The fundamental problems of philosophy arise along with its development, which is inseparably linked with civilizational transformations. The problems that thinkers have always considered have changed with the development of human culture, knowledge, and practice, but there have always been such questions, the answers to which were traditionally expected exclusively from philosophy. One of these aspects, which occupies a significant place in the ideas of many philosophers of both modern and past eras, is nature. Being among the central concepts of philosophical thought and culture and possessing a wide range of meanings, in an extremely broad sense, it denotes the whole world as an infinite variety of its specific manifestations.
Today, ideas about nature have been transformed because the issues of protecting the environment and preventing climate change have come to the fore. However, even modern concepts about nature largely intersect with historical discourses and emphasize the relevance of the ideas of thinkers of past eras about the place and prerogatives of humans on the planet. The analysis of modern philosophers’ works and the ideas of thinkers of past eras helps identify the relationship between humans and nature and explains the transformation of discourses related to caring for the environment.
Nature from the Middle Ages to the Culture of the Renaissance
In medieval Christian culture, the nature surrounding humans was considered something created by God and lower than the person oneself. Only God was endowed with a divine principle – the soul – in the process of creation (Gatto, 2021). Moreover, nature was often thought of as a source of evil that needed to be overcome or subdued, while human life acted as a struggle between the divine principle – the soul and the sinful natural principle – the body (Garrod, 2021). These ideas were largely considered in the works of Descartes, who devoted a significant part of his philosophical practice to the study of the relationship between the soul and mind. The eternal values that the thinker analyzed in the context of fragile human existence included nature as an essential component necessary for development (Garrod, 2021). Nonetheless, earlier, the soul (God) and the body (nature) were opposed, and spirituality was significantly higher than the natural and mundane. This, in turn, served as an excuse for a negative attitude towards nature and even justification for the violence applied to it. The surrounding world was understood as something inanimate, opposing humans and society.
Such a system of views could not stimulate interest in the scientific knowledge of nature. However, in the depths of Christian thinking, there was another line in relation to nature. Understanding nature as a divine creation made it possible to search for a rational principle in it. That concept allowed for interpreting the knowledge of nature as an attempt to reveal and describe the divine plan contained in it, thereby glorifying the wisdom and omnipotence of the creator (Garrod, 2021). During the Renaissance, the attitude toward nature changed for the better. The human discovered the beauty and magnificence of the surrounding nature and began to see it as a source of joy and pleasure, as opposed to the gloomy asceticism of the Middle Ages (Taylor, 2020). Subsequently, in the philosophy and aesthetics of romanticism, nature began to be understood as a refuge that opposed the depraved and vicious human civilization. As a result, one can talk about a gradual change in views on the world, which was largely due to socio-cultural transformations.
Nature from a Philosophical Perspective in the 21st Century
Having entered the 21st century, humanity has faced a number of complex problems. Their reasons, on the one hand, lie in the contradictions between society and nature and, on the other hand, in political, economic, and cultural contradictions between countries. In this regard, particular attention is paid to the sustainable development of humanity. From a general standpoint, sustainable development should be understood as a globally managed development of the entire world community to preserve the biosphere and human existence. The ideas of Philippe Descola, the outstanding contemporary philosopher, have spread as concepts that affect human anthropology and the foundations of social development (Guzmán-Gallegos, 2021). His works, devoted to the comparison of culture and nature in the context of human life, are largely based on the assessment of the humanity and inhumanity of behavior (Guzmán-Gallegos, 2021). This, in turn, is in many ways similar to the concepts promoted by philosophers during the Renaissance. Only the world community as a whole can be stable because the biosphere and noosphere are a single organism of the Earth, and this position is the core of modern views about the environment.
