PHIL 3340 Environmental Ethics-Supporting the philosophical study of environmental issues at Middle Tennessee State University and beyond...
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Don't panic
Seems relevant, though Bill McKibben might says it's too much "philosophy"...
“One of the most useful things about our minds is that they can in some moods allow us to step outside of ourselves – and consider our death from a wholly dispassionate perspective, as if it were someone else who would have to go through the event and as if we could understand it in the same way that a stranger four centuries from now might, in other words, as if it might not in the end be such a big deal at all, just an inevitable return to an atomic mulch from which our life was only ever a brief and unlikely spasm… On a cosmic scale nothing we will ever do, or fail to do, has the slightest significance. Everything connected directly to us is of no importance at all, when imagined on an appropriate scale. We are negligible instances, inhabiting a random, unremarkable backwater of the universe, basking for an instant or two in the light of a dying star. This perspective may feel cruel but it is also centrally redemptive, for it frees us from the squeals of our own frightened egos. It has only ever been an illusion, and a painful one at that, to imagine that our lives have anything significant to them whatever. We would feel so much lighter and freer if we could only acknowledge that we are and have always been as nothing...” (SoL/BoL, continues)
While it can be philosophically freeing to take a step outside ourselves and say that death really doesn’t matter, and that things that bother us are ultimately meaningless, It seems to be too easy to fall into the trap of “nothing I do matters, therefore I will do nothing”. And I feel this post also makes a couple of unproductive or unfair presumptions. The statement “On a cosmic scale nothing we will ever do, or fail to do, has the slightest significance. Everything connected directly to us is of no importance at all, when imagined on an appropriate scale” leads me to question: Is the cosmic scale really the appropriate or productive scale to judge the significance of our lives against if we don’t really live at a cosmic scale? I mean we exist within the distant backdrop of the cosmos, but it’s not like we have to worry that Jupiter is going to influence the election, or that Pluto will unfollow us for rescinding its planet status. The cosmos just exists, and barring the sun going out, or an asteroid striking Earth, the cosmos doesn’t really affect our lives in a big way. The cosmic machinery just kind of ‘chuggs’ along silently.
Maybe if we colonize other planets or become aware of another form of life, then the cosmic scale would be an appropriate lense to look at ourselves through but Earth is, for all but a handful of astronauts, all that most humans will ever call home and we shouldn’t judge the significance of our lives by anything else (aside from anyone’s religious beliefs). You could also say what is the point of viewing our lives at the cosmic scale, if the extent of our understanding of it is only of its basic physical nature (empty space, rocks, gas, etc.). What I mean by that is that the cosmos, as we understand it, doesn’t ascribe its own overarching significance or pass judgement over anything. If we judge the cosmos at the cosmic scale then we could conclude that as far as our understanding of the cosmos, everything at the cosmic scale is just as meaningless to us, as we are to it (since nothing matters anyway ha).
If we reject the cosmic scale and focus on the “Earth” scale, then you realize that everything we do has significance and is important because what happens within the Earth scale is what has the biggest effect on us, on nature, and on the Earth itself. Because this is what being human and alive is. We didn’t choose the scale of human existence, we exist within this specific milieu, under these specific conditions, with abilities, feelings, actions, and consequences. What we know for certain is that on the scale of Earth we’re born, we live, and then we die. Within this framework, it’s up to us to judge the significance of our lives, weighed against culture, norms, religion, concepts of right and wrong, good,and evil and good old philosophy.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back from the micro scale of our individual lives, but when we linger too long at the macro scale of the universe it can be too easy to forget that our lives only have all the meaning that we give them, and if you don’t give your life meaning, you won’t have any.
(I agree that was too much “philosophy”. This was originally going to be just a comment, but I went off the deep end of the philosophy pool and hit my head on the concrete, so I’ll call this my blog post) Weekly Total: 5 10/8 This blog post 10/8 Comment on Ed’s post on the Power Elite and Higher Immorality 10/8 Comment on Kathryn’s Art Therapy Overall Total: 35
While it can be philosophically freeing to take a step outside ourselves and say that death really doesn’t matter, and that things that bother us are ultimately meaningless, It seems to be too easy to fall into the trap of “nothing I do matters, therefore I will do nothing”. And I feel this post also makes a couple of unproductive or unfair presumptions. The statement “On a cosmic scale nothing we will ever do, or fail to do, has the slightest significance. Everything connected directly to us is of no importance at all, when imagined on an appropriate scale” leads me to question: Is the cosmic scale really the appropriate or productive scale to judge the significance of our lives against if we don’t really live at a cosmic scale? I mean we exist within the distant backdrop of the cosmos, but it’s not like we have to worry that Jupiter is going to influence the election, or that Pluto will unfollow us for rescinding its planet status. The cosmos just exists, and barring the sun going out, or an asteroid striking Earth, the cosmos doesn’t really affect our lives in a big way. The cosmic machinery just kind of ‘chuggs’ along silently.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if we colonize other planets or become aware of another form of life, then the cosmic scale would be an appropriate lense to look at ourselves through but Earth is, for all but a handful of astronauts, all that most humans will ever call home and we shouldn’t judge the significance of our lives by anything else (aside from anyone’s religious beliefs). You could also say what is the point of viewing our lives at the cosmic scale, if the extent of our understanding of it is only of its basic physical nature (empty space, rocks, gas, etc.). What I mean by that is that the cosmos, as we understand it, doesn’t ascribe its own overarching significance or pass judgement over anything. If we judge the cosmos at the cosmic scale then we could conclude that as far as our understanding of the cosmos, everything at the cosmic scale is just as meaningless to us, as we are to it (since nothing matters anyway ha).
If we reject the cosmic scale and focus on the “Earth” scale, then you realize that everything we do has significance and is important because what happens within the Earth scale is what has the biggest effect on us, on nature, and on the Earth itself. Because this is what being human and alive is. We didn’t choose the scale of human existence, we exist within this specific milieu, under these specific conditions, with abilities, feelings, actions, and consequences. What we know for certain is that on the scale of Earth we’re born, we live, and then we die. Within this framework, it’s up to us to judge the significance of our lives, weighed against culture, norms, religion, concepts of right and wrong, good,and evil and good old philosophy.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back from the micro scale of our individual lives, but when we linger too long at the macro scale of the universe it can be too easy to forget that our lives only have all the meaning that we give them, and if you don’t give your life meaning, you won’t have any.
(I agree that was too much “philosophy”. This was originally going to be just a comment, but I went off the deep end of the philosophy pool and hit my head on the concrete, so I’ll call this my blog post)
Weekly Total: 5
10/8 This blog post
10/8 Comment on Ed’s post on the Power Elite and Higher Immorality
10/8 Comment on Kathryn’s Art Therapy
Overall Total: 35