Box 24, Item 1699: Working draft of Culture, philosophy and approaches to the natural environment - an Australian perspective
Title
Box 24, Item 1699: Working draft of Culture, philosophy and approaches to the natural environment - an Australian perspective
Subject
Typescript of draft, with emendations and annotation, undated. Includes photocopy of draft.
Creator
Source
The University of Queensland's Richard Sylvan Papers UQFL291, Box 24, Item 1699
Date
1983
Contributor
This item was identified for digitisation at the request of The University of Queensland's 2020 Fryer Library Fellow, Dr. N.A.J. Taylor.
Rights
For all enquiries about this work, please contact the Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library.
Format
[37] leaves. 37.68 MB.
Type
Manuscript
Coverage
Australian National University - Filing Cabinet 1 - Top Drawer
Text
WORKING DRAFT 1'l}l' T1 1,,i··)
CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND APPROACHES TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - AN
AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE
Many of you know that Canberra was originally designed by Walter Burley
'lO
Griffin.
This talk is dedicated to him. You may not know that Griffin, an
c111,d l,ee,tJ>,, I! a ,~cJ/2...ru/.1t-l/ '";~1/n,-,l,c1...
American who migrated to Australia in 1913, was
not
simply
an
architect
and
A
lantlscape
designer_, but one of Australia's early deeper ecologists.
key elements of the Western industrial paradigm, especially
on
making
nature
the
servant
of
man',
'land
to
be
accorded
the
'concentration
and discerned instead elements of a
different 'consciousness' (the word is his).
took
the
He rejected
His approach was holistic, and
respect
he
due to a highly developed and
perfected living organism not to be exterminated or treated as dead material, or
as
a
mere
section of a map'.
Canberra, now no mere section of map, is still,
for all its deficiencies, perhaps the best approximation anywhere
.eco~osic-.w,
city;
but it is not only removed from Griffin's original conception
but far from deep ecological ideals.
*
*
*3
*
*
*
*
The objective of the larger investigation, of which this
part,
is
to
gauge
the
extent
to
which
Australian
contrasted with American culture, contains developable
will
underpin
a
under which many
suffers.
talk
sketches
a
culture, especially as
elements
(seeds)
which
different political framework from the bastardised capitalism
people
presently
labour
and
local
environment
frequently
It is not necessary to see the present political arrangements and the
political course
interested
to
in
charted
as
environmentally
alternative structures:
socially
disastrous
to
be
it is enough, for example, to view them
r ,i,v~c~ntL..:f- [.<-ol"l,-"
hd<--t r7' <-.~ .::..
P,r~t- f tl. /~J
1
or
J
I
C-IJll·A-r~u... )
~ tn "S.
those
as far from satisfactory, or very far from
the
of
best
to be interested in the prospects of turning things around somewhat, to
worlds,
increasing ecological resistance [negative action] against
vandalism
and
like, and ecological construction [direct positive action].
the
grounds
give
remarkable level of environmental activism that has
the
especially
hope,
damage,
environment
There are several distinctive features of Australian culture that
for
attainable
of
somehow emerged among the people.
It is worth trying to pull together
some
of
these features of the culture, to look at ways of furthering the valuable parts,
and increasing the level of concern and activism.
the
towards
practices,
and
attitudes
different approaches, different
1
Indeed appreciation of,
environment.
have
cultures
different
Without doubt
practices towards, and respect for the natural environment are highly culturally
dependent:
and where they still survive uncorrupted still have -
nonimperial cultures had
much
exploitative
less
whose
North,
industrial
exploitation
approaches
to
practices
not
vandalism
and
the
environment
merely
environmental
but to a marked extent depend upon such practices.
control"
their
of
local
typically under the missionary, colonial or imperial domination.
in
But occasionally, notably
retained
the
of
those
than
gross
permit
Mostly these more benign cultures have however "lost
environments,
Most
American Jews and American Indians.
instance,
for
compare,
sufficient
autonomy
the
to
adjacent
Pacific,
regional
cultures
2
have
slow or even halt environmental destruction.
Thus, for example, rainforest damaging projects have been delayed or blocked
in
Melanesia largely through Melanesian attitudes to the land.
One important way then to try to slow environmental degradation, especially
in
the
South,
is
to
foster
certain
both
sweepingly, regional cultural autonomy;
socialism
and
indigenous
for
cultural
instance
land rights movements.
2
differences
to
support
and, more
Melanesian
For, where the cultures have
not been excessively corrupted by Northern influences, this is
rapid
way
of
paradigms.
in
the
a
cultural
differences
can
also
serve
Antipodes, in particular in Australia, to at least assist in
transition to different
Such
comparatively
activating alternative paradigms to the dominant Northern social
The question arises whether
elsewhere
a
less
environmentally
exploitative
social
paradigms.
transition is unlikely to occur unless it is based on the culture.
Can
features of the culture and the social life be used to foster and make requisite
differences?
In the case of Australia, a basis
culture,
is
there
both
in
the
land
and
the
and things appear sufficiently different from those in the cultures of
the industrialised North to allow (some hope) for cultural differentiation.
the
need
for
change,
at
least
if the natural environment is to retain some
It
semblance of integrity, there is little doubt.
that
there
is,
in
is
becoming
platitudinous
the longer run not much prospect for the integrity of many
local natural environments and ecosystems
loose
Of
3
unless
we
in
the
Antipodes
break
from the damaging cultural assumptions and practice of the industrialised
North and
work
destructive
towards
establishment
of
a
less
in
some
parts,
rising
tide
war.
of
For despite
environmental
the industrialised North still appears in the grip of
established forces and unlikely to budge in time - short of
nuclear
environmentally
culture, towards a certain regional cultural autonomy.
elements of regionalism in the North, despite a
concern
different
disaster,
such
Though we who seek change can count on some support from minority
movements in the North, nonetheless if we are to achieve changes, we must go
largely
alone.
