Truth of the Myths of Nature :: Philosophy Nature Papers

honor of the Myths of NatureThe term nature myths designates narratives presenting what-is as intelligible in hurt of value and meaning. Such narratives function to motivate ecological activism by articulating such(prenominal) presuppositions as the conviction that what we do matters, destruction of nature is intrinsic on the wholey wrong, and the hap of nondestructive human beings. However, such narratives motivate only if they are regarded in close to intellect as true. The question is, in what sense? Not in an objectivist sense (e.g. von Ranke), since value-even if intrinsic-is a subject related reality. Not in an escapist sense (e.g. Cassirer), since they respect the autonomy of reality. Nor in a depth sense of expressing an alleged essential condition of guilt (e.g. Heidegger and Patocka), since this would remain a confident(p) description, albeit one level removed. Instead, I propose treating nature myths as orienting the world (e.g. Jaspers) and guiding human component s therein. As such, nature myths can be said to be true (as in Ricoeurs adamic myth) or imitative (as in the myth of Man the Master) inasmuch as they provide or fail to provide adequate guidance for sustainable coexistence with all of the Earth. The draw a bead on of this paper is to ask in what sense, if any, ecological nature myths can be said to be not only ennobling and moving, but excessively in some significant sense true, able to claim a validity independent of the assent of those who tell and hear them.I inclination to use the term myth rather broadly to indicate not only the alleged spontaneous outpourings from the depth of our psyche, dear to romantically incline philosophers and psychologists, but rather all narratives which describe the cosmos and the place of mankind therein in terms of relations of value and meaning rather than in terms of mathematico-causal relations in spacetime. (1) In the quaint spoken language of Husserls Ideen II, they are ainistic narra tives, rendering reality intelligible in terms of personal that is, intrinsically subject-related categories. (2)Such narratives in fact play a essential role in the effort to forge a sustainable trend of coexistence between humans and the rest of the creation. Humans may select the convey for dealing with ecological damage in the light of natural scientific analysis but they are moved to deal with it at all by mythico-poetic articulation rather than by theoretical reconstruction of their lived experience. thence Rachel Carson, rigorous analytical chemist, moved her fellow humans by evoking their empathy by value laden poetic imagery.