as organized physical particles (mostly seventeenth century with the writings now in the form of electric currents). of Boisguilbert and was widely endorsed There is nothing distinctive about them, right up to the twentieth century. An ap- nothing that connects those particles to, peal to a providential order–letting na- say, the price charts of a marketplace or ture take its course–implies that mar- the interest rate. kets were seen as seamlessly joined to Social facts are objective to us hu- physical nature. mans, as Durkheim once lobbied, in the As a concept of an economy came sense that we are powerless to remove to the fore in the ½rst part of the nine- them single-handedly. They–money, teenth century, it shed some of its ties language, kinship systems–came into with physical nature and acquired a fair existence at a distant point in time, usu- degree of autonomy. John Stuart Mill ally under the cloak of anonymity. And was the ½rst major economist to pro- while social facts can evolve over time, pose that human agency be treated as and the proximate cause of such evolu- the proximate cause of economic phe- tion is purportedly human agency, the nomena, that economics must therefore forces at work are always collective. The be a mental and not a material science. chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank This in turn fed readily into the very pro- may appear to adjust the interest rate found shift from a labor to a utility theo- and hence the money stock, but the re- ry of value, with the advent of the neo- sult can only come about through the set classical theory of economics circa 1870. of market forces and activities that are Wealth acquired a plasticity that freed it by their very nature collective. With the from material constraints; it was de½ned advent of ½at money, money became so in purely mental terms, as the maximi- deeply woven into the fabric of society zation of utility. It was no longer behold- that, as economist Duncan Foley ob- en to the bounty of the annual harvest or serves, it has “a reality as unyielding to Malthusian population pressures. an individual’s will as any natural phe- Appeals to ‘the economy,’ now com- nomenon.” This too helps to capture the monplace, are de facto appeals to a sepa- sense in which money is the result of col- rate social realm or sphere, one in which lective intentionality; a given currency human agency and hence the mind would cease to function as money if ev- serves as the proximate cause. As John eryone thought it was not. Searle has argued in his Construction of Searle (and Durkheim before him) Social Reality (1995), collective intention- also helps us to see that social reality ality serves as the bridge between natu- is “weightless and invisible.” Social ob- ral and social phenomena. The world jects or facts subsist indistinguishably is made of microscopic particles orga- from the natural landscape, such that, nized by force ½elds, and we organisms as Searle cautions, it is harder to see ob- who have acquired consciousness have jects as just natural phenomena. What created distinct objects that themselves does he mean by this? It is dif½cult to

Dædalus Spring 2008 77 Margaret strip off any object or set of relations behave as the result of collective inten- Schabas from human intentionality, to reach the tionality. What they don’t have is a sym- on nature basic ontology of a world of physical bolic representation of the social facts, particles in ½elds of force. Social facts or a set of rules that codify the social and objects necessarily intrude. As this order–what Searle calls institutional brief survey of eighteenth-century po- facts. It remains an open question if oth- litical economy has disclosed, wealth, er animals might acquire this subset of money, and trade were part and parcel social facts, especially since they depend of the natural order–indeed the direct on the existence of language. issuance of nature, and not humankind. Findings over the past ½fty or so To see economic phenomena as coalesc- years have ruled out a number of attri- ing into ‘the economy’ requires concep- butes that were once thought to belong tual work. uniquely to us. Many animals use tools, One might well ask what this tells us some use language, some mate for life, about nature. At ½rst glance, it seems some use systems of exchange, and that we can easily subtract the social; some are self-aware. Moreover, whatev- simply look for cases of collective inten- er scienti½c knowledge we have might tionality and by-products such as mon- be placed on a continuum with the sorts ey that have patterns of evolution that of knowledge other animals use. Knowl- lie outside the physical. Of course, there edge can be viewed as just another kind is an obvious connection; intentions are of tool that enables a given species to mental states that current science maps play the evolutionary game. onto neurological states, which in turn And yet, as Thomas Goudge discerned could be reduced to molecular or even in the opening epithet, we are the only quantum mechanical states. The trouble species that knows about biological evo- is that we have not gotten very far with lution. We are also very likely to remain the reductionist program, and some in this unique position. True, we could philosophers–John Dupré for example convey this fact with sign language to –make compelling arguments to aban- some higher primates, but it is unlikely don the project altogether as not only that we could do so with any sophistica- unattainable but also undesirable. Searle tion. To comprehend the theory of evo- has revived the Durkheimian view that lution really takes several years, at least the social has patterns that are quite dis- if one is to gain some understanding of tinct and detached from the natural. the speci½c mechanisms and weigh in “Collective intentionality is a biological- on the debates over the concept of ½t- ly primitive phenomenon that cannot be ness or the rate of speciation. reduced or eliminated.”4 As a historian and philosopher of sci- Searle’s efforts are part of a much lon- ence, I would submit that we are most ger tradition to identify properties that likely to revise the speci½c mechanisms are purportedly unique to us humans. and analytical units of our evolutionary What is novel about Searle’s approach theory in the coming centuries. There is that he includes other social animals, are still signi½cant debates over the basic hyenas and wolves for example, since conceptual foundations, the de½nition there is ½rm empirical support that they and number of species, or the de½nition and ef½cacy of a gene. But the basic nar- 4 John Searle, The Construction of Social Reality rative is far more robust, and likely to (New York: Free Press, 1995), 24. withstand major conceptual shifts of the

78 Dædalus Spring 2008 internal content. Insofar as we come on an elaborate food chain that includes Nature does upon and justify the theory of evolution plants, meteorological processes, soil nothing in vain from a number of disparate lines of in- deposition, etc., it seems we would be quiry–embryology, paleontology, bio- hard-pressed to draw any boundaries. geography, to name but a few–it is high- Why bald eagles but not cold viruses? ly likely that the main thesis is warrant- Let me put it another way. If no spe- ed, namely, that we are descended from cies knew about the evolutionary pro- other organisms and are thus kin to cess, then no species could intentional- most if not all living forms. ly speed it up or slow it down. Indeed, What does the fact of our knowing the notion of a pace to evolution would this entail? Are there special obligations make no sense. The wide variation by that come with this knowledge, or with which species come into being or are any knowledge for that matter? Most rendered extinct is just what it is, a play readers of this essay have some exper- of many actors. But it is only when one tise, but does it follow that one must of those actors knows that it is a play thereby use that expertise to serve any that the acting becomes self-reflexive or every possible cry for help? Does and we have an ‘economy of nature’ or knowing evolutionary biology entail an emergent social realm. And it may that we must ensure the greatest longev- be partly for this reason that we have ity for the greatest number, and does sought to distinguish the social realm this include other species as well as our from the natural at much the same time own? There are no clear answers to any that we came up with the theory of evo- of these questions. It seems wiser not to lution. To continue the metaphor, one succumb to the naturalistic fallacy, but conceptual breakthrough was a dress perhaps the frequency with which the rehearsal for the other. My bold histori- fallacy is committed is itself part and cal conjecture would suggest we view parcel of our evolutionary myopia. Smith and Linnaeus, and, later on, Mill One could look at it this way, in the and Darwin, as two sides of the same same spirit captured by Goudge’s open- coin. In sum, we have managed to com- ing statement: given that we stumbled mence an understanding of the evolu- upon the theory of biological evolution, tionary narrative at roughly the same the product of many contingent lines time we became self-reflexive about our of inquiry, exploration, excavation, and self-reflexivity. Moreover, if the evolu- acquisition, and given that this theory tionary narrative is more or less correct, helps us to embrace all the more our then our ability to be self-reflexive in own contingency, it is a privilege to use this manner might be viewed as a sali- this knowledge–and the privilege is part ent adaptive trait. It may well be that of what gives our lives some meaning. our belief, warranted or unwarranted, Just as we value a longer life rather than in the operations of a separate social a shorter one, we ought to do our best sphere such as the economy, allows us to for the entire evolutionary schema since believe, again with or without warrant, no other species can. that we might exit nature and turn the But if so, how far is that reach? If Pe- tap of biodiversity. ter Singer’s arguments are found com- pelling, we must resist being speciest, and take into account all sentient be- ings. And insofar as they are dependent

Dædalus Spring 2008 79 Daniel J. Kevles

The contested Earth: science, equity & the environment

Since World War II, an army of ad- nature, but her environmentalism was vocates and agitators, some of them also a product of her career in the U.S. scientists, have shaped our attitudes to- Fish and Wildlife Service from 1936 ward nature. Among the best known is to 1952. Explaining a series of twelve Rachel Carson, whose Silent Spring, ½rst booklets that she produced for the agen- published in 1962, warned that chemi- cy under the rubric “Conservation in cal weed killers and insecticides were Action,” she deplored the accelerating despoiling the environment and threat- destruction of nature in the Western ening human health. Carson called such Hemisphere and declared, “Wildlife, agents “elixirs of death,” explaining, water, forests, grasslands–all are parts “For the ½rst time in the history of the of man’s essential environment; the world, every human being is now sub- conservation and effective use of one jected to contact with dangerous chem- is impossible except as the others also icals, from the moment of conception are conserved.”2 In Silent Spring Carson until death.”1 noted that people had long liked to be- Carson’s eloquent alarm derived in lieve “that much of Nature was forever part from her unalloyed devotion to beyond the tampering reach of man . . . that, however the physical environment Daniel J. Kevles, a Fellow of the American Acad- might mold Life, that Life could never emy since 1990, is Stanley Woodward Professor assume the power to change drastically 3 of History and Professor of History of Medicine, –or even destroy–the physical world.” of American Studies, and of Law (adjunct) at It now seemed manifestly evident to her Yale University. His numerous publications in- clude “The Physicists: The History of a Scienti½c 1 I wish to thank the Andrew W. Mellon Foun- Community in Modern America” (1978), “In the dation for support in writing of this essay and Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Hu- Peter Neushel for research assistance. Rachel man Heredity” (1985), “The Baltimore Case: A Carson, Silent Spring (New York: Houghton Trial of Politics, Science, and Character” (1998), Mifflin, 1962), 15. and “Inventing America: A History of the United 2 Paul Brooks, The House of Life: Rachel Carson States” (with Alex Keyssar, Pauline Maier, and at Work, with Selections from Her Writings (New Merritt Roe Smith, 2002). York: Houghton Mifflin, 1972), 100–101.

© 2008 by Daniel J. Kevles 3 Ibid.

80 Dædalus Spring 2008 that the foundations of this belief were tion of nature’s intricate interconnec- The con- dissolving. tedness and in his argument, which ran tested Earth Carson overstated her case by warning contrary to most scienti½c thinking at against the destruction of the physical the time, that man’s small disturbances world. That world would remain, if in of nature’s equilibria could accumulate modi½ed form, no matter what human to transform the land and its creatures. beings might do. But in calling attention For example, when human beings killed to how human beings were altering the insect-eating birds, such as robins, the natural world to the mutual disadvan- insects increased and in turn attacked tage of both, she placed herself in a his- trees. torical line of good company. Prominent What absorbed Marsh most was the among them was the corps of agitators human impact on an essential resource for nature who emerged in the nine- of his era–the forests in modern Eu- teenth century and that included Henry rope and the United States, a subject to Thoreau, John Muir, and George Perkins which he devoted more than a third of Marsh. Thoreau and Muir advanced a his book. Marsh pointed out that forests kind of antimodernism, celebrating na- were not only sources of wood but re- ture as a haven from the technological tainers of soil and moisture, indispensa- metropolis. Marsh embraced scienti½c ble to the maintenance of watersheds knowledge and methods as a means of that fed the streams and supplied the using nature without irrevocably de- cities and towns. Marsh was not a pure stroying it. Together, they expressed an preservationist. On the contrary, he ex- ambivalence toward the scienti½c and pected that people would–and should– technological exploitation of the Earth continue to exploit nature for material that has marked attitudes toward nature, purposes. Impatient with the romantic including Carson’s, since the Industrial impulse to flee the mechanical and com- Revolution. mercial age, he approached nature with Marsh, a diplomat, businessman, and the sensibilities of the practical man of polymathic scholar, advanced his views affairs that he was–without sentimen- most comprehensively in 1864, in Man tality. What was striking about Marsh’s and Nature; or Physical Geography as Mod- treatise was precisely its establishment i½ed by Human Action. Here he argued of the renewal of nature, no matter the with passion and authority that man was region, as a joint imperative with the fast making the earth “an un½t home for material use of it. its noblest inhabitant.” He attributed the The interests of human beings occu- alteration partly to geological causes and pied John Muir less than did those of partly to war and misrule, but he argued trees and mountains. A native of Scot- that much of the blame could be credit- land, Muir grew up in Wisconsin, in the ed to man’s unwitting, “ignorant disre- 1850s, under the hand of a harsh, Calvin- gard of the laws of nature.”4 The origi- ist, and acquisitive father. But during nality of his book resided in its exposi- two years at the University of Wiscon- sin, he read the works of Henry Thoreau among similar writers; and on a trip to 4 George P. Marsh, Man and Nature; or Physi- Canada he experienced a kind of epiph- cal Geography as Modi½ed by Human Action (New York: Charles Scribner, 1864); ed., David Low- any, ½nding himself, on a walk one day, enthal (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University weeping for joy upon encountering the Press, 1965), 43–52. exquisite beauty of the flower calypso

Dædalus Spring 2008 81 Daniel J. borealis. By 1868, he had made his way George Perkins Marsh’s book was Kevles to California, where he reveled in the ultimately recognized as a classic of on nature storms, the fauna, the great trees, and American environmental literature, and especially the mountains, reading, as he in its own day it did not go unnoticed. put it, “the glacial manuscripts of God.”5 Marsh’s arguments helped prompt a For Muir, nature, especially mountain- number of states–the ½rst was Nebras- ous nature, had become a religion. In ka, in 1872–to establish an Arbor Day nature he found a religion that was dis- for the planting of trees, and they helped sociated from his father’s harsh disci- stimulate the movement for forest pro- pline, a Jehovah that was joyful. tection that led to the creation after 1885 His new faith transcended all human of the Adirondack State Park and Pre- measures, including the scale that rele- serve, in New York, a huge upstate re- gated nature to the service of human serve of forest and stream that in 1894, needs and desires. From his ½rst days in in their new constitution, the state’s vot- the Sierras, Muir felt called to “preach- ers declared should be kept “forever ing these mountains like an apostle.”6 wild.” However, the measure was enact- He sang the natural wonders of the West ed not only to sustain the spirits of the in The Mountains of California, a book citizens of New York but also to main- that distilled all his readings of nature tain the great watershed the Adiron- into a kind of extended poem. He turned dacks comprised and that fed the needs themes of groundwater into lyrical cele- of the downstate metropolis. brations of the Sequoia, and he lamented Meanwhile, the federal government that “man is in the woods, and waste and had gotten busy on behalf of nature, too. pure destruction are making rapid head- Between 1891 and 1897, by presidential way,” continuing, “If the importance of proclamation, it set aside close to 40 mil- forests were at all understood, even from lion acres in new forest reserves in most an economic standpoint, their preserva- of the Western states. The actions infuri- tion would call forth the most watchful ated many Westerners, who took them attention of government.” Yet Muir’s to mean that the forests were to be forev- call for forest preservation was energized er locked away from all use. In the Sen- far less by economics than by devotion ate, Westerners declared that they were to a romantic religion of nature.7 victims of Eastern imperialism, empha- sizing that their constituents needed timber for homes and mines. The re- serves were maintained, but Congress 5 William Frederic Badé, The Life and Letters of John Muir, vol. 1 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, insisted that they be subjected to man- 1924), 178. aged use and development under the control of the Secretary of the Interior. 6 Stephen R. Fox, The American Conservation A hybrid outlook pervaded the poli- Movement: John Muir and His Legacy (Madison: tics of trees and forests. In the late nine- University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 4–7, 12– 13, 82–83, 51–52. teenth century, with the frontier closing, millions of Americans loved trees, partly 7 John Muir, The Mountains of California (New with the worshipful regard of Muir but York: The Century Co., 1894 [1898 printing]), also partly with the economic estimation 192–200. Muir later wrote of the Sierras as “pervaded with divine light,” declaring that all of its creatures and rocks were “throbbing Muir, Our National Parks (Boston: Houghton, and pulsing with the heartbeats of God.” John Mifflin, 1903 [1901]), 76–77.

