Human Person and His/Her Environment

In line with SPUD's advocacy for the environment, I'd like to share some insights on environment and man's relation to it.  My reflection will be more philosophical and will be centered on the nature of human person and his/her relation to environment.  In writing this article, my approach is somehow historical --in the sense that I am going to treat the different views of the nature of man in the history of philosophy to further my analysis of man's relation with the environment.  It is undeniably true that "the way we look at ourselves affects the way we relate with others, like our environment."

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Let me start with ancient Greeks and their view on human person.  The ancient Greeks viewed man as part of the whole order of the cosmos.  Cosmos is governed by principles.  As part of the cosmos, man is also governed by a principle, which is reason.  For the Greeks, cosmos has an existing order, or it is already arranged.  Thus, man needs not to disrupt the order of the cosmos.  Rather, as rational being, it is his duty and task to understand the principles governing cosmos.  Technically, he doesn't "actively understand" what is written as principles in the book of nature, but simply "passively understand" those principles.  In other words, man as a knower is merely a passive recipient of what he extracts as principles written in nature.  What is ideal of him is contemplation -contemplating what is written as principles in the book of nature.

In this state of affairs between man and nature, we can infer that, for the Greeks, man is not going to "engage with nature."  By "engaging with nature," I mean, man doesn't have to alter what is written in the book of nature but simply "conforms" what nature demands of him to understand.  Thus, man is a "spectator" of the ongoing of nature -watching the influx of nature.  While watching the influx of nature, he extracts its constant pattern or its law.  (I hesitate to use the term, "constant pattern" since for the Greeks, it's a law [logos, in Greek term] that governs nature.)  Hence, it is man's duty to nature to "intellectually deal" with it, since in the first place he is rational or has the intellectual capacity to deal with it.

This Greek’s attitude towards the environment is still apparent to people living in the Medieval ages.  Though their fundamental perspective on life and environment has changed yet their attitude towards the environment is still the same, which is of stewardship to environment, not of domination over it.  Stewardship to the environment is entirely a new idea among Medieval people, which is not exactly the same with Greek’s idea of “spectatorship.”  Stewardship connotes the idea of lord-tenant relationship, which was the social structure existing during the medieval Europe.  A feudal lord owned a huge area of land and tenants tilled the land and paid tributes to the lord.  This social system was veiled with animosity yet the rule of the day was clear: “the lord claims ownership of the land, and tenants should be stewards of it.”  On the other hand, the idea of “spectatorship” of the Greeks connotes an independent activity –a mental activity, which is only appropriate for those we consider as philosophers.  The place of the philosophers in the Greek society was a privilege one.  It was one of those people detached from the world of ordinariness, or say, it was a place of those who do not do manual work.

This social system is somehow the outcome of the dominant religious belief in those times –that of Christianity.  In Christian beliefs as propounded by Christian thinkers and theologians, the cosmos –once viewed by the ancient Greeks as simply natural or part of the natural phenomenon, is now viewed as something created by God –eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God.  As part of creation, human beings are entrusted by God to rule and govern all things –both living and non-living, He created since the beginning of time.  Because of this, human beings become the pinnacle of God’s creation. 

This God-man relationship is really like that of the lord-tenant relationship.  God, the creator, entrusts his creation to his people, and the people, the tenants, work and take care of the creation entrusted to them by God.  As tenants, they pay tributes to God through prayers and corporal works of mercy to the less fortunate.  This social set-up engenders in God’s people the attitude of stewardship –taking care of what is entrusted of them.  The idea of stewardship, then, cannot be divorced from the idea of lordship and trusted workers of the Lord of all.

This perspective of human beings as stewards does not allow Medieval people to become lords and masters of nature (or cosmos or environment).  They don’t have the sense of dominion or controlling environment.  Instead, they should take care of the environment and enjoy its produce.