Northern Arizona University/Environmental Ethics/Journals/Angela's Journal

Journal Entry 1

Leopold describes the different layers in the land pyramid as being so intricately intertwined as to appear random. However, the stability with which this system operates indicates that it is, in fact, highly organized. I think this stability is why nature can be so therapeutic. Among the disorder in our lives caused by human variables, nature, even through its vicissitudes, is constant. Its densely interwoven parts are too vast and too mutable to fully comprehend. From our perspective, nature can therefore appear to be an unconquerable foe. This makes it the ideal place to find solace from the disorder in our lives.

However, nature is not unconquerable. However small our species may be in the biotic community, the land pyramid is still subjected to our influences. Agriculture and grazing strips the soil of its nutrients. Hunting eliminates species. Countless other influences surely play a role, but these processes would better be described by an ecologist than by a psychology major. Nevertheless, it is our responsibility as conscious beings within the pyramid to preserve this structure as best we can. Leopold states that, "obligations have no meaning without conscience." Therefore, we must first recognize our place within this elaborate system and create ways to lessen our negative impact upon it.

I think it is important to stipulate that human nature will not allow ecological mindedness to supersede more basic needs, such as the nee for food or the need for safety. This could explain the inaction of the famers during the Soil Conservation. After being promised free technical service and specialized machinery in exchange for writing roes for land use, the farmers had not written any rules even after a decade. However, this law was passed in 1937 during the Great Depression. A decade later, World War II had only been over for two years. I think ecological mindedness is among the next steps in our growing domain of concern as a society. However, first it is necessary that more basic needs are met.

Journal Entry 2

Early this morning I drove out to Mormon Lake to visit family. Although I missed the sunrise by a couple hours, I caught some great views of autumn's imminent presence on the variegated landscape. For me, reading Sand County Almanac has been as much intellectually stimulating as it has been a guilt trip. As I drove, I wondered how much plant-life had been driven out for the sake of the road and my convenience. I wondered how many species of animals were disturbed or communities destroyed. I thought about how survival is a constant struggle in the natural world, whereas in American cities and towns, existence is a right we grant ourselves. As the dominant species, I believe this right was collectively earned. However, as thinking beings, I believe we are also charged with the responsibility of preserving nature. Surely, we all consider ourselves above any single bunny. This is easily justified by our longer life spans, greater capacity for feeling and connectedness, and greater potential for having a positive impact on others. However, when comparing ourselves, as one member of one species, to the complexity of nature, our own significance is hard to perceive.

The communities we've built for ourselves can be complemented by nature but never substituted for it. In "July," Leopold notes the amount of wild plant species to be found in the suburb and campus as compared to the backward farm. The farm outweighed the suburb and campus by 226 to 120. Leopold referred to this count as the "total visual diet." He seems to suggest that nature is better prepared to meet our fundamental needs than are communities. Pointing to my cell phone and laptop, I might argue that nature does not possess all the tools I require, but perhaps the same can be said about our cities. There must be tools and knowledge in nature which cannot be duplicated. It seems that it would be in our best interest to preserve nature, and therein, the mysteries it holds. However, these "mysteries" may be difficult to state in economic terms.

No matter how much thinking power we are endowed, I think humans will always be ruled primarily by self-interest. It is difficult to adapt to new values and even more difficult to persuade others to do so. Therefore, I think concern for preserving the biotic community will only increase as its benefit to us becomes more evident. As our understanding of the scientific and our recognition of the aesthetic grows, these values could become integrated into our culture.

Journal Entry 3

“I have read many definitions of what is a conservationist and written not a few myself, but I suspect that the best one is written not with a pen, but with an axe” (p. 68). In the November chapter, Leopold seems to be making a distinction between thought and action. As well-intentioned as an individual might be, having (or proclaiming to have) a sense of ecological responsibility does not necessarily benefit the greater community. Only when our actions are consistent with these beliefs, can we consider ourselves ecologically responsible. To Leopold, a conservationist is someone who takes careful consideration in deciding what to chop and does so “humbly aware that with each stroke he is writing his signature on the face of his land” (p. 68). The best person to understand, appreciate, and preserve nature is the one immersed within it.

At one point, Leopold seems to take a god-like stance, in relation to the environment. With a shovel and an axe, he says that whoever owns land is endowed with the power to give and take life. However, along with his own influence, he recognizes that every other living thing has the same power to its own extent. Death and rebirth is a delicate and necessary balance to continue renewing life; each species’ power to give and take life is a way of maintaining this balance.

Leopold goes on to suggest that nature is at his mercy just as much as he is at its mercy. Through his passive observation of a thriving community of plants and animals, Leopold seems to be acknowledging his humble status as a single entity within it. For him, this is evidence that he is better suited to simply enjoy his surroundings rather than attempting to control it or derive selfish favors from it.

