Agricultural Ethics: A Comparative Perspective

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Agricultural Ethics A Comparative Perspective

• Kai-Yuan Cheng (???)
• Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition
• National Yang-Ming University
• (????)
• 2013.02.13

2
Outline

• I. Strength and Possible Weakness in Paul
  Thompsons Agrarian Version of Environmental
  Ethics
• II. Zhuangzis Philosophy The Nature of Man and
  Nature
• III. Implementation of Thompsonian Agrarianism in
  Taiwan (or beyond) through the Supplementation of
  Zhuangzis Philosophy

3
Environmental Philosophy

• Environmental philosophy articulates and defends
  basic principles for understanding and addressing
  environmental issues. An environmental philosophy
  is an explicit statement of norms, values, and
  working principles intended to guide our thinking
  and practice with respect to the preservation,
  utilization, and appreciation of nature and for
  the conservation of natural resources, as well as
  the addressing of specific environmental problems
  such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate
  change. (Thompson, 2010, p. 11-12)

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Two Dogmas of Environmental Philosophy

• The dogma of pristine nature unimproved nature
  has the highest value
• An eco-centric view
• The dogma of environmental impact environmental
  ethics and policy should focus on anticipated
  outcomes or impacts of human actions on
  environment
• An anthropocentric view

5
Drawback of the Dogma of Pristine Nature
Unrealistic

• A significant percentage of land on planet Earth
  is used for plant and animal production.
• The landmass used for agriculture
• U.S.A. 50 of U.K. 40 Taiwan 23 Chia-Yi
  39 Yun-Lin 63 Chuan-Hua 59 Taipei 12
  (Website of Directorate-General of Budge,
  Accounting and Statistics of Executive Yuan
  ?????????)
• Impacts are inevitable. The real issue is how to
  handle those impacts and maintain environmental
  sustainability

6
Drawback of the Dogma of Environmental Impact
Fact-Value Dichotomy

• the exclusive focus on outcomes or impacts has
  some disturbing implicationsthe dogma makes it
  easy to think of values as being wholly
  independent from facts. (Thompson, 2010, p. 25).
• It is one thing for scientists to find out the
  outcome of certain ecosystem processes, and it is
  another thing for economists and philosophers to
  evaluate the appropriateness and
  inappropriateness of those processes.
• Agriculture is a form of human activity performed
  for the purpose of food production. It seems to
  have some intrinsic values. The challenge is how
  to articulate the intuitive and compelling
  impression that agricultural facts are inherently
  fused with value that go beyond considerations of
  impacts, outcomes and trade-offs.

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Disaster of the Two Dogmas Combined

• combining the dogma of environmental impact
  with the dogma of pristine nature creates a
  disastrous environmental ethics for cultivated
  ecosystems (that is, for agriculture).
  Agriculture by its very nature and intention
  involves an impact on nature. However ethical
  imperatives for land use are expressed, the
  result of any call to limit the environmental
  impact from agriculture means the less
  agriculture, the better. However, if agriculture
  is to be minimized on a per-acre basis, it must
  be practiced as intensively as possible on those
  acres. This reasoning categorically supports
  industrialized agriculture over organic or
  low-input alternatives (Thompson, 2010, p.
  25-26)
• We need to find an alternative conceptual
  framework to come up with a workable ethic of
  sustainability for both our environment and
  agriculture.

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Thompsons Agrarianism

• Main Thesis
• i) Agriculture is key to sustainability that
  lies at the core of environmental ethics.
• ii) Agricultural form of life has an internal
  dynamics to generate individual moral characters
  and social goodness which not only have intrinsic
  values of their own but also lead to peoples
  affectionate relationship with nature which they
  inhabit in and interact with on a daily basis.