Nor
is
the
Australia because as well as the
location,
the
advantage
of
the
ground
and
its
southern
seeds of cultural difference are already there and growing.
cultivation.
Such
a
it
task of paradigm transition entirely hopeless in
like most new and more fragile developments they need attention and
speedy
as
careful
But
if
task is rendered urgent also by other matters of
3
environmental and human concern, not just the gathering signs
but
colossal
biological
losses
through
of
nuclear
rapid destruction of, e.g.
war,
tropical
rainforests, indeed mounting evidence of environmental decline almost everywhere
humans now establish.
How does philosophy fit into the strategy of harnessing regional culture to
alter approaches to the environment?
As in the title of the talk it operates in
the middle, not as an idle middleman, but more like
and
design
culture.
principles
A working
picture
that
the main components of the discussion together - a picture that also like
most images of the more abstract distorts across
organising
of the dynamic linkage in a good suspension bridge, which lifts the
environmental way on the ropes of regional
links
the
is
that
of
a
suspension
the gap often separating people from the natural environment.
bridge
There are
people, and the environment, and approaches by bridges to the environment,
like
so:-
approach
➔
Natural
Environment
People
(Of course people may be part of the natural environment:
the
picture
doesn't
exclude that important overlap.) The connecting bridges may be of very different
sorts, ranging from rustic bridges good for careful foot
traffic,
through
the
monumental suspension bridge at Middle Harbour, to modern high-tech bridges able
to carry nuclear tanks and bulldozers over large spans.
of
But it is the structure
all these types of bridges carrying the approaches that matter particularly.
The spans are carried by the ropes of culture, and the pylons of culture if
4
you
will.
~
{dC"' CULTURE
l
(--.__ APPROACH ~
____,___.- ·'---
So
with
approaches.
different
------- ----- -
cultures,
different
carrying
bridges
different
It is better to see the link component in the middle - philosophy,
but it might almost as well be sociology - not as part of the nuts and bolts and
rivets
of
the
structures.
types,
bridges,
but
rather
It has its analytical
computing
the
loads
and
as
parts,
the
design
looking
stresses
at
on them;
and
engineering of the
the
components,
and it also has its more
holistic elements, considering the bridges themselves and
of
them
their
- the social paradigms embedded in the cultures.
select
substructures
Philosophy, the link
subject, is then the architecture and engineering of the business.
Less
figuratively,
assumptions
of
a
philosophy
replacement,
or marxist philosophies.
deep ecology, asks deeper
assumptions
of
all
and
and
assumptions
paradigms.
the
operative
for
example
of
free
Philosophy, especially metaphysics and not
deeper
questions,
extracting
the
fundamental
other subjects and assembling the intellectual assumptions
embodied in a culture or social way of life, i.e.
social
assembles
culture applied in environmental practices, the assumptions,
that is, to be considered for
enterprise
isolates
In
what are sometimes called the
this respect philosophy - which includes much more than
conceptual analysis - is first among the intellectual subjects,
as
logic,
the
science of reasoning, is the first among the sciences, investigating the form of
arguments and methodology of all other sciences.
philosophical
investigation
extracts,
5
The
deeper
assumptions
such
when put together yield a philosophy in
the more popular sense (as e.g.
enterprise
philosophy):
in
philosophy
of
life
or
again
the
free
in any case the result will be a philosophical theory
or the rudiments of a philosophical paradigm, depending on how it is done.
By largely philosophical investigation then,
assumptions
of
the
techniques we try
contrasted
base.
with
operative
to
test
apparent
we
trace
and
Northern social paradigms;
the
adequacy
social
of
the
organise
the
and by sociological
assemblage,
especially
as
alternatives with some environmental support
So much has already been accomplished, in a rough and ready way, and some
results are illustrated in diagram 1.
Details of other positions, the old
culture
(as
positions
typically
offer
environmental
a
projected),
transition
alternative.
are
from
And
and
new
left
and
the
counter
included in the diagram because these
the
while
the
dominant
it
may
Western
appear
paradigm
to
indeed is - a long
political way from the dominant paradigm to the environmental alternative,
of
the
intermediate
taken one at a time.
details
steps is not so great;
To illustrate the way transitions can
of the first line (row) in macro-economic form.
construed
as
representing
package typically includes
environment,
so
the
in
components
each
and the steps can, and have, been
be
made,
consider
The dominant objective
is to maximize some economic package of goods and services
being
such
as
GDP,
a rough way standard of living.
minimal
to
quality
of
life
this
But the
and
and
pollution,
and
perhaps
with additions for non-material features excluded in dominant consciousness.
this way we arrive at New Left thinking with the objective
to considerable reservations, X(RR).
of
material
goes
back
to
Greek
philosophy;
6
In
growth
The real break however comes with
members of the counterculture, the Hippies and Yippies for example,
idea
the
objective function to be maximized gets much complicated,
with subtractions for externalities such as noise
subject
the
though
the
namely, the abandonment of growth and
maximization objectives altogether, for less material nonmaximizing
the
macroeconomic
steady-state
objective
or
will
level,
for
economy,
something
economists have so far sketched.
which
Daly
for
At
the idea gets partially represented by the goal of a
sustainable
be
goals.
example
though
the
alternative
environmental
much less inflexible and nationalistic than
In fact the "emerging steady-state
advocates,
paradigm",
affords only a shallow alternative to the
dominant paradigm, differing only as to
growth
and
reserves
themes.
