Anne
Gillcrist
Philosophy
Section 12, Group 3
Installment
(2-3)
In my first installment I
described nature. I retrieved the dictionary definition and explained my
personal ideals and opinions on nature. I described my disagreement with Hobbes
idea that living in a state of nature would be dirty and brutish. Unsure of
what I was going to write about next I did some research and decided Stoicism
has a positive idea about nature and how to live in harmony with nature.
Stoics
believe that philosophy is not what a person has said but how they behave and
live. Stoics presented their philosophies as a way of life. They believe in
human freedom and living in harmony with nature. Living in harmony with nature
is what initially interested me in stoicism. But what does this mean? I believe
that “living in harmony with nature,” is understanding that everything we do
has a direct impact on our environment. In American society we are more worried
about new technology and a plethora of artificial things then we are worried
about the beauty of nature that surrounds us. We live in a world of wasters!
If we
were to live in nature, humans would use their strength and body to its full
capacity. Many of us decide that living in nature would be absurd, simply
because we have never had to do it. Indian tribes seemed to live in the greatest
of harmony, using the earth’s natural goods to their full potential. It is
understandable that humans would not want to live as “savages” in this day, but
to be resourceful and waste less, the earth would be a better home.
This picture really spoke to me. It shows just how much of an impact humans have on the earth and what lives on it. We have the ability to help or harm what life we coexist with. We must use our abilities in the most positive of ways.
The Stoics did speak of living in harmony with nature, but possibly in a more passive way than we can afford to emulate at this juncture in our history. We've made a mess of our relation to nature, as you say, and now we must actively clean it up.
ReplyDeleteHave you selected your 3d post topic? If continuing this theme, maybe you'd want to address the question of what philosophy will best support the clean-up? (My bias of course is for Pragmatism.)
I have not yet decided on my third post…
ReplyDeleteI will research pragmatism, I do agree that with Stoicism it is very passive and they do not go in depth about "living in harmony with nature" I kind of put my own twist on their words!