82 Dædalus Spring 2008 of Marsh. A preservationist constituen- ebrations of the deity in Nature. Even The con- cy emerged in the Far West at the end of laissez-faire politicos were rendered sup- tested Earth the nineteenth century, its presence sig- porters of federal regulation of the use of naled by the founding of the Sierra Club nature by the looming reality of limits, in California. Even Western business- or, in the otherwise recalcitrant West, men, as resistant as they were to the by what federal conservation might do withdrawals of timber lands, acknowl- for their local interests. In these regards, edged the need for water-oriented con- the ½rst environmental movement offers servation. They convinced themselves something of a guide for how to cope that the salvation of the region would be with the issues of environmentalism in irrigation, what Secretary of the Interior our own day, which pose questions of John Noble, in 1893, called “the magic equity, development, and resistance, in- wand” that would make the trans-Mis- creasingly on a global scale. sissippi region a hundred years hence densely populated and rich. Westerners Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was recognized that if there were to be irri- promptly translated into twelve foreign gation, there had to be forests to supply languages, thus extending the American watershed for the rivers that would be environmental sensibility abroad and dammed and diverted, and they eventu- no doubt helping to ignite the environ- ally compromised with the movement to mentalism that swept into most West- maintain them. ern nations during the 1960s. Carson’s The conservationist character of the book–and those by other agitator-biolo- state and federal enactments of the late gists such as Paul Ehrlich, who warned nineteenth century would have won about the ticking population bomb, and applause from George Perkins Marsh, Barry Commoner, who emphasized the but Henry Thoreau might have deplored jeopardy that Western capitalism posed much of it. John Muir did deplore the to the natural environment–had an ef- considerable parts that applied to trees. fect akin to that of intellectual sparks And soon, at the apogee of the conser- dropped in tinder: material, cultural, vation movement in the early twentieth and political circumstances that made century, he fought unsuccessfully to save not only American society but all the the Hetch Hetchy Valley, in California, Western nations ripe for an environ- from the conservationist drive to dam mental movement with an increasing- and flood it for the sake of ensuring the ly planetary sensibility and that have water supply of San Francisco. helped sustain it now for more than for- The environmental politics of the era ty years.8 revealed that a sea change had occurred A common ingredient in the tinder in American attitudes toward the con- was the advent of affluence and more trol of nature. The environmentalism extensive education in the United States, that blossomed in the 1890s and flour- Western Europe, and sectors of the ished up to World War I engaged a broad Third World newly emancipated from coalition of different groups, from hard- colonial control. In the closing decades headed conservationists to romantic preservationists. It drew heavily on sci- ence and scientists, bringing issues such 8 See Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971); Paul Ehrlich, The as watershed, ground cover, and wildlife Population Bomb (Rivercity, Mass.: Rivercity habitat as much into the equation as cel- Press, 1975).

Dædalus Spring 2008 83 Daniel J. of the twentieth century, Americans es, reservoirs, and canals constructed to Kevles grew increasingly concerned about their irrigate hitherto arid lands. As a result of on nature quality of life, and many took quality to federal reclamation projects, in the quar- include the availability of uncorrupted ter century after 1945, the amount of ir- preserves of nature–forests, streams, rigated land in the West nearly doubled, deserts, and mountains–which the reaching almost 37 million acres. spreading affluence enabled them to The federal water and power projects repair (and to some degree corrupt by stimulated resentment. Irrigation tend- their presence).9 ed to favor agribusiness over small farms The preservationists’ West, however, and ranches. Dams inundated canyons was undergoing rapid transformation, and valleys, many of them belonging spurred by local ambitions and by the to Native Americans, and they angered embrace of cold war imperatives, includ- people who cared about protecting ing the conviction that national securi- Western lands from human damage. The ty required dynamic economic develop- resentments burst into full view during ment. Federal defense contracts poured the early 1950s in the battle over Dino- into the region, promoting the expan- saur National Monument in northwest- sion of existing industries, notably air- ern Colorado, near the Utah border. craft and ships; nurturing the develop- The monument covered hundreds of ment of incipient ones, particularly miles of wild, gorgeously colored can- rockets and electronics; and stimulating yons carved by the Green and Yampu the creation of new ones. In Hanford, Rivers, part of the Upper Basin of the Washington, a giant nuclear complex Colorado River. Since the Truman years, grew out of the Manhattan Project’s the federal government’s plans for the wartime installation along the Columbia basin included the construction of two River, while in Colorado, a defense-ori- dams in Dinosaur, one of them at Echo ented chemical industry began to grow Park. Western advocates of the dams around federal installations for research argued that they were badly needed for in chemical warfare. the electric power and irrigation that The growth was enabled to a consid- would bolster economic development erable degree by federal water and pow- and national security. Preservationists er projects that had originated during fought the dams partly to protect the the New Deal, proceeded through World national park system, but mainly to pre- War II, and in peace became a staple of vent the loss forever of the river canyons the regional economy. For example, in of Echo Park itself. In 1956, with the Di- Washington, the gargantuan Grand Cou- nosaur dams becoming the most contro- lee Dam on the Columbia River, com- versial environmental issue since Hetch pleted in 1941, was joined by more than Hetchy, Congress passed an omnibus bill twenty-½ve more dams built on the riv- authorizing the Upper Colorado Basin er and its tributaries in the quarter cen- project without the two dams, substitut- tury after the war. The dams were cou- ing for them a dam at Glen Canyon in pled with an extensive network of ditch- Arizona. The Dinosaur battle united preserva- 9 Samuel P. Hays, in collaboration with Bar- tionists into a powerful coalition, in- bara D. Hays, Beauty, Health, and Permanence: cluding enthusiasts of white water, wild- Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955– life, and wilderness, and armed them 1985 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). with political, legal, and technical ex-

84 Dædalus Spring 2008 pertise. The victory encouraged them Metropolitan people of the 1960s were The con- tested to go on the offensive, lobbying for a perhaps more responsive than their fore- Earth law of broad-gauged wilderness preser- bears to the tangible threats of pollution. vation to prevent any future Echo Parks, Expectations of good health and longer an initiative that resulted in the Wilder- life spans were rising as conventional ness Act of 1964 and in numerous efforts sanitation combined with antibiotics since then to withdraw desert lands, old- appeared to be wiping out infectious growth forests, and ecological treasures disease. There was a corresponding in- from human depredation. crease in the attribution of noninfec- In the 1950s, the cold war helped fur- tious diseases–notably cancer–to en- ther to lay the foundation for the second vironmental sources, and a compara- environmental movement by generat- ble growth in eagerness to wipe those ing controversy over radioactive fall- causes out. Then, too, the same dynam- out from nuclear testing in the atmos- ic response to the war in Vietnam that phere. Claims that testing had no ad- turned many scientists as well as laypeo- verse health effects were countered by ple into dissidents against the high-tech- many scientists, notably Commoner, nology culture of the cold war helped then at Washington University in St. strengthen the constituency of support Louis, who organized the St. Louis Com- for measures against the advent of envi- mittee for Nuclear Information, which ronmental poisons. The military-indus- mounted a sustained effort to educate trial complex was targeted not only for the public about the impact of global its responsibility in the war but also for fallout on human beings. It was no acci- its complicity in the environmental deg- dent that in Silent Spring Rachel Carson radation of the planet, not least by the repeatedly equated chemical assaults use of defoliants in Vietnam. on the environment with radioactive Pollution and preservation loomed poisoning of the atmosphere and food large in the sights of the new environ- chain. mental movement. During the 1960s Virtually no one felt insulated from and early 1970s, Congress passed laws the poisons of petrochemical society– to clean up the nation’s waters and air, of plastics, pesticides, solvents, abra- the latter by giving the federal govern- sives, and fuel additives whose develop- ment power to set emissions standards ment had accelerated since World War for automobiles (scientists had learned II. Smog respected no neighborhood that cars were responsible for a sizable boundaries. Neither did radiation from fraction of smog). It enacted measures fallout nor toxics in the food chain or to preserve wild and scenic rivers, es- groundwater. Even those who fled to the tablish a national system of trails, and countryside might encounter there the maintain endangered species. In January green algae and dead ½sh of polluted 1970, President Richard Nixon signed streams, or the seepage of chemicals and the National Environmental Policy Act, sewage into the soil and lakes, like Lake which opened the way to his establish- Erie, which in the summer of 1969 was ment later that year of the Environmen- declared a “dying sinkhole.”10 tal Protection Agency (epa), a body with sweeping regulatory powers. The act also directed all federal agencies to take 10 Kirkpatrick Sales, The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement, 1962–1992 into account the environmental impact (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), 19. of their activities, a requirement that

Dædalus Spring 2008 85 Daniel J. gave ordinary citizens the opportunity mentalism’ had come to refer to “up- Kevles to take them to court if they did not. per-class, Anglo-yuppie types” who are on nature Congress cast a cold eye on new irriga- “seen as consumers of Nature or policy tion and dam projects in the West. In technicians.” The alternative groups 1972, the federal government banned the were “about protecting people, not use of ddt, largely as a result of the out- birds and bees,” one of their activists cry that Carson’s book had raised. declared.12 They organized against nu- The mainstream environmental activ- clear power plants, corporate pollution, ism that produced and sustained this and a variety of other hazards in work- landmark body of legislation tended to places and neighborhoods. And they be white and middle to upper-middle goaded some of the mainstream groups, class in composition, and it provoked so- such as the Sierra Club, into concerning cial and economic suspicions. The threat themselves to some degree with envi- to economic growth and jobs in the ronmental justice–that is, with an envi- drive for environmental regulation and ronmentalism that takes the needs and preservation often pitted environmen- vulnerabilities of the urban ghettos as talists against labor and against lower- seriously as it regards those of spotted income people of color. Moreover, the owls and sequoias. assault against toxics at times placed Some of the alternative groups were hazardous waste facilities in or near established and supported by labor or communities of low-income African minority-group activists. Their leaders Americans and Hispanics. In 1990, a included a disproportionately large group of non-Anglo activists warned a number of women–for example, Pen- meeting of environmental-group execu- ny Newman, who campaigned against tives that “the racism and the ‘white- McDonald’s use of polystyrene foam ness’ of the environmental movement packaging and who arrived at an envi- was its ‘Achilles heel.’”11 ronmental conference wearing a pink However, since the 1980s at least part t-shirt, on one side of which was sten- of the environmental movement in the ciled a woman flexing her muscles and United States–notably the local entities captioned, “Tough Women Against Tox- known as ‘alternative groups’–has rec- ics.” Cora Tucker, an African American, ognized that considerations of gender, reported to the same conference that race, and class should have a place in she was tired of going to local govern- the policies and the actions of the en- mental bodies to complain about pollu- vironmental movement. A number de- tants in the community and being told, clined to identify themselves as ‘envi- “ok, Sugar, we’re going to look into ronmentalists,’ preferring local, func- it.”13 The activism of women in local tional names such as Concerned Neigh- environmental issues derived from their bors in Action, Citizens’ Clearinghouse being close to the community ground, for Hazardous Wastes, or The Clamshell sensitive to risks that threatened them- Alliance. For many, the historian Rob- selves and their families, and ferociously ert Gottlieb noted, the term ‘environ- determined to contest them. The New- mans and Tuckers regularly challenged

11 Robert Gottlieb, Forcing the Spring: The Trans- formation of the American Environmental Move- 12 Ibid., 317–318. ment (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993), 260. 13 Ibid., 162–163, 207–208.

86 Dædalus Spring 2008 expert knowledge about environmental ly greeted with a barrage of ridicule and The con- issues and took personal and local expe- denunciation from the chemical indus- tested Earth rience as primary. “You don’t have to be try, parts of the food industry, academ- an elected of½cial or an industry execu- ic scientists allied with both, and pow- tive to have an impact on waste policy,” erful sectors of the media. However, in Newman remarked.14 a report published in May 1963, a spe- The conflicts between material inter- cial panel of Kennedy’s Science Advi- ests and environmental goals made their sory Committee endorsed Carson’s way onto the table of federal policy. For main conclusions, especially her view example, the Clinton administration that pesticides, rather than being used worked out a compromise that would until they were proved to be dangerous, signi½cantly reduce logging on federal should be demonstrated as safe before lands while providing aid to retrain log- they were deployed. gers and to assist communities that If science assisted the ½rst environ- would suffer damage as a result of a new mental movement, it has occupied an law protecting old-growth forests. The increasingly central role in the second administration also issued an executive one, providing keys to the diagnosis of order requiring all federal agencies to pollution as well as its remedies and reg- take account of environmental justice in ulation. It has also enabled the detection whatever they do. and analysis of the global threats to the environment that have captured public Rachel Carson was a biologist as well attention since the 1980s. Indeed, with- as a gifted writer, and in working on Si- out science, the world would be unaware lent Spring she digested a vast range of of ozone depletion and global warming technical publications and consulted nu- –ignorant of both, that is, until it was merous technical experts to build, step too late. by step, through a synthesis of widely Ozone depletion was ½rst recognized scattered facts, “a really damning case by the chemists Frank S. Rowland and against the use of these chemicals as Mario Molina in 1973, when they under- they are now inflicted upon us,” as she took to track the fate of fluorocarbon con½ded to a friend during her work on molecules that were being generated by the volume.15 She lucidly explained the the growing commercial and industrial intricate interconnectedness of nature uses of chlorofluorocarbons (cfcs) in, and how chemical herbicides or insecti- for example, spray cans and air condi- cides applied by earth or aerial spraying tioners. At ½rst they could hardly believe could diffuse through the local soil, be their ½ndings that chlorine atoms bro- carried through ground and surface wa- ken off from the cfcs would seriously ter to distant areas, and accumulate in reduce the ozone layer in the upper at- the wild food chain. She detailed the de- mosphere, which normally blocks ultra- structive impact of these chemicals on violet light from reaching the earth’s ecological niches and their wild inhabi- surface. Such loss of ozone could wreak tants, particularly birds. Despite Car- havoc on human, plant, and animal life son’s credentials, Silent Spring was initial- because ultraviolet radiation can induce skin cancers and cataracts, lower the yields of basic crops, and kill tiny organ- 14 Ibid., 162–163. isms in the ocean food chain. Rowland 15 Brooks, The House of Life, 243–245. and Molina’s analysis, though much dis-

Dædalus Spring 2008 87 Daniel J. puted for years, was gradually con½rmed greenhouse, trapping some of the solar Kevles by scientists conducting computer simu- radiation that constantly bathes the on nature lations of the atmosphere and, more dra- earth. Without the greenhouse trapping, matically, by a British team who in 1985 the reflected radiation would escape in- detected an enormous depletion of the to outer space, and the earth would be ozone layer over a huge region of Ant- some sixty degrees cooler on average arctica.16 than it is. But we can have too much of The principal source of global warm- a good thing. Arrhenius, who wrote his ing is the greenhouse effect. An ordinary article primarily to account for the type greenhouse becomes warmer than the of climatic swings that had produced the air outside it by trapping radiation from ebb and flow of glaciers, calculated that co the sun. The sun’s rays, having entered a tripling of the amount of 2 from through the roof glass, are partly reflect- then-current levels would raise Arctic ed back up to the glass, which in turn re- temperatures as much as sixteen degrees flects some of them back into the green- Fahrenheit. house space. In 1896, Svante Arrhenius, Because industrial growth has stimu- the eminent Swedish physical chemist, lated a steady increase in the burning pointed out in a brilliant article, “On the of fossil fuels–and, as a result, a steady Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air increase in the amount of carbon diox- co upon the Temperature on the Ground,” ide released into the atmosphere– 2 that the earth and its atmosphere form concentrations have increased around a natural greenhouse.17 Carbonic acid 25 percent since Arrhenius’s day. The consists of–and in the atmosphere dis- oceans soak up carbon dioxide, as do sociates into–water and carbon dioxide plants and trees. However, the ocean (co ). The carbon dioxide comes from does not have an in½nite capacity for 2 co the joining of carbon and oxygen, one of absorbing 2, and even though trees the most common chemical processes and shrubby forests still cover some 40 on the earth. It occurs in the burning percent of the earth, deforestation has of carbon-abundant organic matter, in- been taking place at an accelerating rate. co cluding forests ignited by lightning or Almost half the rise in atmospheric 2 coal and oil ½red by man. since the beginning of the industrial era Carbon dioxide is a trace chemical in has occurred in roughly the last forty the air, only a few hundred parts in ev- years. Moreover, other trace atmospher- ery million air molecules, yet even that ic gases that have also been pouring into small amount acts like the glass in a the atmosphere–notably the cfcs and co methane–intensify the 2-induced greenhouse effect by between 50 and 150 16 The discussion here and below of ozone de- percent. pletion and the world measures taken to com- Human beings have produced the bat it is based on Richard Elliot Benedick, cfcs, and human beings are at least Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer- partly, if indirectly, responsible for the sity Press, 1991). methane increase, even though the gas is generated by a variety of natural pro- 17 The paper, an extract from a more extensive cesses–for example, the breakdown of version that had been presented to the Royal organic matter by bacteria in such lo- Swedish Academy of Sciences, December 11, 1895, appeared in Philosophical Magazine 41 cales as rice paddies and the guts of cows (April 1896): 237–276. and termites. It can be argued that peo-