But
a
fuller diagram of paradigms would include - among others such advanced corporate
capitalism
the
higher-dimensional
steady
state
position;
involve
would
However, the higher dimensional
how a better argued transition can be made;
diagram
essentially by combining
steady-state arguments against macroeconomic growth and stocks assumptions
the
Left-socialist
combination, which
framework
would
a
diagram, and remove the convenient ~simplification of the
two dimensional left-right transition.
indicates
it
so
case
does
not
against microeconomic themes.
touch
human
relations,
a
with
Even so, even with the
narrower
anthropocentric
have been left behind, deeper environmental concern would
have only began to enter.
Reaching behind the dominant Western paradigm so outlined to the underlying
social
model takes us towards the following familiar picture:
society consists
of a set of individual humans of decidedly impoverished type, e.g.
they are not
genuinely interrelated, so they are isolated, and, though they are the only sort
of items that have intensional (mental) features, they have
(e.g.
a
certain
ability
to
calculate).
but
few
of
these
At bottom, these individuals have
utilities, reflecting preferences or self-interests, which they aim to maximize;
and
so
they
are
competitive (by virtue of scarcity).
that they are possessive, and possess
capital.
The
distinctive
the
feature
means
of
Their other feature is
production,
e.g.
land,
of the American model is of course is that
individuals can separately accumulate the means of production.
7
To ensure
their
rABLI J.
COMPLll NG SOC IAL l'ARAD IGMS
<ENVIRONMENTALLY - OR I [ifl [D REPRESEIITAT IONJ
.... RIGHT - LEFT POLITICAL ORIENTAT!Otl
DOMINANT (XJ
WESTERN PARADIGM
CORE
THEMES
ECONOMIC
ORGANISATIONAL
POLITICAL
FURTHER
ENVIRONMENTAL
MATERIAL (ECONOMIC)
GROWTH
DOMINANCE OVER NATURE
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT A
RESOURCE
MARKET FORCES (MINIMALLY
REGULATED, PRODUCTIVITY
AND PROFIT MAXIMIZING)
PREDOMINANTLY PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP OF PRODUCTIVE
MEANS
I ND IV I DUALI ST I c/
COMPETITIVE ETHOS
ELITIST/REWARDS FOR
APPROVED ACHIEVEMENT
CONSUMERISM ENCOURAGED
URBAN-INDUSTRIAL
COMMODITY/CULTURAL
PACKAGING
CENTRALISED : URBAN
CENTRED
LARGE-SCALE: ORDERED
(POWER-) HIERARCHICAL
HUMAN RELATIONS
SECONDARY
/OLD
1LEFT
/NEW
LEFT
1
I
X
1X<R)
X
X
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IX
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NATIONAL FOCUS; MILITARY
DEFENCE
X
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ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES
(POWER-BROKERS AND
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LAW AND ORDER; LEGAL
REGULATION, POLICE BACKED
X
X
1X<Q>
IX(Q)
i X
I
ly(R)
FAITH IN SCIENCE: HIGH
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
SEPARATION OF REASON/
EMOTION, FACT/VALUE,
SCIENTIFIC/UTILITARIAN
RATIONALITY; ANALYTIC
REDUCTIONISTIC
y
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(SUBSTITUTES)
[NVIRONMENTAL CONTROLLABLE!
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SOCIAL (NON-
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/
PARTICIPATIVE STRUCTURES
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1NATURE BENIGN
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INTENTIONAL
X➔Y
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EGALITARIAN/INCOME NEED
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(E,G, SELF- REALISATION)
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lowNERSHIP
X
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NATURE HOSTILE/NEUTRAL
NONHUMANS ESSENTIALLY
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EPISTEMIC/
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DOMINANT
ISTATE
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...
I
LIMITS TO SCIENCE:
IAPPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
! INTEGRATION OF REASON/
EMOTION, FACT/VALUE , , ,
I~/J DER RATIONALITY (OR)
REJECTION OF NARROWER;
/HOLi ST IC
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I ..•
•
I
entitlement
to
this
is
the initial argument, on this model, for the coercive
apparatus of the (minimal) state.
natural,
this
about
self-interested
Features
There is nothing compulsory, or
Individuals
picture.
competing
individuals
are
matter
of
these
nurture,
abstract
not
nature.
of the American economic archtype are a matter of culture, a result of
training, not human nature, as a comparison
where
approximating
particularly
individuals
are
not
like
this,
individuals embody rationality either:
with
helps
other
traditional
show.
cultures,
Nor do these archtypal
only a question-begging
argument
leads
to the American model as something naturally required.
The transitions to the left already go beyond the American model.
certain
introduces
human
The
relations.
chauvinistic (anthropocentric) but they
do
left
not
models
omit
are
social
The left
still
human
relations:
the
further big step to the environmental alternative is to widen these relations to
full community relations,
independent
value.
recognising
That
is
a
creatures
and
nonhuman
things
as
of
bigger step, a step that no Western political
institutions make requisite allowance
for,
and
that
mainstream
underpinning
Western value theories do not accommodate.
The arguments from traditional cultures can also be
illustrated
paradigms
and
cultures such as those
the
of
models
Melanesia
that
and
directed
underlie
Polynesia,
them.
many
of
against
the
In traditional
the
operative
assumptions of the Northern social paradigms are, very reasonably, not accepted.
Where these cultures still prevail with some measure of regional autonomy, there
is
good
prospect
of
thwarting
more
environmentally
destructive practices.
Features of the local culture can be immediately harnessed.
