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American Transcendentalism in the History of and Deep Ecology Ideas

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American Transcendentalism in the History of and Deep Ecology Ideas American Transcendentalism and Deep Ecology in the History of Ideas by Timothy D. Quick B.A., University of Victoria, 1999 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the School of Environmental Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard O Timothy D. Quick, 2004 University of Victoria All rights reserved. Thls thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. American Transcendentalism and Deep Ecology in the History of Ideas by Timothy D. Quick ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical examination of the continuity of thought between American Transcendentalism and the Deep Ecology Movement. Of primary concern are the critiques of Modernity that Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and Nzss have expressed. In particular, it asks to what extent each of these figures has proposed ecocentrism as a reaction to anthropocentrism. In many ways Emerson, Thoreau, and Muir have inspired particular elements in the rich plurality whch characterizes the global, long-range, grassroots, Deep Ecology Movement as articulated by Arne Nzss. Table of Contents .. Abstract p. 11 Table of Contents p. iii List of Figures p. iv Acknowledgements P. " 1. Prolegomenon $1.1 Introduction $1.2 The Modern worldvie w $ 1.3 'Romantic ecology' and con temporary ecocen trism $ 1.4 History and Truth: a note on methodology 2. Emerson, Thoreau, Muir $2.1 Historical con text 92.2 Ra&h WaldoEmerson $2.3 Henry Da vid Thorea u $2.4 john Muir 3. Deep Ecology $3.1 Arne Nzss and the Deep Ecology Movemen t $3.2 Total views $3.3 Gestalt on tology 4. Conclusions $4.1 Criiques of Modernity $4.2 The subject/object dualism $4.3 Pluralism $4.4 Final remarks: Life is deep Endnotes Bibliography List of Figures Figure 1.1 Some Characteristics of Modernity P. 7 Figure 1.2 Some Characteristics of Ecocentrism p. 14 Figure 1.3 Two Trends in Ecocentrism p. 19 Figure 2.1 Two Interpretations of Emerson p. 44 - Figure 2.2 Clash of Values p. 70 Figure 3.1 Eight Platform Principles of the Deep Ecology Movement p. 89 Figure 3.2 North American 'deep ecology' p. 91 Figure 3.3 Gestalt figure (vase/faces) p. 107 Acknowledgements Thank you to my thesis committee for their support, the countless hours of discussion, and commitment to this project. A very special thanks to Dr. Alan Drengson for introducing me Arne Naess, and for helping arrange my trip to aslo, Norway. It changed my life. Many heartfelt thanks to Arne Nass and especially Gt-Fai Nzss for their warm and hospitality whle I visited them in Norway. Hana for her words of encouragement. My mother, Shrley Quick, for malung sure I ate more than just pizza. Because being here mans everything, and everything here seem5 to need us, this fleeting world, which in some faint way endlessly caNs to us. Us, the most fleeting of all. Once for each thing. just once. Just once and never again. And each of us, too, just once. And never again. But to have been here, even if ju~tonce. completely: to have been complete& with the earth will never be undone. 0Earth! is this not what you want: to arise in us, invmble? Is it not your dream to be inmible someday? 0 Earth! invlsibld What, if not transformation, is your urgent appeal.? Earth, my dear, 1 will. 0 believe me. you no longer need sprmgkmes to w~nme over - once. just once. IS already too much for my blood. Prolegomenon Because being here means everything, and everythmg here seems to need us. this fleeting world, which in some fa~ntway endlessly calls to us. U5, the most fleeting of all. $, 1.1 Introduction This thesis is a critical examination of the continuity of thought between American Transcendentalism and the Deep Ecology Movement. It is a history of ideas which focuses on the main exponents. of these two movements; Ralph Waldo . Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) are considered the leading figures of American Transcendentalism while Norwegian philosopher Arne Nass (b. 1912) is typically seen as the central representative for 'Deep Ecology.' The wilderness preservation advocated by John Muir (1838-1914) at the turn of the twentieth century will be treated as a transitional element between American Transcendentalism and the modern Deep Ecology Movement. Emerson, and to a much larger extent Thoreau, Muir, and Nzss, have all been influential figures for the modern environmental movement. If we take the hallmark of modern environmentalism to be a call for a shift from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism, to what extent, then, have the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and Nass been interpreted as promoting ecocentrismt Of primary concern will be the critiques of Modernity, especially anthropocentrism, that each of these figures has expressed. The modern environmental movement responds to a sense of crisis in Western culture. It registers a deep discontent with the prevailing attitudes, values and behaviours which have brought so much devastation