88 Dædalus Spring 2008 ple, by killing trees, have made more produce. Like many people in the mod- The con- dead wood for termites to feed on. Cer- ern era, he has been troubled by a crisis tested Earth tainly they have raised more and more of religious belief and says that he has cows and rice to nourish the rapidly “overcome it to a greater or a lesser de- growing human population. gree by locating God in nature,” declar- co The climatic impact of 2 was ing, “Most of the glimpses of immortal- brought dramatically to the public’s at- ity, design, and benevolence that I see tention by the brutally hot spring and come from the natural world.”19 summer of 1988, which blistered streets To McKibben’s mind, we need a na- in U.S. cities, brought drought and crop ture that is raw, wild, untainted by man disasters to many farms, and fed a seem- “so that we can worry about our human ingly endless ½re in Yellowstone Nation- affairs secure in our knowledge of the al Park. Suddenly, the greenhouse ef- eternal inhuman.” His vision is global, fect commanded alarmed consideration but his sensibility is especially Ameri- on the front pages of newspapers, on the can, drawing from the powerful Edenic broadcast networks, at celebrity bene- theme in American culture, the percep- ½ts, and in Congress, where, at a hearing tion of the continent’s unspoiled natural on the subject in June 1988, Senator J. environment as a garden of innocence. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana publicly Like Nathaniel Hawthorne, who bridled worried about the 101-degree tempera- when, at ease in a forest clearing, he tures in the capital and the ruin of soy- heard the blast of a distant train whistle, bean, corn, and cotton crops. In testi- McKibben resents the intrusions into mony at the hearing, the respected cli- nature of human technologies and their matologist James Hansen declared that ravages. He writes, echoing Rachel Car- the warming of recent years was 99 per- son, “We never thought that we had cent likely to have been the result of the wrecked nature. Deep down, we never greenhouse effect. He said, “It’s time to really thought we could: it was too big stop waffling so much. It’s time to say and too old; its forces–the wind, the the earth is getting warmer.”18 rain, the sun–were too strong, too ele- Bill McKibben responded to the pros- mental.” But he came to believe that pect of human-caused–or anthropogen- we have wrecked it, writing, “We have ic–climate change by writing The End of changed the atmosphere, and thus we Nature, an eloquent and early warning, are changing the weather. By changing published in 1989, that “the idea of na- the weather, we make every spot on ture will not survive the new global pol- earth man-made and arti½cial. There lution–the carbon dioxide and the cfcs will be nothing natural about the spring and the like.” A writer who then lived in rain, the winter snows, or the July heat the Adirondack Mountains, McKibben wave; nothing natural about the seasons is something of a latter-day union of Ra- –nothing inhuman about nature.”20 chel Carson and John Muir. He possesses McKibben contended that nature de- detailed knowledge of the science un- serves to be preserved for its own sake, derlying the process of global warming not for ours. The idea, advanced by ani- and of the social and economic conse- mal rights activists and ‘deep ecologists,’ quences that the warming is likely to 19 Ibid., 58, 71. 18 Bill McKibben, The End of Nature (New York: Random House, 1989), 26. 20 Ibid., 58.

Dædalus Spring 2008 89 Daniel J. among others, rests on the premise that More important, the declaration of Kevles nature itself has rights, and on the cor- deep ecologists that nature possesses on nature ollary that we, being only one species rights equal to those of man poses per- among many, have no intrinsic author- plexing problems for political democra- ity over any others, or even over rocks.21 cy. Are the rights of a free-flowing river Dave Foreman, of the deep ecology absolute? Can it flow freely over, say, a group Earth First!, admonished that you farmer’s crops and house? If not, we are protect a river because “it has a right to placed at a loss, since rivers and grizzly exist by itself,” adding, “The grizzly bear bears are unable to negotiate with us the in Yellowstone Park has as much right to boundaries of their rights and ours. Po- her life as any one of us has to our life.” litical democracy knows how to adjudi- Before learning about the greenhouse ef- cate conflicts between human groups fect, McKibben thought such ideas were about their respective interests in na- extreme; then he came to sympathize ture, but it has no calculus for weighing with them, holding them to be “at least the rights of nature as such against the plausible.” He willingly entertained the rights of man. Indeed, since nature can- admittedly “disturbing” and “radical” not speak for itself, its ‘rights,’ if they idea that “individual suffering–animal exist, must necessarily be interpreted or human–might be less important than by human beings, refracted through hu- the suffering of species, ecosystems, the man sensibilities, de½ned in ways that planet.”22 express human perceptions and inter- However, to establish an ecosystem’s ests. All this is perhaps to say that moral suffering as more important than human and public policy questions concerning suffering is to embrace a biocentric radi- the preservation of nature are not bio- calism that ½nds greater intrinsic value centric but anthropocentric, and that in, for example, a free-flowing river than they are unnecessarily burdened by in- in a billion human beings.23 The eager- jecting into them claims that nature pos- ness to preserve the inhuman in nature sesses intrinsic rights. can lead to claims that are inhumane. It McKibben, who acknowledged the bears remembering that for many people legitimacy of several anthropocentric today–and for most people throughout claims, noted that “the greenhouse ef- most of history–nature has been not be- fect is the ½rst environmental problem nign but harsh, not safe but dangerous. we can’t escape by moving to the woods. If today the Adirondack woods provide There are no personal solutions.”24 The spiritual sustenance, it is because man– long-standing environmental slogan– civilization–has tamed the wild enough ‘Think globally, act locally’–has to be to make it comforting. modi½ed in the greenhouse age to in- clude global action. The nations of the world demonstrat- 21 See Roderick Frazier Nash, The Rights of Na- ed they could take global action when ture: A History of Environmental Ethics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989). in 1987 they negotiated the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete 22 McKibben, The End of Nature, 180, 182, 185– the Ozone Layer, an agreement that was 186. signed by sixty nations. The Montreal Protocol reflected both scienti½c knowl- 23 David Graber, in a review of McKibben’s book, Los Angeles Times Book Review, October 22, 1989, 9. 24 McKibben, The End of Nature, 204.

90 Dædalus Spring 2008 edge and economic interests–that is, iting or, better yet, reducing the emis- The con- it took account of how much various sion of co into the atmosphere, both tested 2 Earth chemicals contributed to ozone loss and by curbing the burning of fossil fuels how important any of them might be or managing the surface of the Earth co to a nation’s manufacturing. The agree- so that more 2 is absorbed by plant ment was thus a flexible one, requiring life, especially trees. With regard to the participating nations to limit production latter measure, the major challenge is of selected groups of ozone-depleting eerily reminiscent of what preoccupied chemicals rather than each and every George Perkins Marsh–the preserva- one. The Protocol took effect on January tion or restoration of forests. 1, 1989, having been rati½ed by twenty- Some of the world’s greatest remain- nine nations and the Commission of the ing forests are located in the Third European Community, which together World, and the regions of the planet accounted for 83 percent of global con- comprising it harbor active constituen- sumption of cfcs and a related class of cies for forests. Indigenous peoples– chemicals called halons. natives whose communities have long The Montreal Protocol was designed resided in rural areas and wrested a liv- to be modi½ed–without extensive for- ing directly from the forested habitat– mal renegotiation–in response to new have increasingly resisted the accelerat- scienti½c, economic, and technological ing deprivation of their lands by agricul- information. In 1988 and 1989, it became tural development, declaring at a meet- clear that cfcs and halons were impli- ing in Paris in 1991 that they were no cated in the ozone collapse over Ant- longer willing “to allow ‘progress and arctica: that ozone had diminished by development’ to continue to take posses- small but signi½cant amounts over heav- sion of our territory to the clear detri- ily populated areas of the world; and ment of ourselves.” that further signi½cant depletion of the In India in December 1972, women in ozone layer would occur even if every the Uttarkhand region of Uttar Pradesh nation in the world conformed to the grew angry at the clear-cutting of ash Montreal Protocol. Combined with the trees. The depletion of the forest meant rapid appearance of cfc-substitutes, that they had to search further and lon- the new scienti½c results helped lead in ger for fodder, fuel, and leaves to use for 1990 to a toughening of the Protocol’s thatching their huts. The women decid- requirements, particularly to an increase ed to “Hum chipak jayenge,” or cling to in the types of ozone-depleting chemi- the trees to prevent the lumber company cals it covered and a speed-up in the rate from cutting them down. Vimla Bahugu- at which they were to be drastically re- na, who emerged as the leader of the duced and then phased out. Richard ‘Chipko movement,’ as the tree-hugging Benedick, a U.S. foreign service of½cer, was termed, likened the women’s reac- headed American preparations for the tion to that “of a mother when she and Montreal deliberations and was the chief her child encounter a wild animal–she U.S. negotiator of the Protocol. In his instinctively hugs her child close, to pro- view, it was “a prototype for an evolving tect it.”25 By the 1980s, the movement new form of international cooperation” to deal with the other new dangers. 25 Sakuntala Narasimhan, “The Roots of a The principal other danger is global Movement,” Connexions 41 (Winter 1993): warming. Dealing with it requires lim- 22–23.

Dædalus Spring 2008 91 Daniel J. had expanded beyond the protection of tended to be local and traditional. Their Kevles existing trees to include teaching land- efforts have not been targeted at staving on co nature use techniques, nursery management, off global warming. Trees respire 2 and reforestation methods. A govern- whatever the reason they are in place, ment forestry of½cial commented that but the maintenance of forests, not to Chipko “has achieved more in ten years mention restraint in the burning of fos- than the forestry department could sil fuels, have been persistently chal- have done in one hundred years,” but lenged by aspirations for development he might have added that its support within the Third World and encourage- has broadened far beyond the region’s ment of it from Northern interests. women because deforestation in the Hi- Indeed, echoing Westerners in the malayas is severely impairing the water- United States in the late nineteenth cen- shed for the Ganges Plain and the rough- tury, spokesmen for Third World devel- ly 250 to 300 million people who depend opment contend that the initiatives for on it.26 the protection of nature coming from In Brazil, the activist Chico Mendes the North amount to a kind of environ- led an effective movement for a dozen mental imperialism. Questions have years to preserve the Amazonian rain been raised about Northern demands forests and the way of life of the Indians that the poorer countries limit new de- inhabiting them, who sustained them- velopment–by, for example, forgoing selves with an economy based on tap- the use of fossil fuels–so as to reduce ping the rubber trees. (In 1988, Mendes further pollution of the global atmos- was killed by the son of a cattle rancher phere, a public good whose bene½ts who wanted to turn more of the rain would be shared by the industrial North forest into pasture.) Even so, as of 1990, and paid for disproportionately by the the juggernaut of development had al- less developed South. Third World lead- ready destroyed 408,000 square kilome- ers want industrial development, auto- ters of the rain forest, about 10 percent mobiles, larger croplands–everything of the total before 1970 and an area obtainable from the burning of fossil about the size of Iraq. Since then, anoth- fuels and the clearing of forests. The er 300,000 square kilometers has disap- Chinese have the most abundant coal peared, bringing the total loss since 1970 reserves in the world and no doubt hold to 17 percent.27 that they also possess the right to exploit However, the interests of Mendes’s that resource for their material advance- followers or the Chipko movement have ment.28 Prior to the un-sponsored Earth Sum- 26 Robert A. Hutchison, “A Tree Hugger Stirs mit in Rio, in 1992, Brazil’s representa- Villagers in India to Save Their Forests,” Smith- tives insisted that the developing world sonian 18 (February 1988): 184–195. cannot allow environmental concerns to interfere with the need to ½nd homes 27 The ½gures are taken from the annual satel- lite survey done by the National Institute of and jobs for its citizens. They issued a Space Research in Brazil. They are conveniently declaration insisting that “Third World summarized in a table in the Wikipedia entry countries have the right to increase their for ‘Amazon Rainforest,’ http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Amazon_Rainforest#Measured_rates _of_deforestation_in_the_Amazon, accessed 28 Christopher Flavin, Slowing Global Warming: February 23, 2008. See also Michael S. Serrill, A Worldwide Strategy, Worldwatch Paper 91, “Brazil’s Two Faces,” Time, June 8, 1992, 74. Worldwatch Institute, October 1989, 8.

92 Dædalus Spring 2008 consumption of energy to attend to their capita contributions while the United The con- development needs.”29 Economic devel- States leads the highest-producing tested Earth opment also appeals to imperative ethi- group. cal claims. In 1991, a United Nations sur- The London revisions of the Montreal vey reported that in the industrialized Protocol demonstrated that inequalities North some 200 million people live in between Northern and Southern states poverty, while in the Third World about could be addressed. A number of Third 1.1 billion people are poor, half of them World countries came to conclude that “extremely poor.”30 McKibben rightly the 1987 agreement was inequitable be- noted, “The thought that people living cause it allowed developing countries a in poverty, be it desperate poverty or per-capita consumption of the chemicals just depressing poverty, will curb their between twenty and forty times lower desire for a marginally better life simply than that for industrialized countries. because of something like the green- Third World countries, considering house effect is, of course, absurd.”31 cfcs essential to raise their living stan- The inhabitants of modern industrial dards, especially for air conditioning and societies burn the preponderance of the refrigeration, therefore insisted, as their fossil fuels that the world uses, in their price for conforming to the Montreal cars, homes, and factories. While in the Protocol, that they be given technical early 1990s, the entire Third World was and ½nancial assistance for acquiring responsible for only some 35 percent substitutes. co of 2 emissions, the United States The Northern countries had good rea- alone accounted for about 25 percent sons to heed the Third World demand of them.32 In keeping with their tidal on grounds of both equity and self-inter- wave of economic growth since, the est. Since cfc technology was inexpen- bric countries–Brazil, Russia, India, sive and uncomplicated, the developing and China–now emit about the same countries, if they wanted, could obtain proportion of the world’s greenhouse it easily, use it to produce cfcs, and sell gases as does the industrialized West. huge quantities of the chemicals to their China’s contribution to the total now enormous populations. They could thus roughly equals that of the United States, undermine the North’s efforts to protect still about 25 percent. However, the bric the ozone layer. Since the costs of fur- countries rank among the lowest in per- ther damage to the ozone layer would be high, assisting developing countries with 29 Serrill, “Brazil’s Two Faces,” 74. the development of technology that would cut down the need for cfcs ap- 30 Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1991, 3. peared to be a wise investment. In the London revisions of the Protocol, the 31 McKibben, The End of Nature, 201. industrial nations set up a fund to do so. 32 Flavin, Slowing Global Warming, 8; The Free However, restraining global warming Library.com, “‘bric’ countries top many in- is likely to prove far tougher than man- dustrialized nations in environmental commit- aging ozone depletion. The chief culprit ment,” http://www.thefreelibrary.com/“bric” in ozone depletion was just one family +countries+top+many+industrialized+nations of chemicals, for which substitutes could +in+environmental . . . -a0173190005; Power- bric be found. In contrast, the imposition of Technology.com, “Rise of the Nations,” co http://www.power-technology.com/features/ limitations on the emission of 2 poses feature1417/ (both accessed February 23, 2007). vast dif½culties for the world precisely

Dædalus Spring 2008 93 Daniel J. because everyone’s life and expectations supported the original Convention, and Kevles are so entwined with the burning of fos- Clinton did the same with the Kyoto on nature sil fuels. What might be substituted for Protocol, but he never submitted it to them is not at all obvious. Solar and the Senate. Congress had made clear wind energy will not likely supply a sig- that it objected to any agreement on ni½cant fraction of world energy de- greenhouse gas emissions that might mand, and nuclear energy poses its own disadvantage the United States in com- deep environmental and safety prob- petition with Third World countries. By lems. In short, replacing fossil fuels with the time Clinton left of½ce, the United co other energy sources poses far greater States was emitting 15 percent more 2 technical challenges than devising sub- than in 1990. It is one of the only two stitutes for cfcs–and therefore far industrialized countries that have not greater challenges to equitable distribu- rati½ed the Kyoto Protocol.34 tion of the costs of safeguarding the glo- By the beginning of this century, a bal environment. broad scienti½c consensus had devel- Dealing with the problem of global oped that anthropogenic global warm- warming demands some combination ing was in fact occurring. The adminis- of imagination and leadership, yet since tration of President George W. Bush, the late 1980s the government of the however, refused early in its ½rst term to co United States, the world’s greatest 2 support the Kyoto Treaty, saying that it polluter, has provided little of either. would damage the American economy, To be fair, in 1988 prominent scientists and it has since retreated into obfusca- cautioned that the heat of that blister- tion, implying that the science of global ing summer could have been a random warming is unsound. In 2006, the case event, a local statistical variation on a for the soundness of the science was steady climate. The greenhouse effect compellingly laid out in Al Gore’s Incon- was held to be a complex topic, riddled venient Truth and the Oscar-winning doc- with uncertainty. At the Earth Summit, umentary ½lm of the same title, with its in June 1992, the world’s nations nev- depiction of the impact of the warming ertheless prudently adopted the un on the polar ice caps, showing how they Framework Convention on Climate are rapidly melting.35 If there was any Change to seek “stabilization of green- doubt about the science, surely it was house gas concentration in the atmos- laid to rest when in 2007 Gore shared phere at a level that would prevent dan- the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergov- gerous anthropogenic interference with ernmental Panel on Climate Change, the climate system.”33 which for some two decades, drawing In December 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, on the work of thousands of scientists the framers of the Convention gave it around the globe, had issued authorita- teeth, mandating that its adherent na- tive reports on the connection between tions commit to reducing their green- human activities and global climate house gas emission to 1990 levels or be- change. low by the year 2000. The ½rst President George Bush and President Clinton both 34 Ibid., 151–158.