But much of the
inhabited
and
there are
already
New
governed
and
by
environmentally
less
unscathed
World
peoples of predominantly European stock.
distinctive
features
8
observable
in
New
World
is
now
Although
cultures,
assumptions
of
the
dominant
Northern paradigms have hardly been sufficiently
questioned, let alone overthrown, especially among the manag~rial
other,
or
even
lesser,
features
of
surprisingly
leave
out
There are
cultures
significant
as
artistic
and
intellectual
usually
cultural
industrial culture, though economically dominated
accompanying
other
conspicuous
The incomplete social paradigms outlined do
not exhaust features of the accompanying
rather
to
be
icing.
discerned,
features.
sure,
This
does
affords
European
culture.
This
alternatives.
a
discrepancies.
established
have
an
somewhat
as
that
in romanticism and a significant feature of American Indian
gives
*l
but
Northern
precarious foothold for an aesthetic approach to the environment, such
evidenced
So
the cultures will have to be invoked if
change in approach is to be hastened in this way.
cultural features to be considered.
classes.
But
the
basis
there
of
are
the
as
aesthetic
well
more
route
to
important
environmental
omissions
and
In particular, the dominant American paradigm omits reference to
religion;
also
neglected
are
many
of
the connected older and
formerly more prominent values of American culture.
The
American
search
for
environmentally
acceptable
alternatives
has
regularly turned to these omitted features of American culture, and religious or
spiritual elements, and associated past values 4 •
establish
"the gospel of ecology" and displace the dominant paradigm have taken
a spiritual route, a quasi-religious way.
and
Indeed the primary attempts to
representative
new environmentalism:
(For example, Nash provides a
sample
list of the books he considers important in the rise of the
virtually all that proceed beyond ecology
depend
on
an
appeal to religious elements, to divine or sacred features of natural things.)
In the context of American culture the appeal
something
to
be
said for it.
to
religious
features
has
For, firstly, a high proportion of the American
population profess some active religious commitment;
•
9
and, unlike
Australia,
a
substantial
do
proportion
act
response.
And, secondly, religious values do clash with
dominant
Northern
paradigm.
This
sort
of
socially
that
with
accordance
in
conflict
precepts
the
was
approved
of
perceived,
considerable puzzlement, by colonised cultures, as Lini reports in the
case
the
with
of
Melanesian society (p.9):
The fabric of this society, with its inherent communal discipline was
torn by the arrival of European commercial practices which
•••
carried with it the message of materialism, together with the creed of
Both aspects were a direct contradiction
enlightened self-interest.
of Melanesian values and priorities. The introduction to Melanesia of
Christianity added a further element of division and confusion in the
While the Christian religion was widely
minds of the people.
compatible with the ethics and principles of Melanesian communalism,
with its emphasis on mutuality, compassion and caring for one another,
it was a practice that very few of the Europeans appeared to follow.
and
individualism
of
religion
It ran also contrary to the
self-interest, which not just (had) more important exponents, but was
followed by the majority of Europeans •••
It is something a a puzzle how the assimilation of elements of the dominant
paradigm with prospects of Christianity is pulled off, though achieved
Northern
There is
it certainly is in a great many Northerners, and too many Antipodeans.
a
compartmentalisation.
partial answer:
Religion for most is a separate thing
fitted into a Sunday morning box, important elements of which do not
the
upset
standard
penetrate deep.
business
to
Thus for most believers religion does not
week.
Only for a minority does it directly
such as human poverty:
escape
touch
immediate
matters
why should we expect it to work for the Environment?
Nonetheless widespread real adoption of religious
perceptions
within
the
American population, and reflected in the Administration, would presumably alter
things.
But even if some of the effects of a religious return would
beneficial,
and
to
nature
domination
highly
be welcomed, it is also true that some of the effects of a
narrow fundamentalism would be highly undesirable.
of
be
were
Unless moreover the position
abandoned in favour of one of the lesser religious
traditions the environmental effects would
10
be
negative
(as
Watt
testifies).
Religion could be more of a drawback than an asset.
Religion in America has lost out to
with any depth to it appears most unlikely.
the
There
existence of God, the fallaciousness of the arguments involved, etc.
no
But nor is the so-called scientific
front-end-in.
cannot account for;
it is that this perspective, a paradigm,
a richer
more intellectually satisfactory rivals (e.g.
view).
such
great
the
incorporates
There are
it is far from uniquely determined.
So
paradigm.
social
dominant
in
view
world
is not just that there is much that this sort of view leaves out or
It
shape.
is
view with these sorts of weaknesses
the
to
return
to
trying
in
virtue
rival
Consider, for instance, the matter of the
view could explain.
scientific
much
for
world view was seriously deficient and it did not account
more
the case for its
In part it failed deservedly:
view".
world
scientific
"the
In any case such a reversal
intensional
scientific
These rivals allow for value and wonder in natural things without taking
a theological way.
character
quasi-religious
reasons
of
set
second
There is a
of
some
sort,
for
not
endeavouring
Christian,
strongly
These
on
turn
the
irreligious character of the culture, where an appeal through religion
is unlikely to have much
as
understood
a
(the
Australia,
success.
first)
post-Christian
it
has
been
irreligious
character
the
of
understanding much else about the culture,
society
e.g.
'best
is
said,
society, in which religion (is)
barely relevant culturally'. *4 Even if that formulation is an
generally
a
Pantheistic or
Jewish,
whatever, on deeper environmental approaches in Australia.
impose
to
exaggeration
the
is a fact and is the key to
the
curious
extent
of
the
state's protrusion into Australian social life.
If an approach through religion is accordingly ruled out as a main approach
to
hastened
paradigm
transition - and a related approach through mysticism or
transcendentalism excluded for analogous reasons and because of
11
the
earthiness
of
the
culture
-
what
alternatives
are
open?
There are other significant
features of the culture running against major elements of the
dominant
paradigm,
effectively
which
can
perhaps
applied
be
much
quasi-religious approaches to turn matters around.
more
Western
than
To indicate the prospects of
applying features of the culture to detach from dominant paradigms, consider how
Australian culture contrasts with American.