9
Thompsons Agrarianism

• My contention in this book is that farms,
  farming communities, and the agricultures that
  support entire civilizations are excellent models
  for the complex kinds of ecosocial hybrid systems
  that need to be sustained if our society is to
  achieve sustainability at all (Thompson, 2010,
  p. 11)
• An agrarian is more concerned with the way a
  local food system embeds people in practices
  whereby their commerce with nature and with one
  another creates an enduring sense of placeThe
  agrarian hope is that these kinds of localized
  transactions will gradually develop into an
  affection for the people and the places where one
  lives, and that through the constant repetition
  of these rhythms, this affection, this sympathy,
  will mature into full-fledged habits of
  charactervirtues if you will. (Thompson, 2010,
  p. 39)

10
Thompsonian Agrarianiam Inspired by Ancient Greek
Philosophers

• philosophers such as Socrates and Plato must be
  read in light of certain agrarian ideals that
  were the foundations of life throughout Greeks
  city-states and at Athens in particularthe Greek
  worldview incorporates both nature and society
  into an enveloping environment that aids or
  inhibits action in a very selective way. Human
  goodness involves the realization of potential
  that is latent in human character, but the
  potential for this realization is not wholly
  under any individual persons control. One
  develops virtues and vices as a result of how
  ones environment rewards or penalizes patterns
  of conduct in a systematic way. There is,
  therefore, no good person without a good
  environment. And for the Greeks, a good
  environment was not a pristine environment but a
  farm environment (Thompson, 2010, p. 26-27
  Hanson, 1995)

11
Thompsonian Agrarianiam Inspired by Ancient Greek
Philosophers

• This type of thought places individuals within
  concentric webs family, community, and nature.
  As described in Aristotles Politics, those webs
  work as interacting hierarchies to establish
  feedback loops ensuring that individuals
  internalize the consequences of their actions
  into habits of personal character. One does not
  stand back from a potential impact and wonder how
  to value it rather, one sees the whole organic
  situation as creating more specific value
  commitments, which are understood as virtues that
  integrate and preserve the whole. (Thompson,
  2010, p. 27)

12
Thompsonian Agrarianiam Inspired by Ancient Greek
Poets

• The Greek poet Hensiod (circa 700 BCE) saw
  farming as having a religious purpose, but the
  religious significance of farming for Hesiod was
  rather different than it might be for
  contemporary Christians, Muslims, or Jews. His
  Zeus was one of several immanent gods, fully
  present in Hesiods daily life. The depiction of
  Zeus in Hesiods poem Works and Days is one of a
  god thoroughly integrated into nature and the
  source of all natural unity. The seasons, soil,
  and water are themselves divinities begotten by
  Zeus that establish a place for human beings. A
  key message in Hesiods poetry is that only
  farmers dependent on seasons, soil, and water can
  hope to attain piety or show proper respect to
  these divinities. Farming is the way human beings
  justly occupy a place in the divine (that is,
  natural) orderAgriculture is thus the singular
  practice by which humanity makes its way in the
  world in a pious and morally just manner.
  (Thompson, 2010, p. 36-37)

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Possible Inadequacies of Thompsons Agrarianism
(1)

• i) Certain aspects of Greek philosophy that are
  favorable to his agrarian position are
  highlighted, but some salient aspects of Greek
  philosophy that may have some internal tensions
  with this agrarian position are not addressed,
  such as
• a) The dualistic view of human nature a
  person is composed of two distinct kinds of
  entity body and soul
• b) The atomistic view of nature the
  universe is particulate, reductive, material,
  inert, quantitative, and mechanical
• Human beings are both essentially and ethically
  segregated from nature in this Greek worldview
  (Callicott, 1987, p. 118).
• Human beings seek not unity with nature but
  conquest in this Greek worldview (McHarg, 1969)

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Possible Inadequacies of Thompsons Agrarianism
(2)

• How are we to make sense of Hesiods idea that
  Zeusa sacred beingis thoroughly integrated into
  nature? Is this idea a merely metaphorical or
  poetic expression, or something to be taken
  seriouslythat it has some real ontological
  import?
• If the former were the case, we would have
  difficulty taking a sacred worldview seriously.
  If the latter were the case, there would seem to
  be a direct conflict between a sacred view of
  nature expressed by Hesiod and a mechanistic and
  atomistic view of nature popular among ancient
  Greek philosophers.