33 Elizabeth Kolbert, Field Notes from a Catas- 35 Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary trophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (New Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can York: Bloomsbury, 2006), 152–153. Do About It (Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 2006).

94 Dædalus Spring 2008 Yet even if the next administration The con- embraces the science, which it should, tested Earth it will have to ½nd ways to resolve the issues of equity across lines of class, re- gion, and hemisphere. Support for in- digenous efforts like the Chipko move- ment would surely help. So would ½- nancial assistance from the North to the South for acquiring and producing greener technologies. In all, arrange- ments will have to be devised that limit the First World’s emissions of green- house gases while enabling the Third World to continue developing, though in ways that mitigate its contributions to global warming.

Dædalus Spring 2008 95 Annals by John Hope Mason

Rousseau in England

On January 15, 1766, the London Chron- losophy”), and observed that “his na- icle announced: “On Monday last arrived tive city thought proper . . . to banish in town the celebrated Jean-Jacques him, and, after wandering from state to Rousseau . . . [who] has been brought state, exclaiming at the prejudice and into much trouble and vexation, both malice of mankind, half a philosopher in Switzerland and in France, for having and half a humorist, dressed in an Ar- ventured to publish, in many works, his menian habit, and mistaking novelty of sentiments with a spirit and freedom opinion for justness of thinking, he has which cannot be done with impunity in at length thought proper to end his days any kingdom or state except this blessed . . . in this land of boasted liberty.”3 Eng- island.”1 land’s liberty was “boasted,” because Two days later the Westminster Journal unlike France (and elsewhere) its mon- recorded his arrival “in this city, to shel- archy was not absolute, its press was ter himself from the persecution of the free, and its degree of religious tolera- numberless bigots of the Continent.”2 tion was comparatively high. Shortly after, another contributor to the Rousseau had had a reputation in Eu- London Chronicle praised his Discours sur rope since the publication (in 1760) of l’inégalité, expressed some reservation La Nouvelle Héloïse (soon translated into about La Nouvelle Héloïse (which “did English), and then (two years later) of more honour to his genius than his phi- Emile. The latter, however, contained an account of “natural religion” that praised the teaching of the Gospels,4 John Hope Mason is Emeritus Professor of Intel- lectual History and Political Thought at Middle- 1 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Correspondance com- sex University. He is the author of “The Irresis- plète, ed. R. A. Leigh (Geneva: Institut et musée tible Diderot” (1982) and “The Value of Creativ- Voltaire, 1965–1998), xxix, 296. ity” (2003). He has also edited “The Indispensa- ble Rousseau” (1979) and coedited Denis Dide- 2 Ibid., xxix, 295. rot’s “Political Writings” (with Robert Wokler, 3 Ibid., xxviii, 352. 1992). 4 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Oeuvres complètes, ed. © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts B. Gagnebin et al. (Paris: Gallimard, 1959– & Sciences 1995), iv.629.

96 Dædalus Spring 2008 but attacked the idea of divine revela- brown dog, with short ears and a short Rousseau tion5 and described the life and death curled tail,”9 and dismissed by Hume in England of Jesus as those not of “God” but of as “no better than a collie,”10 but to “a god.”6 This led to its immediate con- whom Rousseau himself was very at- demnation by both the Sorbonne and tached. “His affection for that creature,” the Paris Parlement, and the latter issued observed Hume, “is beyond all expres- a warrant for his arrest. The obvious ref- sion or conception.”11 (And it was in- uge for him was Geneva, where he had deed one of the few successful rela- citizenship; but the city-republic was no tionships of Rousseau’s life.) It was at more amenable to the “Profession de foi” Môtiers that Rousseau began wearing in Emile than were the authorities in Par- an Armenian caftan, partly for medi- is. In addition, the Contrat social, his tract cal reasons (he had a constriction of on republican government, published the urethra, which meant he had to use almost simultaneously in Amsterdam, catheters), and partly because, in the contained a chapter on civil religion in words of the ½rst page of his Confessions, which Rousseau attacked Christianity “I am not made like anyone else I have for having become in practice a “vio- seen. I dare to suppose that I am not lent despotism,”7 which only preached made like anyone else who exists. If I am “servitude and dependence”;8 in other no better, at least I am different (Si je ne words, it was incompatible with repub- vaut pas mieux, au moins je suis autre).”12 lican freedom and participation. The The rural idyll at Môtiers did not last. Genevan authorities announced that he The religious issue was raised again, this would be arrested if he set foot in the time by the local pastor, and the vehe- city. (This proclamation had a political mence of the pastor’s opposition even- dimension, since Rousseau was allied tually led some of his congregation to with those citizens who were resisting throw stones at the house where Rous- their exclusion from of½ce by the pre- seau and Thérèse were living, after a par- vailing oligarchy.) ticularly hostile sermon one Sunday. It He took refuge instead in Môtiers, a was this incident that then led to Rous- village in the province of Neuchâtel, seau being invited to England. then under the protection of Frederick This came about through the good II of Prussia. There he found a new sta- of½ces of an elderly Scotsman, George bility–delighted by the countryside, and Keith, a Jacobite refugee who had had to soon busy in defending ½rst Emile (his leave the British Isles after the failure of Lettre à Christophe de Beaumont [1763]) the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. He was and then his Genevan compatriots (in subsequently appointed by Frederick the his Lettres de la montagne [1764]). His Great as Governor of Neuchâtel and in household consisted of his companion that capacity had given Rousseau refuge. Thérèse and his dog Sultan, described It was then in the company of Keith’s (one time he went missing) as “a little fellow Scotsman, David Hume, then

5 Ibid., iv.607–608. 9 Correspondance complète, xxix, 1.

6 Ibid., iv.626. 10 Ibid., xxviii, 114.

7 Ibid., iii.462. 11 Ibid., xxviii, 204.

8 Ibid., iii.467. 12 Oeuvres completes, i.5.

Dædalus Spring 2008 97 Annals by Chargé d’affaires at the British Embassy every possible assistance in making him John Hope in Paris, that Rousseau came to London. as miserably unhappy as he could want Mason Hume had a high regard for Rousseau’s to be. Now it was true that Rousseau achievements, describing him as greater was prone to a degree of hypochondria, than Socrates,13 and he took an immedi- but (as it was once observed)16 he was ate liking to Rousseau in person: “I love also the worst kind of hypochondriac– him much . . . . I think I could live with namely, the one who is really ill (as him all my life in mutual friendship and Rousseau was, the result of uraemia in- esteem.”14 fecting his kidneys). The depiction of Rousseau’s arrival in London aroused him as an inveterate misanthrope infuri- huge interest, which was not to his taste, ated him. He assumed that Hume was nor indeed that of Sultan who (disori- behind it. In fact, it had been written by ented by the unfamiliar environment) Horace Walpole, a fluent French speaker ran away on several occasions, though and a frequent visitor to Paris. There, never lost for long. Hume wrote of Rous- he had gotten to know various former seau, at this time, friends of Rousseau, who were no longer well disposed toward him, and who de- [He is] endowed with a lively imagination lighted in telling Walpole how impossi- and . . . a singular simplicity of manners. ble Rousseau was–un homme ombrageux, [He] is indeed a perfect child in the or- moody, dif½cult, and paranoid. This in- dinary occurrences of life. This quality, spired Walpole to write the fake letter. joined to his great sensibility of heart, When Rousseau learned about it he makes him be easily governed by those accused Hume of being its author. This who live with him, . . . his maid in particu- led to a bitter quarrel between them, lar, . . . [and] his dog also has great influ- one that was then revealed to the world ence with him . . . . He would not stay in with the publication of their respective London above a fortnight . . . [and] of the accounts. Less than six months after great variety of scenes which I propose to Hume had brought Rousseau to England him, the most solitary, the most remote, –captivated by his personality and orig- and the most savage place is always that inality–Hume was reported as calling which he prefers.15 the latter “the blackest and most atro- Initially, that place was to be Wales; but cious villain that ever disgraced human then Rousseau was invited to use a house nature.”17 in Derbyshire, on the edge of an area of great natural beauty–the Peak District. Rousseau had ½rst made his name with In late March he, Thérèse, and Sultan a prize-winning essay on the subject (set moved there. The conditions seemed by the Academy of Dijon) of whether ideal and spring would soon arrive. “the revival of the arts and science (i.e., At this point, however, disaster struck. the Renaissance) had contributed to the A letter published in the St. James Chroni- improvement of morality.”18 When he cle, ostensibly from Frederick of Prussia, offered Rousseau asylum in Berlin and 16 Alasdair C. MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1967), 13 Correspondance complète, xxviii, 114. 185.

14 Ibid., xxviii, 203, 290. 17 Correspondance complète, xxx, 22.

15 Ibid., xxviii, 308–309. 18 Oeuvres complètes, iii.1.

98 Dædalus Spring 2008 published the essay, he added two words been performed privately (in 1745). Ra- Rousseau to this question, making it an essay on meau heard some of the score and at- in England whether the Renaissance had improved tacked it with “brutality” and “rage”; “or corrupted” morality. His point was as Rousseau informed a friend, “I have that this revival had done more harm never seen so much conspiracy and ani- than good. In so doing, he acknowledged mosity.”22 He had supposed, as an hon- that he was confronting head-on “all est Swiss, that success came simply with that is currently held in esteem.”19 high achievement, “but I have learnt that In adopting this position, he was fol- other talents are necessary which I nei- lowing a long line of critics of intellec- ther can have nor want to have.”23 tual and cultural achievement, begin- Rameau’s jealousy was not the only ning with the Cynics Antisthenes and thing Rousseau learned from this inci- Diogenes, best known in Seneca’s Epis- dent: “The very rage of my enemies tle 88, and present in a number of Ren- made me aware of my strength; with- aissance texts by Philip Sidney, Erasmus, out their jealousy I would still not be Montaigne, and others.20 It also had aware of my ability to combat them.”24 af½nities with the Roman republican dis- In other words, competition and ill will trust of literature and philosophy. Rous- could be productive. This experience seau’s initial inspiration for his essay– was con½rmed a few years later when his illumination on the road to Vincennes Diderot asked him to contribute articles –was the republican moralist, Fabricius, on music for the Encyclopédie. Rousseau who attacked painters, sculptors, poets, had no great desire to undertake this and dramatists for their extravagance, work, but he saw it as an opportunity self-absorption, and general lack of con- to get his revenge on Rameau. That bad cern for the res publica, and condemned feeling was fruitful: hatred could be Roman society as a whole for being more stimulating; as La Rochefoucauld had concerned with aesthetic activity than observed, “Il y a de méchantes qualités qui moral integrity.21 font de grands talents.”25 The voice of Behind the eloquent attack in the ½rst Fabricius condemning Rome was the Discours, however, was something more voice of Rousseau condemning himself. than a historical tradition; there was The Dijon academy asked whether the also a deeply personal crisis. Rousseau revival of learning and culture since the had come to Paris to make his name as Renaissance had improved morals. Not a writer and composer, but he had found only had they not done that, they could only frustration and disappointment. not do that. His play Narcisse was accepted for per- The central theme of the Discours was formance at the Comédie-Italienne, but not that art corrupts but rather that production was endlessly delayed. A artists are corrupt, not that audiences worse setback occurred with his opera might be adversely affected but rather Les Muses galantes, extracts of which had that aesthetic achievement is often the

19 Ibid., iii.3. 22 Correspondance complète, ii, 87.

20 See John Hope Mason, “Reading Rousseau’s 23 Ibid., ii, 133. First Discourse,” Studies on Voltaire & the 18th Century 249 (1987): 251–266. 24 Ibid., ii, 87.

21 Oeuvres complètes, iii.14–15. 25 La Rouchefoucauld, Maximes, no. 468.

Dædalus Spring 2008 99 Annals by product of the least desirable qualities. Ovid’s erotic Ars amatoria and some John Hope Writers are animated above all, he stat- unde½ned ‘error’32 had caused grave Mason ed, by a “fureur de se distinguer”–to make offense to Augustus, and Augustus had themselves noticed–and in the pursuit banished him from Rome. He was sent of that they care nothing for morality or to one of the outermost places of the the social good. What they want above empire, Tomis (now Constanza, in Ro- all is to be praised: “Tout artiste veut être mania), on the western rim of the Black applaudi. Les éloges de ses contemporains Sea: a bleak and desolate place, with sont la partie la plus précieuse de sa récom- long cold winters (when even the sea pense.”26 So they oscillate between a sometimes froze)33 and inhabited by contempt for public opinion, which they barely civilized people–Sarmatians– must despise in order to be distinctive, who were in continual conflict with the and a constant attention, if not subor- neighboring tribe of Getae.34 “Even dination, to the judgment of others,27 when there is peace,” wrote Ovid, “there which they must take into account in is fear of war”; “nothing outside [the order to win the applause they crave– city] is secure.”35 Yet in these circum- a double dose of bad faith. stances it was he who was the barbarian, In the course of writing the Discours, because he was understood by no one.36 Rousseau had sent a letter to Voltaire in What at the time of Rousseau’s ½rst which he added after his signature, for success (with the ½rst Discours) had been the ½rst time, the appellation “Citoyen a bold claim to individual distinction, de Genève.”28 The ½rst edition of the Dis- became in 1766 an unwelcome fact of cours had on its title page not Rousseau’s life. In England he was indeed almost a name but the words “Par un citoyen de complete outsider; while he could read Genève.” This was followed by an epi- the language he could not speak it, nor graph from Ovid: “Barbarus hic ego sum understand it when spoken.37 As a re- quia non intelligor illis” (“I am a barbarian sult, he was isolated to a degree that he here, because they do not understand had never experienced before. In these me”).29 circumstances, almost the only solace– This line was something of a leitmo- as it had been for Ovid in his Tristia– tif for Rousseau; he had ½rst used it was in writing. “My muse alone com- seven years earlier,30 and was to use it forts me,” wrote Ovid,38 and it was dur- again two years before he died.31 It oc- ing his seventeen months in England curs in an extended sequence of poems that Rousseau wrote much of the ½rst to which Ovid gave the title Tristia (Sor- rows), because they were written in exile. 32 Ovid, Tristia, ii, 207, and iv, 10, 90.

26 Oeuvres complètes, iii.21. 33 Ibid., iii, 10, 37–38.

27 Ibid., iii.19, 21. 34 Ibid., iv, 10, 110.

28 Correspondance complète, ii, 124. 35 Ibid., iii, 10, 65, and v, 10, 17.

29 Oeuvres complètes, iii.1. The citation is from 36 Ibid., iv, i, 87, and v, 10, 36–37. Ovid, Tristia, x, 37. 37 Correspondance complète, xxix, 162, 266, and 30 Correspondance complète, i, 139. xxx, 90.