Australian mainstream culture
transition
from
the
dominant
is
already
American
political left has much stronger support in
difficult
to
some
culture.
Australia
way
It
along
the
leftward
is not merely that the
than
USA.
It
is
not
indicate features of the Australian cultural situation which show
its left-displacement from the dominant Western paradigm.
some elements of the contrast:-
12
The next table
lists
TABLE 2.
CONTRASTING ELEMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
SCALE OF INCREASE
*2
individualistic ethos
inacceptability of socialist institutions
inegalitarian attitudes
POSITIVE
inegalitarian practices
ITEMS (PER
level of consumerism
CAPITA
maximization quest
WHERE
imperialist drive
RELEVANT)
extent of violence
police and military commitment
high technology involvement
functional rationality
environmental inactivism
USA
AUSTRALIA
SCALE OF
INCREASE
level of urbanisation
legal obstacles to environmental action
NEGATIVE
official opposition to environmental
practices, such as dedication of
ITEMS
wilderness
administrative delays in implementing
environmental practices, such as
pollution requirements, recycling, etc.
13
Thus there are some offsetting negative items as well as positive items
in
the
in
the
contrast.
Since, however, most of these contrasting elements bear on
first
diagram
of
rival paradigms in a way favourable to Australian culture as
opposed to American, it appears that prospects
indeed better.
themes
for
applying
the
culture
are
This important theme requires elaboration and confirmation.
The
task can profitably be combined with others:
there is much work here
both
for
environmental spectators with an empirical bent and for environmental activists.
A first task is to separate out what is known, what requires
and
what
ought to be done (ideologically).
and their surrounds, distinguishing firstly
theses:
A weak
confirmation,
Let us focus on transition theses,
factual
and
normative
transition
factual transition thesis, that Western (European) culture is
undergoing a transition
away
from
the
dominant
confirmed by several Northern sociologists (e.g.
better results could be obtained in Australia;
social
Marsh).
paradigm,
has
been
Presumably similar or
but appropriate samplings of the
community have not been done, analysed and so on - environmental sociology being
a
neglected
undoubtedly
field
also
in
Another
Australia.
weak
factual
transition
thesis
holds, namely that since 1960 a significant percentage of the
each human community in specifiable advanced Western countries such as Australia
have
come
to adopt main assumptions of the alternative environmental paradigm.
But again comparative-figures
sociological
work
are
entirely
of
data
to
Though
impressionistic
tells us that environmental activism is greater in Australia
than USA - indeed more intensive than
piece
lacking.
anywhere
else,
an
immensely
build upon - we lack solid confirmation.
sociogeographers to do.
14
important
There is much for
Throughout, as you may have noticed, a normative transition thesis has been
taken
largely
for
granted,
that
Australian
culture, indeed Western culture
generally, ought to be undergoing a major paradigm
Western
paradigms
and
their
away
from
dominant
variations (such as those of advocated corporate
capitalism and of the post-industrial society),
transiting
shift,
and
towards an environmental alternative.
furthermore
ought
the
arguments.
It
is
also
be
That complex normative thesis
is argued for in environmental philosophy, and fortunately there isn't
repeat
to
time
to
argued against there, but, to sum up the
opposition case cavalierly, unconvincingly.
Given then that the transition is going on,
indeed
emerging
are
are
clear
doing
environmental
encourage
enough.
for
it
in
Australia?
example,
directing
action
going
be
aiming
swing
major
Preliminary
against
the
to
organisations.
on,
answers
sources
of
They
should
increase their support bases, but not merely by membership
They should be
endeavouring
to
influence
the dominant regional culture, for the potential appears to be there
for a considerably greater change than has thus far been
two
be
despoilation and the like, primarily industrial organisations and
drives and environmental education.
and
to
Not only should activists be continuing with what
those supposed to regulate them, further (public)
also
ought
ought then to be going on with greater rapidity, how is it hastened, how
do environmental activists
they
and
parts
to
this
further
practice
which
achieved.
There
are
can run in tandem, a more
negative and a more positive part:
•
More negatively, it involves
cutting
down
and
countering
the
flow
of
propaganda
in favour of the dominant paradigms both locally but especially from
the North.
That is important in reversing the extent of Northern co-option.
includes
gently
a
range of activities some with solid bases in local culture, such as
lopping
anti-American
It
off
the
tall
poppies
pedalling
and anti-Northern activities.
15
the
stuff,
and
careful
The latter practices (which should
not of course reduce merely to personally directed antagonism) fit in well
other
regional
environmental
with
aims, such as independent and nonaligned defence
policies.
•
More positively, it consists in promoting and adapting other also
despised
features
of
alternative paradigms.
ambassadors,
Australian
It
is
culture that work directly towards themes of
commonly
are,
of
course,
those
Lawrence).
like
nonmaximizing making-do socialistic ones,
appreciation
Northern
intellectuals
of
local
natural
the
The features to be
egalitarian,
along
environments.
with
the
combines
enough:
cultural
with
promoted
or
anti-authoritarian,
rapidly
increasing
Nonmaximizing, for example, is
reflected in the She'll be right and It'll do approach often
and
and
note, that are responsible for the low repute in which some of the
cultural characters are held (e.g.
adapted
commonly
taken
to
things,
egalitarian methods as encapsulated in Fair go and Enough's
consider the effects of these, decently applied, in economics, in local
markets.
As for mateship, sure it could use widening, a main problem being its
restriction in practice to
extension
male
relationships:
to communities (including nonhumans).
is there for deep cultural transformation:
but
why
not
encourage
its
So, to conclude, the potential
we must help to realise it.