Journal Entry 4

I think a major appeal of John Muir’s writings are his seeming lack of concern over his own safety. He recalls venturing into the Florida marshlands for several days with just some bread in his pocket. In Yosemite, he describes cataclysmic storms and flooding as he gazes on passively and unprotected. These events are consistent with his assertion that people can live more fully by immersing themselves in nature’s struggle for survival rather than insulating themselves from threat.

In Darwinian theory, nature involves chance: random genetic variation, the survival of some, and the death of others. For Muir, this is a key part of nature’s inherent sublimity and beauty. Nature is a force infinitely greater than our selves, and it submits to nothing. Yet, its power extends from the interrelatedness of its components. This interrelatedness emerges from giving and taking life. Therefore, danger and risk is inherent in nature. Humans represent only a single component and are subject to this danger and risk. No matter how much we try to avoid it through existing in modern society, we are still subject to the whims of others and susceptible to the smallest disease-causing microbes.

Muir suggests that such danger and risk in life should be embraced. This attitude may make a person’s life significantly shorter than remaining sheltered in society, but this small concern is heavily outweighed by the fulfillment that a person stands to experience by embracing nature and seeing beauty that manifests through uncertainty.

Journal Entry 5

Throughout Economy, Thoreau seems to be making the argument that our needs can be divided up into two categories: those of a physical nature and those of a spiritual nature. Like Socrates, he is suggests that our spiritual needs are of greater value than our physical needs. Therefore, we must preserve our virtues, at the cost of our comforts and even at the cost of our life if necessary. Furthermore, I think he is saying that it is each person's responsibility to develop himself/herself intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thoreau's model of moral living brought to mind the hierarchy of needs created by a famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow. At the bottom, are our physiological needs (food, water), followed by our safety needs (security of body, employment, morality), followed by needs for love and belonging (friendship, family, sexual intimacy), followed by esteem needs (self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect), and finally our need to self-actualize (being moral, creative, spontaneous, accepting). Maslow argued that the next step in the pyramid could only be met when all the lower needs were met. Furthermore, he proposed that only a very limited number of people actually reach self-actualization.

My purpose in comparing the two models is to show aspects of our lives that Thoreau's model does not seem to directly address. Nevertheless, I think Thoreau did consider such aspects and could categorize these needs into his model. The needs in question are safety needs, love and belonging, and esteem needs. By seeing how Thoreau lived his life, we can understand how much value he placed on each of these. He seemed to set the base of the pyramid by establishing his basic needs before beginning his sojourn. During these two years approximately he had little or no contact with civilization. Thus precluding the achievement of needs for either safety or love and belonging. Thus, it seems that to Thoreau these are hindrances that prevent one from meeting their spiritual needs. Esteem needs, on the other hand, are intrapersonal. Therefore, how well these needs are met depend on the expectations the individual sets for himself/herself. Thoreau seemed to have clear direction for his experiment, and through his readings it seems he was confident in himself. Although I do not think his needs included recognition from others, I think his esteem needs were met.

Journal Entry 6

“To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?” Thoreau argues that every morning millions wake up ready for manual labor, but of those, only a small portion are awake for intellectual exertion, and of these, an even smaller portion possesses poetic consciousness. Thoreau praises morning as a time of re-invigoration and innocence in which we make ourselves as innocent and simple as nature.

As he scorns the use of “mechanical aids” to induce wakefulness, I immediately think of my morning coffee. Sometimes I rely on this to give me the mental stimulation I need to complete my responsibilities for the day. However, a narrow-minded view of daily tasks threatens our ability to appreciate the world in a broader sense. Thoreau speaks of expectation and elevating his life to a higher standard. The dawn is symbolic of both of these as we are faced with the infinite possibilities of the day and the beauty it has to offer to the conscious observer.

In his effort to embrace both possibility and beauty, Thoreau retreats to the woods. He attempts to make his life fulfilling even in its most minute details. He limits his affairs to only the most essential matters: shelter, food, hygiene. This frees his conscious energy to continually renew himself spiritually. In our daily lives, I think a majority of our energy is expended on routine tasks. Personally, I find it easy to see these tasks as important in and of themselves, when, in fact, they only exist to support the things that are truly important. Our job, our studies, even our professional ambitions only define a part of who we are. However, by casting off titles and responsibilities, as during the innocence and simplicity of morning, we can awaken and be our fundamental selves.

Journal Entry 7

In the chapter, “The Bean-Field,” I was surprised to learn that Thoreau refers to his experiment as somewhat of a failure. He describes his toil in planting the seeds of sincerity, truth, simplicity, faith, innocence, and the like in himself. However, he says that the seeds, if indeed they were seeds of these virtues, were either wormeaten or had lost their vitality. Planting these seeds requires regular hoeing of the weeds, or our appetitive desires, to keep them in check. A healthy amount of these is, nevertheless, necessary for our virtues to thrive. It is this side of us, the appetitive side, that produces the vitality with which we pursue virtue. When we neglect our animal instincts we begin to let customs guide us rather than acting of our own account. Fate, in a way, begins to pull us in so that we are not so much directing our behavior as we are puppets performing according to our past experience and others’ expectations of us.