31 Oeuvres complètes, i.657. 38 Ovid, Tristia, iv, 1, 3, and iv, 19–20.

100 Dædalus Spring 2008 part of his Confessions. But that was not Rousseau all, for this activity came to be more than in England consolation. As alienation may illumi- nate, so exclusion can bring insight; the barbarian may see what the civilized have lost sight of. The very bleakness of Rousseau’s situation stimulated his memory, recapturing the time before he had a name in the world with a magical- ly evocative account of his early life. As the rains fell around him in Derbyshire, the happy years of his prolonged adoles- cence and early manhood came vividly to life once more; and so when he left England the following spring, in May 1767, he did not go empty-handed.

Dædalus Spring 2008 101 Poem by C.D. Wright

Because We Have Been Here Before

It is imagined that all of the world bears our mark, holds our form, and that the land is reminiscent in detail of all that ever came of its issue, was built on its foundation.

What is not in blinding color becomes progressively obscured in shadow.

A bottle rolled to the foot of the hill glinting against the rock that stopped it.

An eruption of silence in the hottest part of day.

The tree was here then, but we have no pictures, no reports, nor is there any score in the bark to show what it might have endured.

It grew quickly and rose to the dormers of the third floor where shots were directed into a shower stall.

A collection of arrowheads taken to a hock shop.

Clapboards, splendid cattails at the swimming hole, and a motel named Capri.

Maunderers and liars, fry cooks and local historians.

Story of a probable patricide. Taverns of long hours and bad pay.

The king snake that lived under her porch.

A closet of [a suspect’s] costumes.

102 Dædalus Spring 2008 Every place will yield its own tragedies and its own efforts to overcome its past.

An animal running into the woods causing all others to halt.

The yew is perhaps the ½rst of its kind on this continent.

There is an obsolete word, meuse, which referred to the form of an animal left by its lying, particularly a hare and other creatures of sport.

C.D. Wright, a Fellow of the American Academy since 2005, is I. J. Kapstein Professor of English at Brown University. She has published numerous volumes of poetry, including “Deepstep Come Shining” (1998), “One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana” (with photographer Deborah Luster, 2003), “Steal Away: New and Selected Poems” (2002), “Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil” (2005), and “Like Something Flying Backwards” (2007). “Rising, Falling, Hovering” will be released this spring.

© 2008 by C.D. Wright

Dædalus Spring 2008 103 Fiction by Wesley Brown

Body and Soul

There was a small group of musicians Leave it to Jimmy to draw ½rst blood. waiting for Coleman Hawkins when his Something Coleman was known for ship docked in New York City. Coleman when they were in the Fletcher Hender- had been away in Europe for ½ve years. son Band together. Nobody had called But with war simmering to a boil, he him Bean since he left the country. Ear- knew it was time to get himself on the ly on, Coleman gained a reputation for ½rst ship steaming back to the States. having a mean ‘bean’ of a brain that al- The welcoming committee included two lowed him to do just about anything he of his oldest friends, Benny Carter and wanted on the tenor saxophone. He kept Jimmy Harrison. After the glad-handing tight-lipped about how good he was, but was out of the way, they started signify- the name stuck and he answered to it. ing to make him feel at home. “I guess if you got a lot of trim over “Hey Bean, you looking as trim as your there in England,” Jimmy said, “you mustache,” Jimmy said. more than likely gonna stay that way yourself.” He enjoyed the laughter that followed but didn’t join in. That was always his Wesley Brown is the author of the novels “Tragic way. Stay close to the mix of what was Magic” (1978), “Darktown Strutters” (1994), going on, but don’t get too familiar with and “Push Comes to Shove” (forthcoming). He it. Laughter continued bouncing around has also written the plays “Boogie Woogie and in everyone’s shoulders. And Coleman Booker T.,” “Life During Wartime,” “A Prophet remembered Jimmy was also called Among Them,” and “Murderess”; and coedited ‘bean,’ but only the kind that went with two anthologies, “Imagining America: Stories the word ‘string.’ He was still all arms from the Promised Land” (with Amy Ling, 1991) and legs, his skinny limbs like rubber, and “Visions of America: Personal Narratives connecting him to the trombone when from the Promised Land” (with Amy Ling, 1993). he played. From 1979 to 2005, he taught creative writing, “So who’s who and what’s what?” American literature, and drama at Rutgers Uni- Coleman asked. versity. He currently teaches literature at Bard Heads swiveled toward one another to College at Simon’s Rock. see if everyone got his drift. “It didn’t take you long to get down to © 2008 by Wesley Brown business,” Benny Carter said.

104 Dædalus Spring 2008 “What business might that be?” the responsibility for that. There was Body and “Bean! You’ve gotten even more slip- more than a little calculation in how Soul pery than you were before you left. But meticulous he was about his appear- you just gonna have to wait ‘cause we ance–from double-breasted Gibraltar- don’t wanna spoil the surprise!” shouldered suits and long spike-collared They all piled into Benny Carter’s shirts to the slim trim of his mustache Cadillac and headed uptown. Benny al- and cut of his nails. He knew the stylish- ways impressed Coleman with how he ly dressed ½gure he cut while playing the held his own in any musical setting. Glenn Miller Band’s hit ballad “Wish- He wasn’t intimidated by reputations, ing (Will Make It So)” would have more whether they preceded his or came after, than a few women rushing up to him af- making him someone who could play terward, hoping to convince him how with the best and never let anyone play anxious they were to please. And he was him cheap. This made them do their best more than happy to have them try– when they challenged each other on sax- which was how he ½rst met Gertie. What ophone or clarinet years before in the he hadn’t ½gured on was how wanting Henderson Band. Benny still had that to please got old when the thrill didn’t barrel chest, easy laughter, and eyes that cut both ways. It would’ve been better soaked up anything worth paying atten- for both of them if Gertie had done what tion to. she probably really wanted to do–which “So Bean, tell us about all the ‘½ne din- was to get up in his face about his late ner’ you had while you were gone,” one hours and demand that he spend more of the other musicians said. time with her. That’s what Coleman “You got me all wrong. The reason I lived for: the opposition he got from came back so trim was because I traveled other musicians who took each other’s light and ate the same way.” best shots and came away from the fray “Man! You as much of a tightwad with the only kind of companionship about giving up any info on all your that made sense to him. overseas chippies as you’ve always been The day after Gertie ½nally left, Cole- about holding onto your money!” man looked around the nearly emp- “I’m sorry fellas, but I follow the old ty apartment. Whatever home they saying that those who tell don’t know.” shared, she’d made and taken it with “You don’t need to worry none, Bean. her. Coleman felt no loss for what was We can’t cut in on your time with ladies gone and saw nothing of himself in who’re way over on the other side of the what remained: a bed, a table, and a ocean.” few chairs. The only thing that mattered They had that right, since no one cut stood upright on a stand in a corner, in on Coleman’s time with women more gleaming like it had been washed in a than he did himself. He was known to burst of light from the sun. Coleman play gigs all night and then ½nd jam ses- often wondered if he could ever be with sions that lasted late into the morning. a woman who needed, as much as he This steady diet of playing fed him cre- did, the opposition that was the same as atively but starved his ½rst marriage. friendship. Good question. Coleman’s wife, Gertie, always greeted Coleman continued to take the ribbing him with a ready-made breakfast and a that tightened the squeeze of bodies on sweetness that only wanted to please. To either side of him. They could have all be honest, he had to accept his share of the fun they wanted, since there were

Dædalus Spring 2008 105 Fiction by more pressing matters on his mind, like ing something constructive to do that Wesley the surprise Benny said was waiting for few people, colored or otherwise, could Brown him later that evening. The convention- do, and then to do it better than anyone al wisdom was that any advances in the else. She told him, he’d be surprised how music were a young man’s game. He many people would flock to be near him looked at his reflection in the rearview once they were aware of how special he mirror. The streamlined mustache that was. His father took a second job to pay curved upward just short of his nostrils for a cello and lessons for their only son. had no traces of gray and still received One of the ½rst things Coleman compliments from women on how it learned about playing the cello was the made his mouth fuller and more expres- amount of breath needed to play it. sive whether he was playing or talking. Pressing himself against its wooden Since he was only a few months shy of body, it surprised him how much he’d thirty-½ve, his hairline had receded a taken breathing for granted. As his bit, something he would ½x by keeping breath breezed along with the groans it cut short. Could it be that he might’ve plucked and bowed across the strung stayed away too long, and would be un- ribs of the cello’s chest, he realized that able to keep pace when challenged by every breath he took gave his ½ngers, these young upstarts who were eager to hands, and arms the strength to bring expose him as a has-been? But being a another sound to life. But nothing pre- little anxious didn’t mean he was fear- pared Coleman for his ½rst sight of a sax- ful. He’d spent too many years honing ophone in a music store window, glisten- his musical chops to believe there was ing like a golden goose whose beak and anyone so good that he wouldn’t have keys, running down its spine, awaited answers for whatever they had to offer. ½ngers and a mouth to make it sing. He Coleman had come a long way since could only marvel at an instrument in his youthful days in the early 1920s, which breathing mouth to mouth was at when he was given top billing as the the heart of making it live. He tried out ‘Saxophone Boy,’ with Mamie Smith the various voices of the saxophone and and her Jazz Hounds. He never men- chose the tenor, whose size nestled com- tioned this period of his life because it fortably in his arms and against his al- froze him in a time he wanted no part ready broad chest, and whose tone was of. Coleman was even close to the vest closest to the range of his voice, which about his birth, saying his father was a had a maturity beyond his twelve years. merchant seaman who met his mother But the one thing that convinced Cole- on the Cape Verde Islands, where they man that he had to play the saxophone, married. He was born at sea on a mer- and made him laugh out loud whenever chant ship heading back to the United he thought about it, was the fact that States. So there was no record of the ac- he could blow into the mouth of this tual date or year of his birth. The here long-necked bird of a horn and hear his and now was all that interested him. breath burst out of the other end, which On the rare occasions when Coleman looked like the place where the sun dwelled on the past at all, it usually re- didn’t shine! lated to music he was thinking about at Coleman tuned in and out of the talk the moment. He recalled the advice of going on in the car and found himself his mother, Cordelia, whose voice ham- hearing his father’s voice, as it sounded mered into him the importance of ½nd- when he was a child. William Hawkins

106 Dædalus Spring 2008 was a man of few words. But when he remember feeling much of anything Body and spoke to Coleman, it usually took the afterward. The fact of his father’s death Soul form of a story. One of his favorites was seemed less important than the way he about the legendary outlaw Jesse James, took his life. Aside from walking into the who was shot dead in 1882 by Robert river, he did nothing that was a depar- Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri, the city ture from his daily routine. It wasn’t his where Coleman was born. According father’s way to draw attention to him- to family lore, Coleman’s grandmother self. He went about his business without had once let James hide out in her home, making a big fuss. And when he decided while he was on the lam from the law. that the price for living his life was more William Hawkins never bought into the than he was willing to pay, he calmly got stories of James robbing the rich and out of a world that didn’t allow him to giving to the poor. Like most of the col- live in it the same way he was leaving ored in St. Joe, James came into the it. Coleman learned the lesson of his fa- world with very little but did more harm ther’s life very well and didn’t feel there than good while he was in it. If he had was any reason to grieve. He’d found his any saving graces, the one Coleman’s own way of separating himself from the father took to heart was James’s philos- world. But instead of getting out of this ophy of how the world worked. Those life by taking his own, Coleman left his who had the best of everything in life waking life by making another out of his made sure that other people paid for it, own breath. which is what the rich did. And the on- Fingers snapped Coleman out of his ly people who paid for everything were reverie. those who could least afford to. His fa- “Damn, Bean,” Jimmy said. “You ain’t ther made it clear that this never jus- been back an hour and you already off ti½ed stealing, even from those who somewhere else.” were thieves themselves. So Coleman “String Bean! You got anything better embraced his mother’s view that he de- for me to think about until we get to the served nothing less than the good life, Savoy?” with all the trimmings worthy of his “That’d be dif½cult to do, since you gift. By 1923, he found, in Fletcher Hen- ain’t never allowed anyone to get much derson, a bandleader who was more of a peep inside your head.” than willing to pay for his young virtu- “It’s all there for anybody to hear oso’s expensive tastes in clothes, food, when I play.” liquor, and fancy cars. “Things’ve changed since you been In 1936, while performing in Switzer- away. Folks want a lot more from musi- land, Coleman received a letter from cians they’re paying their hard-earned his mother that his father had died. A money to see. You know what cats were newspaper article, included with her saying about you when you left?” letter, reported that William Hawkins, Coleman didn’t press Jimmy to answer age sixty, stood on the bank of the Mis- his own question. Why should he care souri River around noon, lit his pipe, one way or the other what anyone said adjusted his glasses, buttoned his coat, about him? and walked calmly into the river. Wit- “The word on the street is that you nesses who saw him said his body float- wouldn’t give a damn or a dime to see ed on the surface for some minutes be- the Statue of Liberty doing the ‘Lindy’ fore it disappeared. Coleman couldn’t on the Brooklyn Bridge at high noon!”

Dædalus Spring 2008 107 Fiction by He had to give it to Jimmy. That wasn’t handle of his neck. He was too old for Wesley bad. And by the time they reached the that kind of foolishness now. But it was Brown Savoy, everyone’s throat, including his, still funny as hell. was sore from coughing up a load of “What are you smiling about?” Stew- laughter. It was several hours before art asked, no longer grinning. the ballroom opened to the public, but “Just thinking about all the laughs we musicians from several bands had al- used to have in Fletch’s Band.” ready gathered. There were a few dou- “You mean the laughs you had!” ble takes and mouths opening in sur- Stewart was no longer that kid who prise before outbursts of “Hawk!” and gripped his trumpet so tightly that he “Bean!” echoed everywhere, followed strangled the notes in his throat before by a round or two of needling to see if he could get them out. He lifted his the years away had made it any easier to trumpet slowly to his mouth and gent- get underneath his skin. As the group ly pressed it against his lips. The sound around Coleman drifted away, he spot- came out in short bursts at the tempo ted a chunky, fat-cheeked man with a of a high-stepping march. It was strange- trumpet under his arm, giving him a grin ly familiar. It took a few seconds before that stretched out to a whole upper row Coleman recognized Stewart’s slow-mo- of teeth. A smile creased Coleman’s tion version of reveille. He dipped his cheeks but didn’t go any further than shoulders from side to side, strutting that. It was Rex Stewart, a trumpet play- in time with his trumpet jabs snapping er who’d been in the Henderson Band. Coleman’s head back. Stewart was serv- The last time he’d seen Stewart, there ing notice that he was fully awake; and wasn’t even peach fuzz on his face. Cole- if Coleman put a deaf ear on this wake- man remembered him as someone who up call, he had better be a praying man had dif½culty ½guring out the keys that because that was the only way he would many of the band’s arrangements were get any mercy. Coleman was impressed written in. Sight-reading was second by the brashness Stewart added to his nature to Coleman. Thinking back on trumpet. And he liked the way Stewart it, he wondered if he should’ve been called him out, not with a lot of blow- more understanding of what Stewart hard and bare knuckles, but with a was going through. But he was only gloved ½st, just loud enough for him to twenty-one at the time, not much older feel the punch. But he wasn’t worried. than Stewart, and found ways of mess- Stepping over to Stewart, Coleman ing with band members, especially those heard his voice crackle with laughter who weren’t able to keep up with him as he slapped him on the back. musically. Stewart was one who fell into “You think what I did was funny?” that category. Coleman had gone into Stewart asked, unsure of how to take the dressing room early before a gig and Coleman’s good cheer. rubbed some itching powder into the “No, Rex. If I did, I’d have slapped my collar of the shirt Stewart was going to knee and not your back.” wear. During a high point of the night, Benny Carter had arranged to take when heat was rising up off of dancers Coleman to a number of nightspots, so on the floor, Stewart stood up to take his musicians around town could welcome solo. The itching powder mingled with him back. When they arrived at the Fa- his sweat, and it was all he could do to mous Door, a midtown Manhattan club keep his jerking head from flying off the where the Count Basie Band was appear-