FOOTNOTES
1.
The term 'approaches' is intended to include both theory and
both espoused ideology and behaviour.
2.
They did not go under because of the weakness of their intellectual
positions.
At bottom their religious beliefs, for example, were no
more ridiculous than those of Christianity. Typically they were much
weakened by new diseases, and overwhelmed by new technology often
applied in violent fashion.
3.
By integrity is meant much more than retaining representative samples
of this and that system or species;
not representative southern
sassafras, parma wallabies
and
Torres
Strait
Islanders,
but
sufficiently many.
16
practice,
4.
Another past philosophical basis for environmental philosophy, American
naturalism, seems to have been little developed, despite the promise
some have seen in it.
*1
The aesthetic route
Highwater.
is
well-illustrated
by
the
main
approach
in
*2
Note well that it is not being claimed that Australian culture is
egalitarian (in conformity with a popular myth); only that it is less
inegalitarian than American. The hard data underlying the claim---ri
assembled in 'Culture and the roots of political divergence'.
*3
For Griffin's conception of Canberra - a much smaller Canberra, which
included a rail loop - see, to start with, Birrell (still the best
source on Griffin). The first quotation from Griffin is quoted in
Birrell, p.178;
the second is from Griffin's article in Australian
Wild Life.
*4
P.
O'Farrell.
REFERENCES
J.
Highwater, The Primal Mind. Vision
Harper & Row, New York, 1981.
J.
Birrell, Walter Burley Griffin, Queensland U.P., 1964.
W.B.
Griffin,
(,0· cc,,/' «.,PL'0"1 d I
(on
and
Reality
in
Indian
America,
· __ ,.,.,,
ja,n;~, Australian Wild Life J_
(f9Jt-f/), ty ·-J,
W.
Lini, Keynote Address, Australia and the South Pacific, Proceedings
a Conference held at the Australian National University, 1982.
P.
O'Farrell, 'The cultural ambivalence of Australian religion', in
Culture and the State in Australia, Australian Cultural History 1
(1982) Canberra.
R.
Nash, 'Rounding out the American revolution: ethical extension and the
new environmentalism', typescript, University of California at Santa
Barbara, 1982.
A.
Marsh, Protect and Political Consciousness, Sage Beverley Hills, 1977.
s.
Cotgrove, Catastrophe
R.
Routley, 'Roles and limits of paradigms
action', in Elliot and Qlre, 260-293.
R.
Elliot and A.
Gare, Environmental Philosophy.
Readings, University of Queensland Press, 1983.
or-
aae
Cornucopia, Wiley,
17
~~J~rh ,
of
1982.
in environmental
thought
A Collection
and
of
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WORKING DRAFT
·. , ' I
·
CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND APPROACHES TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - AN
AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE
Many of you know tha~ Canberra was originally
Griffin.
This
talk
is
(, ,~ ,/ h (: (tJ m,
, .
designed
by
Walter
Burley
'i.C
to him. You may not know that Griffin, an
dedicated
/ 1,• <, , ' ' ! I ·,/ .• r : , J,,--.T~- l, c :....
American who migrated to Australia in 1913, was
not
simply
an
architect
and
,1
lantlscape
designe ~ but one of Australia's early deeper ecologists.
key elements of the Western industrial paradigm, especially
on
making
nature
the
servant
of
man',
'land
to
be
accorded
the
'concentration
and discerned instead elements of a
different 'consciousness' (the word is his).
took
the
He rejected
His approach was holistic, and
respect
he
due to a highly developed and
perfected living organism not to be exterminated or treated as dead material, or
as
a
mere
section of a map'.
Canberra, now no mere section of map, is still,
,.,i/f . ,:i:.
for all its deficiencies, perhaps the best approximation anywhere
~~l-0gical
city;
*
to
*
*
*
*
*
gauge
the
extent
to
which
Australian
contrasted with American culture, contains developable
will
underpin
a
under which many
suffers.
-,/
/h ,1 ;1 ~11._r
talk
sketches
a
culture, especially as
elements
(seeds)
which
different political framework from the bastardised capitalism
people
presently
labour
and
local
environment
frequently
It is not necessary to see the present political arrangements and the
political course
interested
aeeper
*3
The objective of the larger investigation, of which this
is
a
but it is not only removed from Griffin's original conception
but far from deep ecological ideals.
part,
to
in
charted
as
environmentally
alternative structures:
f) '
r ,nt
1
or
socially
disastrous
to
be
it is enough, for example, to view them
t__
ri __f. _________
---1
n__
{- ,-; ,:_... --1 (.
"'I n,l ._
1
,.
(•✓ L / ~• • }
'
<: l7' 1 •-rt,,,_
c, ,
/---5-0-J. i +- I~.,, )•
I
as far from satisfactory, or very far from
worlds,
those
of
the
best
attainable
to be interested in the prospects of turning things around somewhat, to
increasing ecological resistance [negative action] against
vandalism
and
the
environment
hope,
damage,
like, and ecological construction [direct positive action].
There are several distinctive features of Australian culture that
for
of
especially
the
give
grounds
remarkable level of environmental activism that has
somehow emerged among the people.
It is worth trying to pull together
some
of
these features of the culture, to look at ways of furthering the valuable parts,
and increasing the level of concern and activism.
Without doubt
attitudes
and
different
practices,
cultures
towards
have
the
different
environment.
approaches,
1
different
Indeed appreciation of,
practices towards, and respect for the natural environment are highly culturally
dependent:
compare,
for
nonimperial cultures had
much
less
North,
exploitation
and
American Jews and American Indians.
whose
approaches
to
practices
not
vandalism
the
environment
merely
permit
those
of
the
environmental
gross
control"
of
their
local
typically under the missionary, colonial or imperial domination.