15
The Judeo-Christian View of Man and Nature
Congruent with Greek Philosophy but Leads to
Environmental Crisis

• 1. Godthe locus of the holy or sacredtranscends
  nature.
• 2. Nature I a profane artifact of a divine,
  craftsman-like creator. The essence of the
  natural world is informed matter God divided and
  ordered an inert, plastic material.
• 3. Man exclusively is created in the image of God
  and thus is segregated, essentially, from the
  rest of nature.
• 4. Man is given dominion by God over nature.
• 5. God commands man to subdue nature and multiply
  himself.
• 6. The whole metaphysical structure of the
  Judeo-Christian world view is political and
  hierarchical God over Man, Man over Naturewhich
  results in a moral pecking order or power
  structure.
• 7. The image-of-God in Man is the ground of mans
  intrinsic value. Since nonhuman natural entities
  lack the divine image, they are morally
  disenfranchised. They have, at best, instrumental
  value.
• 8. This notion is compounded in the latter
  Judeo-Christian tradition by Aristotelian-Thomisti
  c teleologyrational life is the telos of nature
  and hence all the rest of nature exists as a
  meansa support systemfor rational men.
• (Callicott, 1987 Lynn White, Science 1967)

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Fundamental Questions in Environmental Ethics

• 1) What is the nature of nature?
• 2) What is the nature of man?
• 3) How should man relate to nature?
• (Ip, 1983 Callicott, 1987)
• Suitably answering these questions remains
  critical for developing a substantial version of
  Thompsonian agrarianism

17
Zhuangzis Philosophy The Nature of Man and
Nature

• Understanding the nature of nature is inseparable
  from understanding the nature of man.
• The nature of man can be viewed from three
  angles
• a) Body
• b) Person (psychological relation R Parfit)
• c) Self
• Details of my reading Zhuangzi on the above
  issues
• Cheng (forthcoming) Self and the Dream of the
  Butterfly in the Zhuangzi, Philosophy East and
  West
• --- (draft) Personal Identity and Survival in
  the Zhuangzi

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Body Transformation of ki (?) in the universe

• But I looked back to her beginning and the time
  before she was born. Not only the time before she
  was born, but the time before she had a body. Not
  only the time before she had a body, but the time
  before she had a ki. In the midst of the jumble
  of wonder and mystery a change took place and she
  had a ki. Another change and she had a body.
  Another change and she was born. Now theres been
  another change and shes dead. Its just like the
  progression of the four seasons, spring, summer,
  fall, and winter. Now shes going to lie down
  peacefully in a vast room. (tr. Watson, 1968)
• ????????????,???????!???????,?????,??????????,???
  ????????,????,?????,??????????????????????????????
  ????,?????????,???????,?????(?? ??)

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Self What Is the Nature of a True Master

• Joy, anger, grief, delight, worry, regret,
  fickleness, inflexibility, modesty, willfulness,
  candor, insolencemusic from empty holes,
  mushrooms springing up in dampness, day and night
  replacing each other before us, and no one knows
  where they sprout from. Let it be! Let it be! It
  is enough that morning and evening we have them,
  and they are the means by which we live. Without
  them we would not exist without us they would
  have nothing to take hold of. This comes close to
  the matter. But I do not know what makes them the
  way they are. It would seem as though they have
  some True Master, and yet I find no trace of him.
  He can actthat is certain. Yet I cannot see his
  form. He has identity but no form. (tr. Watson,
  1968)
• ????,????,???????,??????????,?????????,??!????,??
  ????!????,??????????,????????????,???????????,????
  ?,??????????????,????,????????????????????????????
  ???????????????????????????????,??????? (?? ???)

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Self Does the Thing Called I Exist?