The most important task of modern philosophy in the context of the concept of sustainable development is the substantiation of a new system of values aimed at the dialogue between humans and nature. The education of youth through the enlightenment of national humanistic consciousness and moral imperatives, developed by Rousseau, is a critical perspective to achieve, largely due to contemporary ecological issues (Taylor, 2020). Today, it is important to ecologize the human worldview, the system of education, upbringing, and morality by taking into account new civilizational values in the name of preserving the environment. Given Fressoz’s arguments, the devastating consequences of humans’ forceful relationship with nature initiate a critical review of the subject-object, technological, and disinterested attitude to the environment (Mcbrien, 2018). They were rooted in the culture of the 20th century and transmitted into the 21st century. The need to develop a partnership model based on the establishment of a mutual understanding of the harmonious connection of humans with nature is pivotal. Thus, modern philosophers tend to build the dialogue of individual cultures and integrative-synergetic tendencies of modern science into a system that can help solve existing environmental problems.
Historical Discourses
Since the Renaissance, as far as natural science knowledge is concerned, the idea of testing nature has become dominant in it. The desire to learn its secrets and reduce all its qualitative diversity to a small number of strict quantitative laws was the natural desire of enlighteners and philosophers, puzzled by little knowledge of the world. According to Descartes, the request can be satisfied by the rationalistic tradition of knowledge (Gatto, 2021). The priority of reason became the basis of not only the scientific methodology but also cultural discourse. These transformations led to numerous discoveries in the fields of physics, chemistry, and other sciences that were directly related to the processes taking place on the planet.
The rational concept of the knowledge of nature marked the emergence of new trends, which, however, were largely based on original reasoning about the development of humans within nature. Descartes argued that with the help of rational intuition, people received universal truths, for instance, they knew God, human nature, and morality (Gatto, 2021). His ideas were manifested, first of all, in the desire to achieve such knowledge that would strengthen people’s power over nature (Gatto, 2021). As a result, rationalism was directly connected with the search for a rational principle, which was to be present in nature. Using the ideas of historical discourse, contemporary environmental scientists, eco-activists, and other stakeholders seek to convey the inextricable connection between humans and nature. At the same time, the power of people over the outside world is regarded as a given, and no other theories are considered dominant. As a result, in striving to preserve the climate and protect the environment, many are guided by a rational approach, defining humans as dominant and viewing them as those who are able to protect nature.
The role of the environment ceased to be secondary, and as scientific and philosophical thoughts developed, more attention was paid to nature. For instance, Montaigne called into question the privileged position of humans in the world of living beings and showed the relationship between people and animals (Garrod, 2019). He refused the concept that a person needed to declare oneself the ruler and master of the Universe (Garrod, 2019). Equating oneself with God, attributing divine properties to oneself, and, at the same time, underestimating the possibilities of flora and fauna were false beliefs. Montaigne not only argued about the ultimate elevation of humans but also stated that thoughts about the insignificance of people within the framework of the environment were unfounded (Garrod, 2019). Thus, complaints about people’s insecurity from nature are not fair. More than animals, humans are protected from nature, having a large number of diverse movements and using numerous adaptations. This suggests that, while adapting to co-existence with humans, nature did everything so that people could survive, but it did not alienate them from itself.
One of the first classical philosophers to work on the interpretation of the conflict between nature and the development of civilization was Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his works, he argued that culture, making life more comfortable, weakened the natural qualities of humans, alienated them from itself, often without improving their moral character (Taylor, 2020). Nowadays, when a person is actively involved in the imbalance of the planet, reducing the diversity of life forms and forgetting that one is a part of the entire living bios, this problem becomes relevant. Rousseau put forward the idea of natural education outside of society (Taylor, 2020). The task of upbringing and not only education was to create the most favorable environment for the development of a person’s inclinations. Today, such an idea of education and training outside of society can hardly be accepted. At the same time, respect for the personality of the student remains relevant.