But occasionally, notably
retained
than
but to a marked extent depend upon such practices.
Mostly these more benign cultures have however "lost
environments,
Most
and where they still survive uncorrupted still have -
exploitative
industrial
instance,
sufficient
in
autonomy
the
to
adjacent
Pacific,
regional
cultures
2
have
slow or even halt environmental destruction.
Thus, for example, rainforest damaging projects have been delayed or blocked
in
Melanesia largely through Melanesian attitudes to the land.
One important way then to try to slow environmental degradation, especially
in
the
South,
is
to
foster
both
certain
sweepingly, regional cultural autonomy;
socialism
and
indigenous
for
cultural
instance
land rights movements.
2
differences
to
support
and, more
Melanesian
For, where the cultures have
not been excessively corrupted by Northern influences, this is
rapid
way
of
paradigms.
in
the
a
cultural
differences
can
also
serve
Antipodes, in particular in Australia, to at least assist in
transition to different
Such
comparatively
activating alternative paradigms to the dominant Northern social
The question arises whether
elsewhere
a
less
environmentally
exploitative
social
paradigms.
transition is unlikely to occur unless it is based on the culture.
Can
features of the culture and the social life be used to foster and make requisite
differences?
In the case of Australia, a basis
culture,
is
there
both
in
the
land
and
and things appear sufficiently different from those in the cultures of
the industrialised North to allow (some hope) for cultural differentiation .
the
need
for
change,
at
least
there
is,
in
It
is
becoming
platitudinous
the longer run not much prospect for the integrity of many
local natural environments and ecosystems
loose
Of
if the natural environment is to retain some
semblance of integrity, there is little doubt.
that
3
unless
we
in
the
Antipodes
break
from the damaging cultural assumptions and practice of the industrialised
North and
work
destructive
towards
establishment
of
a
concern
in
different
less
some
parts,
rising
tide
war.
of
For despite
environmental
the industrialised North still appears in the grip of
established forces and unlikely to budge in time - short of
nuclear
environmentally
culture, towards a certain regional cultural autonomy.
elements of regionalism in the North, despite a
disaster,
such
largely
alone.
Nor
is
the
Australia because as well as the
location,
the
as
Though we who seek change can count on some support from minority
movements in the North, nonetheless if we are to achieve changes, we must go
advantage
of
the
ground
and
its
southern
seeds of cultural difference are already there and growing.
cultivation.
Such
a
it
task of paradigm transition entirely hopeless in
like most new and more fragile developments they need attention and
speedy
the
careful
But
if
task is rendered urgent also by other matters of
3
environmental and human concern, not just the gathering signs
but
colossal
biological
losses
through
of
nuclear
rapid destruction of, e.g.
war,
tropical
rainforests, indeed mounting evidence of environmental decline almost everywhere
humans now establish.
How does philosophy fit into the strategy of harnessing regional culture to
alter approaches to the environment?
As in the title of the talk it operates in
the middle, not as an idle middleman, but more like
and
design
culture.
principles
A
working
picture
that
the main components of the discussion together - a picture that also like
most images of the more abstract distorts across
organising
of the dynamic linkage in a good suspension bridge, which lifts the
environmental way on the ropes of regional
links
the
is
that
of
a
suspension
the gap often separating people from the natural environment.
bridge
There are
people, and the environment, and approaches by bridges to the environment,
like
so:-
approach
➔
People
Natural
Environment
(Of course people may be part of the natural environment:
the
picture
doesn't
exclude that important overlap.) The connecting bridges may be of very different
sorts, ranging from rustic bridges good for careful foot
traffic,
through
the
monumental suspension bridge at Middle Harbour, to modern high-tech bridges able
to carry nuclear tanks and bulldozers over large spans.
of
But it is the structure
all these types of bridges carrying the approaches that matter particularly.
The spans are carried by the ropes of culture, and the pylons of culture if
4
you
will.
\
\
\
\
)
(......._ APPROACH
_ .,__ _.
So
with
approaches.
different
'--
--------- ---~
cultures,
__,.;::;f
---
different
carrying
bridges
different
It is better to see the link component in the middle - philosophy,
but it might almost as well be sociology - not as part of the nuts and bolts and
rivets
of
the
structures.
types,
bridges,
but
rather
It has its analytical
computing
the
loads
and
as
parts,
the
design
looking
stresses
at
on them;
and
engineering of the
the
components,
and it also has its more
holistic elements, considering the bridges themselves and
of
them
their
- the social paradigms embedded in the cultures.
select
substructures
Philosophy, the link
subject, is then the architecture and engineering of the business.
Less
figuratively,
assumptions
of
a
philosophy
replacement,
or marxist philosophies.
deep ecology, asks deeper
assumptions
of
all
and
and
assumptions
paradigms.
the
operative
for
example
of
free
Philosophy, especially metaphysics and not
deeper
questions,
extracting
the
fundamental
other subjects and assembling the intellectual assumptions
embodied in a culture or social way of life, i.e.
social
assembles
culture applied in environmental practices, the assumptions,
that is, to be considered for
enterprise
isolates
In
what are sometimes called the
this respect philosophy - which includes much more than
conceptual analysis - is first among the intellectual subjects,
as
logic,
the
science of reasoning, is the first among the sciences, investigating the form of
arguments and methodology of all other sciences.
philosophical
investigation
extracts,
5
The
deeper
assumptions
such
when put together yield a philosophy in
the more popular sense (as e.g.
enterprise
philosophy):
in
philosophy
of
life
or
again
the
free
in any case the result will be a philosophical theory
or the rudiments of a philosophical paradigm, depending on how it is done.