• Whats more, we go around telling each other, I
  do this, I do thatbut how do we know that this
  I we talk about has any I to it? (tr.
  Watson, 1968)
• ?????????,???????????(???)

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Self Is an Illusion the Dream of the Butterfly

• ????????,????????????!????????,???????????????????
  ??????????,????????????
• Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a
  butterfly flittering and fluttering around, happy
  with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't
  know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and
  there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou.
  But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had
  dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly
  dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou
  and a butterfly there must be some distinction!
  This is called the Transformation of Things. (tr.
  Watson, 1968)

22
Person What Is It to Identify Oneself as a
Cow/Horse?

• Zhuangzi describes an enlightened person Tai as
  sometimes thinking of himself as a horse and
  sometimes as a cow (tr. Watson, 1968)
• ??,????,?????????,?????????,????,????????(???)

23
Mark Johnstons Theory of Personal Identity (2010)

• There is no objectively right or wrong answer to
  the question about personal identity.
• Personal identity is judgment-dependent whether
  I will be the same person as a previous one is
  determined by my dispositions to make relevant
  judgments about my identity.
• We can cultivate our own identity-determining
  dispositions.

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Zhuangzis View of an Ideal Person Illuminated by
Johnstons Theory

• Three communities
• A) Human Being
• B) Teletransporters
• C) Tai
• For Parfit, a person survives teletransportation
  (the relation R continues to exist).
• For Zhuangzi, a person like Tai survives as a
  cow or a horse continues to exist.

25
Zhuagnzis View of an Ideal Person

• ?????,???,??????(???)
• Though the grease burns out of the torch, the
  fire passes on, and no one knows where it ends.
  
• ??????,????????
• ?????,?????? (???)
• An ideal person identifies her future existence
  as continued by heaven and earth. Such a person
  can then survive as heaven and earth, or, nature,
  survives.

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Two Merits of Zhuangzis View of Man and Nature
When Implementing Thompsonian Agrarianism

• 1) Man is not a dualistic entity, but part of
  earth and heaven in a constantly transformational
  process.
• 2) If there is something sacred and valuable
  about me, there is something sacred and valuable
  about nature, given the uniformity and continuity
  of the two.
• Zhuangzis ontological view of man and nature
  appears to offer a suitable ground on which
  Thompsons agrarian version of environmental
  ethics may be built and developed.

27
Zhuangzis View of the Role of Instrument in
Man-Nature Interaction

• Tzu-kung traveled south to Ch'u, and on his way
  back through Chin, as he passed along the south
  bank of the Han, he saw an old man preparing his
  fields for planting. He had hollowed out an
  opening by which he entered the well and from
  which he emerged, lugging a pitcher, which he
  carried out to water the fields. Grunting and
  puffing, he used up a great deal of energy and
  produced very little result. "There is a machine
  for this sort of thing," said Tzu-kung. "In one
  day it can water a hundred fields, demanding very
  little effort .and producing excellent results.
  Wouldn't you like one? The gardener raised his
  head and looked at Tzu-kung. "How does it
  work?""It's a contraption made by shaping a piece
  of wood. The back end is heavy and the front end
  light and it raises the water as though it were
  pouring it out, so fast that it seems to boil
  right over! It's called a well sweep. The
  gardener flushed with anger and then said with a
  laugh, "I've heard my teacher say, where there
  are machines, there are bound to be machine
  worries where there are machine worries, there
  are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine
  heart in your breast, you've spoiled what was
  pure and simple and without the pure and simple,
  the life of the spirit knows no rest. Where the
  life of the spirit knows no rest, the Way will
  cease to buoy you up. It's not that I don't know
  about your machine - I would be ashamed to use
  it! (tr. Watson, 1968)

28
Original Text

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29
An Extra Merit of Zhuangzis Philosophy

• Considerations of how man should use instruments
  in the exploitation of natural resources may help
  bringing about some important constraints on the
  implementation of Thompsonian Agrarianism.

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• Thank you for your attention!