108 Dædalus Spring 2008 ing, guests that included Billie Holiday, must’ve been the surprise he was prom- Body and Ella Fitzgerald, and Jimmy Lunceford ised. The baiting began just as the band Soul took up several tables. Hands reached entered the stretch run to end the tune. out to touch Coleman. Words jumped “What do you think, Bean?” someone out at him from every direction but were asked. cut to shreds by slashing sounds from “About what?” the Basie Band. He was never at ease in “About what you just heard.” large gatherings unless he was playing. “You can’t beat the Basie Band!” And as far as small talk, forget it! Cole- “What about Chu and Prez? Can you man ordered a double scotch. Benny beat them?” leaned over and whispered that his mon- “I just try to play up to my own stan- ey was no good for the rest of the night. dard.” He downed the scotch, ordered another, “Will that be enough when you go up and waited for the liquor-coated comfort against Lester like you did at the Cherry to take hold. By the second double, Cole- Blossom Club in 1933?” man was cut off from everything except That was always brought up. The the Basie Band, with his ears tuned into night in Kansas City when he took on the two tenor players: Leon ‘Chu’ Berry Ben Webster, Herschel Evans, and a (who’d taken the other tenor chair left newcomer named Lester Young. He’d empty when Coleman’s old adversary, gone to the Cherry Blossom to see if Herschel Evans, died earlier that year) Young was everything people said he and Lester Young. Basie opened up with was. And he was. All that scuttlebutt an old standby, “Jive at Five,” playing a about his quitting when his wailing on stingy ½ve-note intro followed by the tenor couldn’t get Young to spit the bit trombonist, Dickie Wells, setting a me- was never worth the breath it would’ve dium tempo, with mouth rumblings of taken to give his version of what went someone shivering from a chill. The big- down. Coleman believed his playing as-a-tub Chu Berry took a leap into the gave the best account of what he’d done. cold, gripping the saxophone in a choke And since the numbers of people con- hold. He was husky-throated and shout- tinued to grow who claimed they were ed into his horn until it did what it was there in that closet-sized club the night told. Before Young took his solo, Cole- of the jam session, the less said about it man watched this large, soft-bodied the better. man cradle his saxophone in his arms Coleman tried to ignore the taunts, but like a sleeping child. Standing up, he it was impossible to block out the voices, held the sax in his trademark fashion, bending his ears with shouts. He wanted cocked to the right as someone would to kick back and take it easy after such a while playing a flute. Those sad-sack, long day. But as he glanced around, no heavy-lidded eyes looked out beyond the one in the club was having any of that. bandstand; and then the sound, like slip- No one except Lester Young, whose tea- pers, soft-pedaled around Berry’s rough bag-lidded eyes lifted to catch Coleman edges with an easy-does-it, no-sweat at- looking his way. And before Young titude, sliding over the beat like a skater blinked, something in his eyes told Cole- on ice. man that he wasn’t that hot to trot to Benny poked Coleman in the ribs, and give the audience what it wanted either. other musicians around the table eye- Coleman reached under the table for his balled him to check his composure. This saxophone case, got up, and squeezed

Dædalus Spring 2008 109 Fiction by his way up to the bandstand. By the time couraging words or showdowns that left Wesley Coleman joined Young, a hush snuffed the skies cloudy all day. When Coleman Brown out any other sound. Lester spoke to and Lester were done, people began ½l- Coleman just above a whisper. ing out of the club, not knowing quite “Looks like we got a lotta edge-of- where they were, using their hands to the-seaters out tonight looking to see a guide them, like someone walking in the cruise where somebody gets bruised.” dark. Only the musicians seemed not to “Looks that way,” Coleman said. be confused by what they’d heard. Some “You down for that?” shook their heads with smirks on their “The question is whether we’re up for mouths. it.” Coleman caught sight of Lester near “Where’s your head at on that?” the door of the club and went over to “Same place yours is,” Coleman said. him. Cracks of restlessness were heard in “I guess we’ll get to do what every- the silence that held the audience cap- body’s waiting for another time,” he tive. said. “What you cats gonna do–” a man “Yeah, as long as we both got the shouted, “dribble or shoot!” time,” Lester said, giving a two-½nger “We might just pass,” Lester said, salute against the wide brim of his flat shooting his arms forward like a two- crown top hat, and then turning on his handed toss of a basketball. toes and sliding out the door with the There was a smattering of laughter, same ease that he played. but the uneasiness remained. Coleman ordered another double “Bean! You got the time?” Lester scotch, returned to his table, and found asked. Jimmy Harrison in a ½t of uncontrollable “Thanks, Prez. I appreciate that. Ev- laughter. erybody else in this joint just wants to “Bean! You and Prez gotta be the most tell me what time it is without asking.” contrary Negroes I’ve ever seen!” “Maybe ‘cause they don’t know.” “Why you say that?” “Could be.” “You just can’t give folks a good time “So you wanna take it from letter A on the way they want you to.” ‘Jive at Five’?” “I give them myself. That should be a Coleman nodded and roared out of good enough time for anybody.” his horn as fast as breath and ½ngers “What would it have cost to give them could carry him, with Lester no more the show they wanted to see?” than half a leap behind. The audience “I can’t speak for Prez. But it would’ve was up in arms with yells and whistles. cost me my need to do what everyone But before they had a chance to get a didn’t expect.” hold of the speedy groove, Coleman let “Yeah, like the time we were play- out a high-pitched whinny, raising his ing baseball in Fletch’s Band, and you saxophone up like a thoroughbred be- showed up wearing a Panama hat, a ing reined in until it slowed to loping tuxedo, and patent leather shoes. And along. Lester followed Coleman into when you took the ½eld to play short- something sounding like “Home on the stop you had on a ½rst baseman’s mitt!” Range,” where the buffalo roamed and “I had to protect two of my most im- deer and antelope played without butt- portant jewels,” Coleman said, holding ing heads, and where there were no dis- out his hands.

110 Dædalus Spring 2008 “What were you protecting up on the “Shanghai Shuffle” at Roseland Ball- Body and bandstand?” room in New York City. He worked the Soul “The element of surprise.” crowd up into such a frenzy that several The club continued to thin out, and men carried him out into the street on Coleman was surprised when Louis their shoulders like a conquering hero. Armstrong came over to greet him. Armstrong was that one-of-a-kind “It’s solid having you back on the performer, who burst the seams keep- scene, Bean.” ing an audience cooling their heels and “Good to be back, Pops!” roused them with sky-high trumpet “You’re still one clever son of a gun.” howls that stormed the heavens and “How so?” sang with grunts from deep down in “What you and Prez pulled tonight the belly of the earth. There were few will make the bread you get for the real who could command the stage even showdown smell even better.” without an instrument in hand. That “Well, you must be doing something night at Roseland proved to Coleman right because you’re looking as prosper- that he wasn’t one of them. But Arm- ous as ever.” strong’s performance made him see “I got no need to be kicking.” his own strength in the undivided at- Armstrong didn’t linger, and Cole- tention he gave to the saxophone, play- man felt no desire to say more. Aside ing not to the audience but for himself. from his unmistakable gravel throat, Like Armstrong, Coleman was not a Armstrong was laid-back without any big man. But with a chest like a pot-bel- of his usual fun-loving joshing around. lied stove, he could blow thick slices of Truth be told, Coleman never cared sound that slapped together, making his much for Armstrong. His ½rst impres- own size and everything around him sion when the New Orleans wonder seem larger. joined the Henderson Band in the early Coleman watched Armstrong leave 1920s was that this thick tongued–talk- the club. And he had to admit his fond- ing young man, wearing clodhoppers est memory of him came when he with long johns showing at the ankles opened his mouth, not for a hot trum- below his high-water pants, didn’t pet solo or vocal, but to give Fletcher square with the trumpet phenom he’d Henderson his notice. Armstrong was heard so much about. During his time a bit tipsy after a night celebrating his with Mamie Smith, Coleman went decision to return to Chicago and form through a period of looking country and his own band. He was saying good-bye smelling funky before he was set straight to everyone and approached Henderson on how to present himself properly. He to thank him for all his help. As Arm- wasn’t proud of it, but as a younger man strong spoke, his stomach heaved, and he fancied himself as somewhat of a pea- he threw up all over the bandleader’s cock. So how could he take this Arm- suit. Coleman couldn’t stop laughing, strong fella seriously? But his head, like especially when the unflappable Hen- everyone else’s in the band, was spun derson thanked Armstrong, as though around when he heard him trumpet a expressing gratitude for what Satchmo story as old as Adam and Eve, but swing- had just done to him. It wouldn’t have ing with the sweetness and stink of a surprised Coleman if Armstrong had new century. Coleman remembered the never forgotten the incident and who night Armstrong played ten choruses of laughed the loudest and the longest.

Dædalus Spring 2008 111 Fiction by Coleman rented an apartment on Cen- stepped into the spotlight and blew a Wesley tral Park West and began playing gigs on path that stretched out beyond what Brown 52nd Street and going to after-hours jam he’d heard. He took a bit of Berry’s sessions in Harlem. There was great an- rough-edged sputter and Young’s slip- ticipation among musicians and devoted pery glide, mixing them into a ride that followers of the music for the eventual had the bumps of rusty roads and the showdown between Coleman and Les- dizziness of flying floors. He nodded his ter Young. But the main event was de- appreciation for the applause from the layed by would-be contenders who Cole- audience. They’d obviously enjoyed the man believed were supposed to keep ride. But it was different when he per- him so busy carving them up during the formed at ballrooms. This was some- nightly cutting contests that he wouldn’t thing Coleman noticed in Europe, where be ready when the real test came. They he played many more club and concert would often arrive, sit quietly, and try dates than dances. When folks hit the to unnerve him by never touching their dance floor during his years with the instruments. At other times they hid Henderson Band, it wasn’t so much their horns inside their coats, then playing for them as it was with them. It pulled them out and began playing in would begin with the band leading the the hope of catching him off guard. charge that kicked the dancers into gear, Coleman enjoyed all the attention but as they scuffled to match their steps to wasn’t surprised by it. He’d recently the tempo. But that could change in an gone to see the movie Stagecoach and instant, when the dancers hit a stride was quite taken by an early scene where that turned the band into bystanders, a stagecoach, traveling through Indian taking their cues from the swinging stuff territory, was stopped in its tracks by a being played by the flash of feet. On the gunshot. Through a camera trick, the best nights at the Savoy or Roseland, man who ½red the shot was zoomed out the band and dancers would take turns of the distance into a close-up that took huf½ng and puf½ng and blowing each up most of the space on the screen. The other down. cowboy holding a rifle and a saddle was The exchange of air at clubs in Europe played by John Wayne. And the camera and that night at the Famous Door was singled him out as someone to be reck- much quieter. And Coleman had become oned with. A jolt rushed through Cole- attuned to what he was getting from the man that he usually felt after downing people who came to sit and listen. He a double shot of scotch. He knew some- could tell, from the slightest rise and fall thing about being front and center, and of their shoulders and chests, who was he’d be damned if he was going to give with him, breath for breath, and who in- that up! haled what he’d blown and then exhaled One night Coleman appeared as a fea- it back at him when he took another tured guest soloist at the Famous Door breath. Coleman took it all in: the bob- with the Lionel Hampton Band. Waiting bing heads, the ½ngers drumming on to take his solo on the opening tune, he tabletops, the patter of feet on the floor, shuffled his feet and bobbed his head the mouthing of words and sounds that like a bronco rider about to be let out were not, and the eyeballing, some of it of the chute. He’d been thinking about reckless. what Chu Berry and Lester Young played After any set, Coleman was never ea- that ½rst night of his return. Coleman ger to step out of the time and tempo of

112 Dædalus Spring 2008 the music and back into what he left The other musicians were in the stu- Body and behind. Well-wishers, wanting to talk, dio when Coleman walked in and a few Soul crowded around him. There was desper- started to snicker. ation in the way many reached out to “Bean? Was it running out of ladies him, their eyes pleading for some other that got you here on time?” one of them piece of himself, in a word or a touch, asked. that was more lasting than what he’d “Don’t you worry about it. Just re- played. His mother hadn’t warned him member, it’s more important to play in about this part of having a gift that peo- time than to be on time.” ple wanted to be near. Coleman couldn’t “You hear that? Bean listens to a dif- help but be sympathetic. He needed ferent beat from the rest of us.” what they wanted from him even more One of the men in the sound booth than they did. But he could only offer it called out over a loudspeaker. while playing. Afterward, he needed to “If we don’t start soon, we won’t have protect it and himself. So he let them enough time to lay down the tracks of all buy him as many rounds of drinks as these tunes.” they wanted. The band settled in, and the ½rst tune The much-anticipated shoot-out was recorded without much dif½culty. between Coleman and Lester Young The second, “Fine Dinner,” was writ- was delayed because the Basie Band ten by Coleman and was one of his fa- was on the road and wouldn’t be back vorites. The trumpet and alto saxophone until sometime in September. In the opening gave voice to the tastes that meantime, Coleman contented him- were in their mouths, as they bounced self with swatting away the unsatisfy- on top of the bass player’s ½nger-pluck- ing challenges from pretenders, big ing that carried them along breezily. and small alike, buzzing around him The horns took the tempo up a notch like flies. He became bored by the pre- and sounded out a “wow!” as if they’d dictable outcome of these encounters spotted a woman who wasn’t satis½ed but perked up when an offer came to to be served up like dessert on the side- feature him on a recording of several walk, but stayed on the go, just out of tunes and backed up by an eight-piece reach, and let it be known that her swiv- band. On the afternoon of the record- el hips were for her to show and a pre- ing session at the Radio City building, cious few to know. The brass and reeds he walked past a newsstand with the hollered for Coleman to size her up. His headlines on all the papers warning of solo gave her a juicy big buildup, ½lled a possible German invasion of Poland. with pulp and seeds. But he begged off The date also caught his eye, Septem- getting underneath her crust, as if to ber 2. Coleman wasn’t one to keep close say, he only handed out those goodies tabs on the news of the day. But this when he had a ‘½ne dinner’ all to him- date reminded him of the following self. day in September ten years earlier, The band took a break before doing when the stock market crashed. Nor- “She’s Funny That Way,” and Coleman mally, this would have meant very little, talked to the singer, Thelma Carpenter. except that it convinced him he’d been His eyes lingered on her a while. She right to keep his money close at hand couldn’t have been more than eighteen, rather than in the money-changing but she seemed eager enough. hands of a bank.

Dædalus Spring 2008 113 Fiction by “So! You’re what’s up and coming?” “Give me an intro to start off,” he said Wesley “I don’t know how up and coming I to the piano player. Brown am. But I am a singer.” He laid down a light drizzle of notes. “Being a singer is more than carrying Coleman took a breath and spewed out a tune. You have to want the song to car- something gruff, from deep in his chest. ry you. If you can do that, then you can For some reason, he still didn’t want to treat it like someone you have a thing for play this tune about the two halves of but don’t really know. But the more they one person that were often at war, just get next to you, you just can’t get enough like the world was about to be. Coleman of their smell.” felt the weight of his legs holding him “Mr. Coleman, I don’t mean to be dis- down. And the steady beat of walking respectful but . . . ” feet from the bass and the drummer’s “Just hear me out . . . . So you start liv- whispering brushes against the snare ing in every corner of that song to ½nd weren’t enough to take the floor out all of its hiding places, and let it do the from under him. same to you. And when your nose is “Could we do another take, Cole- wide open and you’re about to bust from man?” the engineer asked afterward. holding in all that sweet sweat, nothing “The sound levels were a little bit off.” can stop you from letting out all that joy “We’ll have to do it another time. I’m and trembling.” done for the night.” She was perspiring and didn’t like it. Coleman left the studio by himself, “Mr. Coleman? What are you talking since all the other musicians wanted about?” to listen to what they’d recorded. He “I’m talking about being a singer!” walked down the hall toward the eleva- The band cleared the way for her to tor and passed an open door to another enter “She’s Funny That Way.” Cole- studio. Pausing to glance inside, he saw man’s advice kick-started his hope a raw-boned, slick-haired man kneeling that her sweat would offer up a secret, down over an opened long narrow suit- which would surprise them both. He case. He reached inside and pulled out coaxed her under, over, around, and a wooden dummy dressed in a tuxedo. through the lyrics and heard some Lady The man impressed Coleman with his Day in her voice. But what young singer stylish double-breasted suit and stick- didn’t. She had a ways to go, though, pinned collared shirt behind a checkered before her tongue put enough mischief tie. He lifted the dummy into a sitting in her mouth to make her voice ‘funny’ position and, very carefully, straightened in the way the song needed it to be. the white bow tie, attached a monocle The band prepared to play the last over the right eye, snapped open a top tune of the session, when the recording hat, and placed it on the head. This had engineer called out to Coleman. to be that guy on the radio, Edgar Ber- “Why don’t you do ‘Body and Soul’ to gen, and his smart-mouthed sidekick, ½nish up?” Charlie McCarthy. Coleman started lis- “I had something else in mind.” tening to the show shortly after he re- “We can do that another time. I heard turned to the States. At ½rst, he couldn’t you do ‘Body and Soul’ in a club once, understand how a ventriloquist act and I think it’d be good to have a record- could work on the radio. But he got such ing of it.” a kick out of Charlie McCarthy’s wise- Coleman shrugged in agreement. cracks that it didn’t matter how good