Thoreau notes that he regards the rational side and the animal side as equally important. He makes a conscious attempt to embrace this animal side, yet it seems to contradict the purpose behind our appetitive instincts if we must consciously convince ourselves to attend to them. Just as the beauty of a concept, such as life, eludes us when explained in scientific terms, so perhaps does nature when too much thought is applied to it.

In my own life, this is a concept I have struggled to reconcile. Does rational thought come at the expense of appreciating the aesthetic quality of life, or are the two somehow complementary? Once we consciously interpret a feeling, does it cease to be a feeling? Thoreau argues that our rational side only grows with the proper amount of appetitive desire. Yet, sometimes the balance seems impossible to achieve, or the two seem so disparate that they need separate fields in which to grow and thrive.

Journal Entry 8

Much of the first and second chapters of Emerson’s essays seem to explain his conception of the universal mind. It is something which is timeless and inherent within us. It is a finite number of simple truths from which is derived an infinite number of expressions.

These qualities seem to mirror Thoreau’s definition of virtue. Both cross all generations, essentially rendering it timeless. Thoreau attributes the driving force of virtue as coming from our appetitive side while Emerson, similarly, posits that it comes from our intuition, or the natural force within us. “Every man discriminates between the voluntary acts of his mind, and his involuntary perceptions, and knows that to his involuntary perceptions a perfect faith is due” (p. 39). Here, he recognizes the rational side, but seems to be focusing on the mysteriousness of the more primitive influences of our nature.

However, at least in the assigned readings, Emerson seems to address the relationship between the individual and society more in depth. He clearly encourages non-conformity, and, as such, places little value on social norms and laws that do not reflect inherent values, such as education or justice. On p. 10, he states, “What the former age has epitomized into a formula or rule for manipular convenience, it will lose all the good of verifying for itself, by means of the wall of that rule.” Emerson seems to be implying that humans have a tendency to accept rules and customs unquestioningly. In order to exercise our characters to the fullest extent, we must rid ourselves of imitation and, for better or worse, embrace our unique identities.

Journal Entry 9

Emerson’s essay on friendship is at first poetic and optimistic enough to restore anyone’s faith in people. He says that the sweetness of life comes from our feelings of love and good will toward others. We are naturally inclined to gravitate toward the presence of others even though we may not realize it. This inherent affection gives us continual hope of finding people who genuinely hear us and understand us.

In the later part of the chapter, Emerson seems to almost contradict the importance he places on friendship by discussing the importance of solitude. He embraces solitude, yet is careful not to overindulge the pleasure he finds in the company of others. In this regard, impatience is balanced by bashfulness and apathy so that the relationship can ripen on its own schedule.

Emerson’s argument seems consistent with his views of self-reliance. In the earlier chapter, he suggests that the best way of tapping into the common soul is to focus on developing ourselves. As we learn to tune out distraction, we tune in to our intuition and the natural force guiding us. Therein, we give expression to universal truths, and strengthen our bond to all people. Likewise, with friendships we must first focus on developing ourselves. Emerson states that to have friends you must first be a friend. He embraces solitude because it allows him to be a better friend by keeping his own ideas and visions fresh. Although this argument is perhaps selectively applicable to introverts, it seems logical that we must first allow ideas to thrive within ourselves before we are able to share them, or share ourselves, with others.

Journal Entry 10

In Emerson’s later chapters, he seems to outline more in depth how growth occurs by coming to know what he refers to as “the eternal one.” Truth, beauty, and goodness are the qualities of the universe, which enable our understanding of the universe to grow outwardly in all directions by concentric circles. As we discover universal truths, we better understand the nature of the common soul. However, even by examining ourselves, this soul is never to be fully understood. Emerson compares this to a stream whose source is hidden. Although the source (the common soul) may never be found, the stream (the soul as expressed through people) helps us to better understand its nature and live our own lives accordingly.

Furthermore, Emerson argues that each element in nature represents a part of a greater whole. However, we can only see the world piece by piece because we employ constructs such as space and time, but for universal truths, space and time are meaningless. Our disjointed perspective seems to take shape not only in the physical forms of the world, but in events in our lives. We segment our lives into work, school, friends, etc. and deal with each part on its own terms. However, by having a presence of mind to recognize beauty and truth, we can see that each moment is perfect. Emerson says the spirit plays with time and can “crowd eternity into an hour, or stretch an hour to eternity” (p. 158). Instead of measuring our experience along the linear scale of time, we can better connect our experiences by placing the significance in each individual moment. Although the context of the moments will vary, each aims to better grasp truth and beauty in the universe. Thus, each moment is an opportunity to expand our circle of knowledge and to ascribe meaning to our lives.