Age characteristics, individual inclinations, and personal thoughts that every citizen of a reasonably organized society should describe Rousseau’s main theses. Useful knowledge about nature and society has contributed to forming contemporary views on the environment (Taylor, 2020). It is also relevant to educate the younger generation in the spirit of deep respect for work, as Rousseau believed, and not the generation of consumers (Taylor, 2020). Therefore, paying attention to the moral upbringing of young people in their education is essential to preserve the environment and protect it from anthropogenic factors.
Results of the Development of Philosophical Thought
Historical paradigms that explain the relationship between society and the environment have become the background for modern concepts that consider the need to preserve the Earth’s ecology. Philippe Descola, starting from the thoughts of Descartes’ dualism, develops it (Guzmán-Gallegos, 2021). Modern incentives that encourage people to promote ideas about protecting the environment are driven by conscience and reflection. It is these criteria that are described by Descola; according to him, inside people, there is something that can only be observed through manifestations, for example, reflective consciousness or the ability to act (Guzmán-Gallegos, 2021). The concepts of animism, natural artifacts, and other forms of manifestation of the surrounding world in the perception of people emphasize the inextricable connection between humans and nature and encourage further knowledge of cultural distinctions. This philosophical doctrine is simple and, at the same time, profound: constant knowledge of oneself is the mechanism of knowledge of the external world, and the role of the human in protecting the environment is key. Such an approach corresponds to classical ideas about the place of people on the planet and complements traditional ideas about the value of collective efforts.
Most environmentalists agree that the modern planet is in deep crisis, and high anthropogenic activity may be called the main reason for this. For instance, in his writings, Christophe Bonneuil, the French historian and philosopher, suggests giving the modern era the name Occidentalocene (Mcbrien, 2018). This term implies that the industrialized countries of the West are to blame for climate change but not the poorest countries in the world (Mcbrien, 2018). The Industrial Revolution, which marked the transition from the abstract reasoning of the romantic era to the concrete studies of the technogenic era, contributed significantly to climate change. Christophe Bonneuil, co-authored with Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, has repeatedly emphasized that the damage caused by human activity to the environment can hardly be repaired for many decades (Mcbrien, 2018). Developing rapidly, human civilization has surpassed in its progress the expectations of thinkers of past eras. As a result, one can speak of differences in the interpretation of the human role in nature by modern philosophers and authors of past centuries. Today, human responsibility to the environment is significantly higher than before, and, realizing this, contemporary authors strive to convey this to society.
Conclusion
Philosophical discourses of thinkers of past eras about the role of humans in nature can be considered a background for modern concepts of environmental protection and climate conservation, which modern scientists promote. The teachings of Descartes, de Montaigne, and Rousseau have become iconic in the context of studying how people and nature are interconnected. The doctrines that appeared in the Renaissance replaced the outdated ideas about the total domination of the human over all living things except God. Today, relying on the approaches of classical philosophers, environmentalists and eco-activists set the task of overcoming the global environmental crisis caused by high anthropogenic activity. The Industrial Revolution catalyzed a change in how people understand progress. However, thoughts about the role of the human on the planet have not ceased to be studied. They have taken on new forms and become more advanced, but the basic ideas remained the same. As a result, classical philosophical discourses are a valuable background for modern research on nature and people’s place in it.
References
Garrod, R. (2019). “The animal outside”: Animal ingenuity and human prudence in French Renaissance political thought. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 49(3), 521-540. Web.
Gatto, A. (2021). Descartes and Montaigne on divine power and human reason. Filozofia, 76(2), 137-150. Web.
Guzmán-Gallegos, M. A. (2021). Philippe Descola: Thinking with the Achuar and the Runa in Amazonia. Ethnos, 86(1), 114-131. Web.
Mcbrien, J. (2018). The banality of the Anthropocene – Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us, transl. by David Fernbach (New York, NY, Verso Books, 2015). European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 59(3), 399-407. Web.
Taylor, B. (2020). Philosophical solitude: David Hume versus Jean-Jacques Rousseau. History Workshop Journal, 89, 1-21. Web.