114 Dædalus Spring 2008 Bergen really was at making his voice Coleman shot a stare at Bergen. Body and sound like it was coming out of the dum- “Don’t look at him, Mr. Coleman. This Soul my’s mouth. is me talking!” “May I help you, sir?” Bergen’s lips didn’t move, and Char- Coleman was a bit startled when Ber- lie’s voice seemed to be coming right out gen spoke to him. of his own mouth. Coleman directed his “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb eyes slowly back to Charlie. you. I just ½nished a recording session “Why are you so surprised? I only tell down the hall, and I was on my way to the listeners that Edgar’s lips move, so the elevator. You’re Edgar Bergen, aren’t he’ll get some of the credit for my sharp you?” mind and quick wit. But when we’re not “Yes, I am.” in front of an audience, we don’t have to “I enjoy listening to your show.” fake it.” “Thank you.” Coleman looked at Bergen again, hop- Bergen looked at Coleman’s instru- ing he would explain. ment case. “Charlie has a very vivid imagination,” “What do you play?” he said, moving his lips for the ½rst time “Tenor saxophone.” since Charlie began to speak. “I guess you could say we both live our “Of course I do!” Charlie shot back. lives out of what’s in these cases.” “I’m no dummy!” “You’ll get no argument from me on “So if Mr. Bergen doesn’t do the think- that.” ing for you, how’d you get to be so “Of course, Charlie has told our lis- smart?” Coleman asked. teners that I’ve got the whole country “Only God could explain it.” fooled because I move my lips when he “And only a double scotch could make talks.” me believe it,” Coleman said. Coleman raised his instrument case. “Bergen! I think W. C. Fields left some “I move my lips too when I make this of his strong medicine in a drawer, the talk. But I guess the important thing is last time he was on the show. Would you what Charlie McCarthy and my saxo- pour us a drink?” phone are saying when our lips are mov- With his free hand, Bergen pulled ing.” open a drawer and took out a flask and “I appreciate you saying that. What is a shot glass. He poured in two ½ngers your name, sir?” worth and handed it to Coleman. “Coleman Hawkins.” “Hey Bergen! What about me?” “I’m pleased to make your acquain- “Nothing for you, Charlie,” Bergen tance.” said. “Likewise.” Coleman downed his scotch and “I have a feeling Charlie would like to shook his head. meet you too.” “Are you all right, Mr. Hawkins? Why He pulled over a chair, sat down, don’t you have a seat?” Charlie said. and put Charlie on his lap. His mouth Coleman settled into a chair, not sure opened and a squeaky voice, unlike of what he was seeing or hearing. Then Bergen’s, came out. Bergen stood up, holding Charlie from “I thought he’d never let me talk. Ber- behind with one hand. gen sometimes forgets that without me “So, Mr. Coleman, as a musician, are he’s a body without a soul.” you paid exuberantly?” Charlie asked.

Dædalus Spring 2008 115 Fiction by The scotch kicked in, and Coleman, wondered whether it was said deliber- Wesley feeling a little giddy, gave his complete ately to see how far he’d go to prove Brown attention to Charlie. that whatever Bergen did to throw his “As a matter of fact, Charlie, I play ex- voice into Charlie’s was nothing com- uberantly, but the pay is never exorbi- pared to what he made come out of a tant.” saxophone. But he quickly lost interest “You hear that Bergen! Mr. Hawkins in that and began tasting his tenor for is quick on the draw, even when he’s sit- the labor of his life from mind to mouth. ting down.” And with each breath, he sucked into “Yes, he is, Charlie,” Bergen said. his gums and between his teeth a world “Mr. Hawkins. Would you be interest- tumbling into deep trouble. He was ed in a job as my mouthpiece?” Charlie hot with fever; and his ½ngers burned asked. against the keys, making the skin feel “I use one, but I don’t want to be one.” like it was melting into the metal of his “I’m glad to hear that,” Charlie said. horn. Coleman opened his eyes, sweat “Because I don’t want to be one either. streaming down his face. Bergen and But I wonder if you’re as good on your Charlie were a blur, blending into each feet as you are sitting down?” other, bone to wood. He played the ½nal Coleman glared at both Bergen and notes, letting out a sigh that quivered Charlie, who gave him back the look of like the flame on a candlewick before it seasoned cardsharks, refusing to show went out. their hand until he played his. They’d “I don’t think anybody could’ve ex- gotten his juices flowing, and he wel- plained how I tick any better than that. comed the sweat soaking his underarms, Don’t you think so, Bergen?” just as it did right before he went toe-to- “Absolutely!” toe with a worthy challenger in a club “But I have to ask you something, Mr. or after-hours joint. He’d been waiting Hawkins,” Charlie said. “Since it was to feel like this since returning from Eu- you who explained everything about me, rope. And it was hard to believe that a did having that drink help you believe ventriloquist playing second banana to what you played any more than if God his wooden buddy would’ve made mis- had done it?” chief in their voices that he’d been hop- A ½stful of laughter punched its way ing to hear from other musicians. Cole- out of Coleman’s mouth. And he almost man opened his saxophone case, pulled choked, stopping another one coming out his horn, and stood up. He tightened right behind the ½rst. Coleman nodded. the mouthpiece, put the strap attached Charlie’s comeback was worthy of any- to the sax around his neck, and nestled thing Lester Young could’ve hit him the lower body of his horn against his with. He tried to sidetrack the question stomach. Standing shut-eyed and not by playing a nursery rhyme about Little giving a thought to what he would play, Bo Peep watching her sheep and falling Coleman heard a rumble rising up from asleep. his belly to his throat, which came out “It’s a little early for me to be turning in a growl that he recognized as the ½rst in, Mr. Hawkins,” Charlie said. “Bergen few bars of “Body and Soul.” He flashed and I still have a show to do.” on what Charlie McCarthy said about Bergen glanced quickly at his watch. Edgar Bergen not being much more than “You’re right, Charlie. Mr. Hawkins, a soulless body without him. Coleman I’m sorry but we’re due in the studio for

116 Dædalus Spring 2008 tonight’s show in ½ve minutes. I know I “What makes you say that?” Bergen Body and speak for Charlie . . . ” asked. Soul “Don’t even think such a thought, Ber- “Because like you and Charlie, this is gen.” what I am wherever I go,” Coleman said, “Charlie, I was only going to say how lifting his saxophone lengthwise like a much we enjoyed our lively conversation baptized child. with Mr. Hawkins.” “Hey fellas, I got a news flash for you,” “Oh! I’ll go along with that. Mr. Haw- Charlie said. “You may be joined to us at kins, you have de½nitely kept me on my the heart, but not at the hip.” toes. W. C. Fields won’t know what hit A smile wormed into Bergen’s mouth. him when he runs into me again.” Coleman could tell that he was having a “I have a W. C. Fields that I’ll be tan- great time listening to Charlie give him gling with soon. But after going a few a lot of grief. This was probably how he rounds with you, I’ll be ready for him.” prepared for the knockdown, drag-out, Bergen extended his hand to Coleman. sharp-tongued ½sticuffs between Char- “It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Hawkins.” lie and W. C. Fields. It reminded Cole- “The same goes for me,” Coleman man of his own struggles with the saxo- said, shaking his hand. He then took phone when he tried to play things he’d hold of Charlie’s hand and shook it. only heard in his head. Without these “You take care of yourself, Charlie.” tugs of war between himself and his “You too, Mr. Hawkins. And when we horn, he would’ve never built up a full come back to New York to do another head of ideas and the stamina to take on show, maybe you could show me a few all comers during those wee-hour jam things on your saxophone.” sessions. While Coleman waited on the “I’d be happy to.” elevator, he watched Bergen carrying “You know, Charlie,” Bergen said. “It’s Charlie down the hall to the radio stu- wonderful that Mr. Hawkins has agreed dio. Charlie’s head turned to Bergen, to give you some pointers on playing the and he spoke loud enough for Coleman saxophone. But I think you should do to hear. something for him in return.” “You know Bergen, those last few “Well, let me see. Oh! I know what! I words we just had with Mr. Hawkins can show you something even Bergen make me wonder if I might be better doesn’t know I can do.” off doing my act as a solo.” “What’s that?” Coleman asked. “When we come back to New York, I’ll meet you without Bergen tagging along.” Coleman shot a glance at Bergen, won- dering where this was going. “There you go again, Mr. Hawkins,” Charlie said, “looking at him, instead of listening to me. You don’t believe I can get along on my own without Bergen, do you?” “What I believe, Charlie, is that Mr. Bergen would have more trouble getting along without you.”

Dædalus Spring 2008 117 higher volatility. A person holding the Google call should prefer a world where there is an equal (1/3) chance that the price of Google stock will end up at $100, $200, or $300 than a world where Ian Ayres there is an equal (1/3) chance that the price of Google stock will end up at on options & $200, $210, or $220. Even though the lat- epidemics ter distribution has a higher mean ($210 versus $200), the higher volatility of the former distribution has a bigger impact on the option value. Under the ½rst dis- tribution, the call option will be worth $33 (.33 x $100). The second distribution, even though it has a higher expected stock value, produces a lower call value of $10 (.33 x $10 + .33 x $20). A folk theorem of ½nance theory is The pricing of call and put options that whenever you identify an implicit seems to have nothing in common with option, there is almost always an inter- attempts to control the spread of sexual- esting volatility story to tell. And there ly transmitted diseases. But it turns out are implicit, or ‘real,’ options in all kinds that, in both cases, identifying and influ- of real-world settings. For example, con- encing the variance of a probability dis- sider an extremely stylized nuisance tribution can be more important than dispute. Imagine that Scholes and Sam- identifying and influencing the mean. uelson are neighbors and that Scholes It is easy to see that additional volatili- wants to stop Samuelson from singing ty in the underlying asset of a call option in the morning. How should a court al- leads to greater option value. An option locate the singing entitlement? One tra- holder can cash in on the added gains ditional answer (which is even codi½ed from an upward fluctuation but loses into the Restatement (Second) of Torts no more if the price fluctuates wildly § 826(a)) is that courts should give the downward. For example, if you own an entitlement to the litigant that the court option to buy a share of Google stock at believes to have the higher valuation. If $200, you want Google’s stock price to Scholes values silence more than Sam- fluctuate. In fact, option holders should uelson values singing, then the court be willing to trade a lower mean for a should give Scholes the entitlement to control whether his neighbor sings in the morning. This simple rule seems to Ian Ayres, a Fellow of the American Academy make eminent economic sense. since 2006, is Townsend Professor at Yale Law But in resolving nuisance disputes, School and the author of “Super Crunchers: courts often go beyond merely deciding Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to whether to enjoin singing (or pollution). Be Smart” (2007). Sometimes courts give the underlying entitlement to one party, but simultane- © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts ously give the other litigant a call option & Sciences to buy the entitlement for a speci½ed

118 Dædalus Spring 2008 price. For example, in the famous case that giving the Polluter the entitlement Options & of Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Co., 257 N.E. and then giving the Resident a call op- epidemics 2d 870 (ny 1970), a court enjoined a fac- tion produces much higher allocative tory’s pollution but simultaneously gave ef½ciency. Even though from the court’s the factory the option to continue. If the perspective the Polluter has a lower ex- factory paid their plaintiff-neighbors the pected valuation, giving it an entitle- court’s best assessment of the monetary ment subject to the Resident’s call is value of the neighbors’ damages, the fac- more ef½cient because the Resident with tory could resume polluting. In other an option to enjoin pollution for $50 cases, courts give the underlying nui- will do so whenever she has a particular- sance entitlement to the defendant but ly high valuation. If we give the Polluter simultaneously give the plaintiff the op- the call option instead, we can end up tion of purchasing an injunction by pay- with a truly inef½cient outcome of pollu- ing the defendant a speci½ed amount of tion that creates $105 of damage. When damages. In these cases, the courts are we give the Resident the call option, this allocating two entitlements: they are never happens. This simple and admit- giving a call option to one side and the tedly stylized example shows that valu- underlying nuisance entitlement (sub- ation variance can be more important ject to the option) to the other. than the mean in deciding legal cases. In allocating this implicit option, When options are at stake, we need to courts would do well to consider the im- attend to both. plicit volatility of litigants’ valuations. The need to attend to volatility is im- From the courts’ perspective, the litigant portant whenever options come into with the more speculative valuation has play. A number of years ago when I was the higher volatility and therefore is like- teaching at Stanford, the university had ly to be the more ef½cient option holder. a home mortgage program. The univer- To see the importance of valuation vol- sity would lend you half the purchase atility in a simple example, imagine that price of your house, if you give the uni- a court believes that a Resident’s harm versity half the appreciation at the time from pollution is somewhere between $5 of the sale. The program gave the univer- and $105, uniformly distributed, but that sity something akin to a call option on the Polluter’s costs of stopping pollution half your house. The university didn’t are somewhere between $40 and $60, have to bear any cost of home deprecia- uniformly distributed. Our ½rst intuition tion, but got half the upside if the hous- might again be to give the initial entitle- ing value increased. I had a choice of ment to the Resident–because she has buying a house in an unincorporated a higher expected value ($55 versus $50) (and unzoned) new section of Mountain –and the call option to the Polluter– View or a relatively staid and seasoned to make up for the fact that parties may development just south of the campus have trouble reaching agreement when called College Terrace. Attending to vol- the Polluter turns out to have the higher atility, you should be able to tell which value. house was more subsidized. But in this example, the Resident’s valuation has both a higher mean and The mathematics of epidemiology de- a higher variance. Because options are veloped independently from the mathe- worth more when the underlying enti- matics of option pricing. But like call tlement is more variable, it turns out option prices, the force of an epidemic

Dædalus Spring 2008 119 Note by also rises with both the mean and vari- works of sexual nodes. The few mem- Ian Ayres ance of an underlying distribution. The bers of the population with many sexual force of an std epidemic is, like an op- partners are likely to form connections tion, a kind of ‘derivative,’ in that it is with one another, as well as with mem- derived from the mean and variance of bers of the population who have few the number of partners in a population. other sexual partners. Randomly infect- It is immediately intuitive that an std ing someone in a high variance network is more likely to spread when the average is therefore likely to spread the disease person in a population has a larger num- quickly, through these longer connecting ber of sexual partners, but the variance in chains. In a population with high vari- number of sexual partners in a popula- ance, the few people with many sexual tion also positively impacts an std’s ex- partners are the ‘superspreaders’ who pected replication rate. Epidemiologists tend to connect the rest of the popula- have modeled the force of an epidemic tion. in populations with heterogeneous sexu- The importance of variance to the epi- al frequency to equal: demiological force of infection matters because human sexuality often exhibits σ 2 R0 = ρ0 µ + where: extremely high variance in the number ( µ ) of sexual partners. Furthermore, as an empirical matter, the distribution of ρ0 is the product of the transmission prob- the number of sexual partners is highly ability per partner (sometimes referred to skewed. The great majority of people as the ‘ef½ciency’ of transmission) and the have had only one or zero sexual part- average duration of the disease, ners in the last year (and only a handful during the course of their lives), but a µ is the mean number of partners per unit few people report dozens or even hun- time, and dreds of partners. Partnership distribu- tions have such a heavy tail that some σ 2 is the variance of the number of part- researchers have found evidence sug- ners. gesting that human sexuality might be an example of a ‘scale-free’ network R0 measures the ‘reproductive rate’: the average number of secondary infections with an in½nite variance. If human sex- produced by a single index case in a pop- uality is scale-free, policies aimed at re- ulation of susceptible persons. The dis- ducing heterogeneity in the number of ease rate is stable (or ‘endemic’) when partners are likely to be highly effective means of reducing infection. the infector number (R0) equals one; epidemic when greater than one; and We tend to focus on policies that re- eventually zero (the disease will die out duce the mean number of sexual part- over time) when less than one. ners, but we should also think about the The equation teaches us that for any impact of policies on the variance as given mean, increasing the variance in well. We can reduce both the mean and the number of partners will increase the the variance by inducing people in the epidemiological force of a disease. The right-hand tail of the sexuality distribu- intuition for the positive impact of vari- tion to have few partners. Kathy Baker ance is that populations with high vari- and I have suggested one indirect way ances in the number of sexual partners of achieving this result is to promote are likely to exhibit large connected net- condom use particularly for ½rst sexual

120 Dædalus Spring 2008 encounters (i.e., the ½rst time two peo- The real world is of course much more Options & ple have sex with each other). Inducing complicated than any single, highly styl- epidemics people to use condoms the ½rst time has ized equation–especially one based on a dramatic impact on reducing the effec- the assumption of random pairings. But tive average number of partners because enlightened policymakers should always 46 percent of sexual pairings have sex ask themselves, “How does this policy only one time. Condoms are an effective impact variance?” Abstinence-only edu- barrier for many stds, and hence pro- cation that induces relatively nonpro- tected ½rst-encounter sex renders these miscuous people to have fewer partners pairings from an epidemiological stand- can perversely increase infectivity by in- point a nullity. But promoting ½rst-en- creasing variance. counter condom use has an even larger As a nation, we lack a vocabulary for impact on the variance because it dispro- communicating with one another about portionately impacts the effective sexu- volatility. Only a small fraction of the ality of the right-hand tail of the distri- population understands what it means bution. Baker and I found that promiscu- to say that the standard deviation of ous people are much more likely to have adult male height in the United States is ‘one night stands’; so, ½rst-encounter about three inches. The particular and condom use particularly mitigates the counterintuitive importance of variabili- impact of superspreaders. Promoting the ty to the value of options and the force idea that people should use a condom in of std epidemics is yet another reason their ½rst encounter, no matter what, is for teaching statistical numeracy more best justi½ed as a regulation of effective widely. sexual variance. But policymakers can also reduce the variance by inducing people in the left- hand tail of the sexuality distribution to have more pairings. Indeed, the title of Steven Landsburg’s recent book More Sex is Safer Sex builds on just this idea. More sex by the left-hand tail of the distribu- tion can be safer sex because it reduces population variance. More pairings by relatively nonpromiscuous people can reduce the chance that an infected per- son will sleep with a truly promiscuous person. Even though more sex by the left-hand tail increases the mean of distribution, it simultaneously reduces the variance and hence the force of the epidemic. Indeed, Michael Kremer earlier pointed out that reductions in the mean number of part- ners that simultaneously increase the variance can increase the force of an std epidemic. The variance effect can domi- nate.