to forests and watersheds, land and soils, local communities and whole human cultures, not to mention mass -2- Chpt. 1 - Profegomenon extinctions of other living species. There is a serious problem with the way that we in the West relate to the Earth and each other. Yet current green activism is only the latest insurrection in a long history of rebellions against Modernity. In North America one of the very first clarion calls for humanity to reexamine its attitudes toward the natural world came from New England on September 9, 1836, when Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book Nature. Henry David Thoreau and John Muir are among the most celebrated of Emerson's contemporaries who answered the plea, and their writings as well as their lives have been a seemingly endless source of inspiration for environmentalists. Ever since Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess coined the phrase 'deep ecology' in 1972 the deep ecology movement has steadily gained prominence around the globe, and Naess currently enjoys a distinguished position among ecophilosophers, especially in North America, Scandinavia, and Australia. Emerson, Thoreau, Muir, and Naess - each has, in hls own way, criticized the 'business as usual' attitude which has prevailed in our culture since the industrial revolution began toward the end of the 18thcentury. In short they have all questioned the phdosophcal underpinnings of Modernity and perhaps no tenet as incisively as the assumption that nature is a storehouse for exclusive human use. The latter three especially - Thoreau, Muir, and Naess - have been referred to as sources of considerable authority regarding ecological philosophy. But, to fully appreciate their insights, and hence to evaluate their contributions to the modern environmental movement we need to understand their motivations for exploring alternatives to Modernity. 5 1.2 The Modern worldview This thesis is motivated by my own deep convictions that not only does the dominant way of life in modern Western culture embody impoverished ideas of nature and humanity, but that there are viable alternatives to this way of life. Sonie of the more serious results of the urban-industrial imperative include ozone depletion, global decline of biodiversity, accumulation of toxic chemicals in soil and fresh water supplies, and massive soil erosion. These problems betray a specific underlying sense of reality, a cosmology, one that emerged with the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century and eventually established itself as 'a cultural paradigm so powerful and pervasive that it yet rules the West."' Currently, we enjoy unprecedented material prosperity yet there is progressive degradation of biophysical systems as well as what many would call a 'spiritual p~verty.'~Furthermore, the moral implications of the current ethos are particularly disturbing. Emphasis on individualism frequently results in narcissism whlch recognizes few, if any, concerns that transcend the ego. These might possibly include political, ecological, historical, or religious issue^.^ A revolution in human consciousness began some five hundred years ago with the Renaissance marking the beginning of the so-called Modern age.4 The next few centuries saw the gradual acceptance of a new sense of reality "based on the scientific mode of experiment, quantification, and technical ma~tery."~Many scholars consider Isaac Newton's Philosophia Naturahs Principia Mathernatica (1687) as the defining moment for this emerging new vision of real it^.^ kchard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind, explains the impact of the Prncipia: Newton's achievement in effect established both the modem understanding of the physical universe - as mechanistic, mathematically ordered, concretely material, devoid of human or spiritual properties, and not especially Christian in structure - and the modern understanding of man, whose rational intelligence had comprehended the world's natural order, and who was thus a noble being not by virtue of being the central focus of a divine plan as revealed in Scripture, but because by his own reason he had grasped nature's underlying logic and thereby achieved dominion over its forces.' Newton's Principia was the culminating moment of the Scientific Revolution and established the phdosophical framework for what became known as the Enlightenment (c. 1687-1800), or the Age of Reason. Proponents of Enlightenment thnking rode a wave of almost unbounded optimism that science and reason could be used to improve living conditions and secure material comforts for all of humanity. Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the Enlightenment's leading figures, proclaimed Newton to be the greatest man who ever lived, and that it was undeniable that science was the key to human progress.* What began in the Renaissance and culminated in the Enlightenment took place against a backdrop of "massive cultural decay, violence, and death"' and was largely a rebellion against the prejudice, superstition, and religious dogma which characterized much of the late Medieval worldview.
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