Dædalus Spring 2008 121 portant ½gures, of that high ambition for moral theory. Thomas Hobbes provides a striking example. In Leviathan, he says: “There is no such ½nis ultimus, utmost aim, nor summum bonum, greatest good, Richard Kraut as is spoken of in the books of the old moral philosophers.” His point is that on philosophy as a philosophical reflection is powerless to guide to well-being pass judgment on the worth of some- one’s ultimate aims; they therefore can- not be found defective, except insofar as they might conflict with each other. As he says, “Whatsoever is the object of any man’s appetite or desires, that is it which he for his part calleth good.” There is no basis, he thinks, for criticizing “the ob- ject of any man’s appetites,” and so we must let stand that man’s designation of Philosophers disagree about whether that object as good. philosophy can teach us much about hu- The idea that there is no standard for man well-being. A long Western tradi- the assessment of ultimate aims–some tion, whose roots lie in Plato and Aris- rational method for deciding which totle, holds that philosophical methods, among them are good and which bad– skillfully and wisely deployed, can yield became the orthodoxy of the modern substantive conclusions about what is period. “Ultimate ends . . . can never . . . be ultimately worthwhile. For example, accounted for by reason,” David Hume according to Aristotle, the best sort of says in An Enquiry Concerning the Principles life for a human being will assign a cen- of Morals. Similarly, when in Utilitarian- tral place to activities that make excel- ism J. S. Mill asks, “What proof is it pos- lent use of practical reason and the social sible to give that pleasure is good?” he emotions that are responsive to reason. replies that the only test of a thing’s de- One of the distinguishing features of sirability is the fact that it actually is de- the modern period in philosophy is the sired. abandonment, by some of its most im- All of these philosophers–both the ancients and the moderns–are, in a sense, engaged in the task of saying what Richard Kraut, a Fellow of the American Acade- human well-being is. Their disagree- my since 2006, is Charles and Emma Morrison ment concerns whether sustained and Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern Uni- careful reflection has a role to play in versity. His publications include “Socrates and the guiding human aspirations. Hobbes, like State” (1984), “Aristotle on the Human Good” the “old moral philosophers” he oppos- (1989), and “Aristotle: Political Philosophy” es, has his own answer to the question of (2002). His most recent book is “What is Good what is good for us. He holds that what and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being” (2007). is good for someone is the satisfaction of that person’s appetites. Mill likewise ar- © 2008 by the American Academy of Arts gues that pleasure is the only thing that & Sciences is desirable in itself, because everything

122 Dædalus Spring 2008 we desire for itself gives us pleasure and that their goodness does not consist Philosophy when we attain it. So Hobbes and Mill in their being pleasant or the objects of as a guide to well-being are as interested as were Plato and Aris- desire. totle in the question of what is good for Unfortunately, regardless of whether human beings. But unlike their ancient we ½nd Ross’s astonishingly simple ar- predecessors, they see no room for phil- gument persuasive, it does not really osophical methods to criticize the ulti- establish any thesis about what human mate ends that someone is pursuing. well-being is. The topic of well-being Mill looks instead to the voice of dis- has to do with what is good for someone. criminating experience as a guide to life: To say, for example, that being a just to decide which of two kinds of pleasure person is a component of well-being is is more desirable, we can do nothing but simply a way of saying that if someone determine the preferences of those who is just, that is good for him, not because have experienced both kinds. (And if justice is a means to something else, but there is disagreement, he claims that the even apart from its consequences. But majority is more likely to be correct.) Ross’s thought experiment does not If one wants to ½nd, among major show that justice is good for the person twentieth-century moral philosophers, who has this virtue, and is not intended defenders of a theory about what is good to do so. He, like Moore, is not interest- that is closer to the views of Plato and ed in well-being at all. He is talking Aristotle than those of Hobbes, Hume, about what he calls good “sans phrase” and Mill, to whom should one look? –or what Moore sometimes called “ab- Two leading ½gures of the early twenti- solute” goodness. So they stand at some eth century proposed a view that has remove from the Platonic-Aristotelian some kinship to the classical approach tradition. They uphold the power of to well-being. G. E. Moore (Principia philosophical reflection to detect objects Ethica) and W. D. Ross (The Right and the of aspiration that are independent of Good) hold that careful philosophical pleasure and the desires we already have. reflection can arrive at a conception of But they do not claim that possession of what is good, and that such a concep- those objects is good for anyone. On the tion can serve as a standard that is inde- contrary, they think that moral philoso- pendent of what we seek, want, or ½nd phy would be utterly misguided to take pleasant. Ross, for example, believes that anything but an incidental interest in if we carefully perform a thought experi- whether such moral virtues as justice are ment, we will see that virtue and knowl- good for those who possess these quali- edge are good–whether or not they lead ties. The question that Plato places at the to pleasure or the satisfaction of desire. heart of his Republic–is justice good for Imagine two worlds: in both, the inhab- the just person?–is one they decline to itants experience the same amount of address, because they do not take that to pleasure; but in one world people pos- be a proper topic for moral philosophy. sess and exercise the moral virtues, Turning to the later years of the twen- whereas in the other they are full of mor- tieth century, we ½nd in the moral and al de½ciencies. It is clear to our rational political philosophy of John Rawls a con- faculty, Ross insists, that the world con- ception of well-being whose roots lie in taining moral virtue has a higher degree the modern dissenters from the classical of intrinsic goodness. We can thus see tradition. Taking the Victorian English that the moral virtues are indeed good, philosopher Henry Sidgwick as his prin-

Dædalus Spring 2008 123 Note by cipal guide, he holds, in A Theory of Jus- or even the principal objective of our Richard tice, that “the good is . . . the satisfaction practical thinking. We are to pursue the Kraut of rational desire.” Or, as he puts it, “a good (that is, the achievement of our person’s good is determined by what is rational plans, whatever they are), but for him the most rational long-term plan only within the boundaries of what is of life given reasonably favorable cir- right. His distinctive contribution to cumstances. A man is happy when he is moral and political philosophy was to more or less successfully in the way of propose a standard of rightness–name- carrying out his plan.” The rationality of ly, the agreement of hypothetical con- a plan is, roughly speaking, a matter of tractors–that is not itself a matter of its internal consistency. Rationality is satisfying whatever desires people hap- not meant to serve as a substantive basis pen to have. Well-being, in other words, by means of which to assess the worth of is a reflection of our diverse individual someone’s ultimate ends; it is rather a tastes and highly variable preferences. matter of the adjustment of one’s ends Moral principles must therefore rest on to each other in a coherent schedule of something that does not vary so greatly activities. So, for Rawls, what matters from one person to another. Rawls’s af- for well-being is not the content of what ½rmation of the priority of rightness we pursue, but our degree of success in over goodness stands in marked contrast attaining it. to the Platonic-Aristotelian thesis that Since it can be good for someone, ac- what is good for human beings must be cording to this way of thinking, to pur- the fundamental starting point of practi- sue goals that are normally (and right- cal reasoning. ly) regarded as morally objectionable, Rawls’s priority thesis rests on his Rawls claims that there is a type of rea- commitment to the distinctively mod- son that must be given priority over ern conception of well-being that runs what is good: moral rightness. No mat- through Hobbes, Hume, and Mill. It is ter how good it may be for someone to because he thinks that well-being varies own slaves, for example, or to violate according to our preferences and plans the rights of others, the fact that it bene- that he takes goodness to be weightless ½ts him should count for nothing in our in comparison with rightness. But is he deliberations. In fact, Rawls holds that right to suppose that “the good is . . . the even if owning slaves did a great deal of satisfaction of rational desire”? Some- good for a large segment of the popula- thing close to the Platonic-Aristotelian tion, that should carry no weight at all. alternative continues to thrive. Derek The total amount of goodness should Par½t, for example, gives, in Reasons and not be our practical goal; the utilitarian Persons, respectful attention to what he principle of good-maximization, favored calls “Objective List Theories” of well- by Mill, Sidgwick, and the other classi- being, which he contrasts with “Desire- cal utilitarians, should not guide our per- Ful½llment Theories” and “Hedonistic sonal conduct or the design of political Theories.” The best theory of well-be- institutions. ing, he suggests, might be one that com- What Rawls has done, in effect, is bines these alternatives. Such a theory to recognize that the conception of the might say that “what is good for some- good that guided a distinctive tradition one is to have knowledge, to be engaged of modern moral philosophy, from in rational activity, to experience mutual Hobbes to Sidgwick, cannot be the sole love, and to be aware of beauty, while

124 Dædalus Spring 2008 strongly wanting just these things.” That ter Aristotle’s. By contrast, L. W. Sum- Philosophy idea bears a strong similarity to Ross’s ner, in Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics, as a guide to well-being thesis that knowledge and virtue are plumps for a theory that identi½es well- good (although, he insists, they are good being with what he calls “authentic hap- ‘sans phrase’ rather than good for some- piness,” and is a close relative to hedo- one), and also to Aristotle’s thesis that nism. My own thinking about these mat- well-being consists in excellent rational ters puts me ½rmly in the camp of Plato activity. What they have in common is and Aristotle. The suggestion I make, in the conviction that careful philosophi- What is Good and Why, is that the notion cal reflection can vindicate a standard, of flourishing–that is, the development other than mere internal consistency, for and exercise of inherent biological pow- assessing the value of our goals. Philos- ers–can serve as a powerful organizing ophy, so conceived, can guide the forma- idea for the articulation of a theory of tion of our aspirations. well-being. It should be clear that this philosophi- cal debate has to do not with subjective well-being (that is, happiness, or a sense of ful½llment), but with objective well- being. All parties to it, ancient and mod- ern, agree that we can be wrong about what is good for us. (Hobbes thought that Aristotle was wrong to conclude that what is best for us is the excellent deployment of reason and emotion.) To say that the topic under discussion is objective well-being is simply a way of expressing the commonsense thought that what someone believes about what is good for human beings could be wrong, and is not made right simply by the fact that it is believed. Subjective well-being is a ½t object for psycholog- ical experiment, since it is a state of mind. But to speak of our objective well- being is to enter into the business of evaluating our lives. It is a normative and not a purely empirical enterprise. The philosophical debate about well- being continues. James Grif½n, for ex- ample, defends a theory that follows Par½t’s lead by combining elements of an “Objective List Theory” and a “De- sire-Ful½llment Theory” in his Well- Being: Its Meaning, Measurement, and Mor- al Importance. Philippa Foot proposes, in Natural Goodness, an approach to well- being that is consciously patterned af-

Dædalus Spring 2008 125 President Emilio Bizzi Chief Executive Of½cer and William T. Golden Chair Leslie C. Berlowitz Chair of the Academy Trust and Vice President Louis W. Cabot Treasurer John S. Reed Secretary Jerrold Meinwald Editor Steven Marcus Librarian Robert C. Post Vice President, Midwest John Katzenellenbogen Vice President, West Jesse H. Choper

Dædalus Board of Editors Committee Steven Marcus, Chair, Joyce Appleby, Russell Banks, Stanley Hoffmann, Donald Kennedy, Martha C. Nussbaum, Neil J. Smelser, Rosanna Warren, Inside back cover: A picture of divine harmony, Steven Weinberg; inspired by Isaiah 11:6 (“ . . . the calf and the ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi, Leslie C. Berlowitz lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them”), and painted by the American Committee on Publications artist Edwards Hicks (1780–1849): The Peace- Jerome Kagan, Chair, Jesse H. Choper, able Kingdom also shows a delegation from the Denis Donoghue, Jerrold Meinwald; Lenape people (sometimes called the Delware ex of½cio: Emilio Bizzi, Steven Marcus, Indians) signing a treaty with William Penn Leslie C. Berlowitz (the founder of Pennsylvania). See Leo Marx on The idea of nature in America, pages 8–21: “It was exceptional in its immensity, its spectacu- lar beauty, its variety of habitats, its promise of wealth, . . . and, above all, in the scarcity of its indigenous population. Hence the remarkable extent of its underdevelopment–its wildness– as depicted in myriad representations of the initial landfall of European explorers on the Atlantic seaboard of North America. In that stock image, the newly discovered terrain ap- pears to be untouched by civilization, . . . and not easy to distinguish from a state of nature.” Photograph © Brooklyn Museum/Corbis.

Dædalus coming up in Dædalus: Dædalus on cosmopolitanism Martha C. Nussbaum, Margaret C. Jacob, A. A. Long, Pheng Cheah, Darrin McMahon, Helena Rosenblatt, Samuel Scheffler, Arjun Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Appadurai, Rogers Smith, Peter Brooks, and Craig Calhoun Spring 2008 on judicial independence Sandra Day O’Connor, Stephen Breyer, Kathleen Hall Jamieson & Michael Hennessy, Stephen B. Burbank, Viet D. Dinh, Judith Resnik, Linda Greenhouse, Vicki C. Jackson, Charles Schumer, Spring 2008:onnature J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Robert C. Post, Charles Gardner Geyh, on nature Bill McKibben The challenge to environmentalism 5 Margaret Marshall, Ruth McGregor, Bert Brandenburg & Roy Leo Marx The idea of nature in America 8 Schotland, and Ronald George Harriet Ritvo Beasts in the jungle 22 Camille Parmesan Where the wild things were 31 on the humanities now Richard J. Franke, Francis Oakley, Edward L. Ayers, Michael Wood, Harriet Zuckerman & Ronald Ehrenberg, Caroline W. Bynum, Gordon H. Orians Human nature & nature 39 Anthony Grafton, Kathleen Woodward, Gerald Early, James J. Cass R. Sunstein Taking precautions 49 O’Donnell, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Patricia Meyer Spacks, and Philip E. Tetlock Leslie C. Berlowitz & Michael Oppenheimer The boundaries of the thinkable 59 Margaret Schabas Nature does nothing in vain 71 plus poetry by Robert Pinsky &c.; ½ction by Alix Ohlin &c.; Daniel J. Kevles The contested earth: science, equity and notes by Charles Stanish, Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, William & the environment 80 Kirby &c. annals John Hope Mason Rousseau in England 96

poetry C.D. Wright Because We Have Been Here Before 102

½ction Wesley Brown Body and Soul 104

notes Ian Ayres on options & epidemics 118 Richard Kraut on philosophy as a guide to well-being 122

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