By largely philosophical investigation then,
assumptions
of
the
techniques we try
contrasted
base.
with
operative
to
test
apparent
we
trace
and
Northern social paradigms;
the
adequacy
social
of
the
organise
the
and by sociological
assemblage,
especially
as
alternatives with some environmental support
So much has already been accomplished, in a rough and ready way, and some
results are illustrated in diagram 1.
Details of other positions, the old
culture
(as
positions
typically
offer
environmental
a
projected),
transition
alternative.
are
from
And
and
new
left
and
the
counter
included in the diagram because these
the
while
the
dominant
it
may
Western
appear
paradigm
to
indeed is - a long
political way from the dominant paradigm to the environmental alternative,
of
the
intermediate
taken one at a time.
details
steps is not so great;
To illustrate the way transitions can
of the first line (row) in macro-economic form.
construed
as
representing
package typically includes
environment,
so
the
in
components
be
made,
consider
The dominant objective
such
as
GDP,
a rough way standard of living.
minimal
to
quality
of
life
this
But the
and
and
pollution,
and
perhaps
with additions for non-material features excluded in dominant consciousness.
this way we arrive at New Left thinking with the objective
to considerable reservations, X(RR).
of
material
goes
back
to
Greek
philosophy;
6
In
growth
The real break however comes with
members of the counterculture, the Hippies and Yippies for example,
idea
the
objective function to be maximized gets much complicated,
with subtractions for externalities such as noise
subject
each
and the steps can, and have, been
is to maximize some economic package of goods and services
being
the
though
the
namely, the abandonment of growth and
maximization objectives altogether, for less material nonmaximizing
the
macroeconomic
steady-state
objective
or
will
level,
for
economy,
something
economists have so far sketched.
which
Daly
for
At
the idea gets partially represented by the goal of a
sustainable
be
goals.
example
though
the
alternative
environmental
much less inflexible and nationalistic than
In fact the ''emerging steady-state
advocates,
paradigm",
affords only a shallow alternative to the
dominant paradigm, differing only as to
growth
and
reserves
But
themes.
a
fuller diagram of paradigms would include - among others such advanced corporate
capitalism
the
higher-dimensional
steady
position;
state
it
would
involve
However, the higher dimensional
how a better argued transition can be made;
diagram
essentially by combining
steady-state arguments against macroeconomic growth and stocks assumptions
the
Left-socialist
combination, which
framework
would
a
diagram, and remove the convenient oversimplification of the
two dimensional left-right transition.
indicates
so
case
does
not
against microeconomic themes.
touch
human
relations,
a
with
Even so, even with the
narrower
anthropocentric
have been left behind, deeper environmental concern would
have only began to enter.
Reaching behind the dominant Western paradigm so outlined to the underlying
social
model takes us towards the following familiar picture:
society consists
of a set of individual humans of decidedly impoverished type, e.g.
they are not
genuinely interrelated, so they are isolated, and, though they are the only sort
of items that have intensional (mental) features, they have
(e.g.
a
certain
ability
to
calculate).
but
few
of
these
At bottom, these individuals have
utilities, reflecting preferences or self-interests, which they aim to maximize;
and
so
they
are
competitive (by virtue of scarcity).
that they are possessive, and possess
capital.
The
distinctive
the
feature
means
of
Their other feature is
production,
e.g.
land,
of the American model is of course is that
individuals can separately accumulate the means of production.
7
To ensure
their
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entitlement
to
this
is
the initial argument, on this model, for the coercive
apparatus of the (minimal) state.
natural,
this
about
self-interested
Features
There is nothing compulsory, or
picture.
competing
Individuals
individuals
are
matter
of
these
nurture,
abstract
not
nature.
of the American economic archtype are a matter of culture, a result of
training, not human nature, as a comparison
where
approximating
particularly
individuals
are
not
like
this,
individuals embody rationality either:
with
helps
other
traditional
cultures,
Nor do these archtypal
show.
only a question-begging
argument
leads
to the American model as something naturally required.
The transitions to the left already go beyond the American model.
introduces
certain
relations.
human
chauvinistic (anthropocentric) but they
The
do
left
not
models
omit
are
social
The left
still
human
relations:
the
further big step to the environmental alternative is to widen these relations to
full community relations,
independent
value.
recognising
That
is
a
creatures
and
nonhuman
things
as
of
bigger step, a step that no Western political
institutions make requisite allowance
for,
and
that
mainstream
underpinning
Western value theories do not accommodate.
The arguments from traditional cultures can also be
illustrated
paradigms
cultures such as those
and
of
the
models
Melanesia
that
and
directed
underlie
Polynesia,
them.
many
against
the
In traditional
of
the
operative
assumptions of the Northern social paradigms are, very reasonably, not accepted.
Where these cultures still prevail with some measure of regional autonomy, there
is
good
prospect
of
thwarting
more
environmentally
destructive practices.
Features of the local culture can be immediately harnessed.
But much of the
inhabited
and
there are
already
New
governed
and
by
environmentally
less
unscathed
World
peoples of predominantly European stock.
distinctive
features
8
observable
in
New
World
is
now
Although
cultures,
assumptions
of
the
dominant
Northern paradigms have hardly been sufficiently
questioned, let alone overthrown, especially among the managerial
other,
or
even
lesser,
features
of
surprisingly
leave
There are
out
cultures
significant
as
artistic
and
intellectual
usually
cultural
industrial culture, though economically dominated
accompanying
other
conspicuous
The incomplete social paradigms outlined do
not exhaust features of the accompanying
rather
to
be
sure,
does
affords
European
culture.
This
alternatives.
a
discrepancies.
established
have
an
somewhat
as
that
in romanticism and a significant feature of American Indian
gives
*l
but
Northern
features.
This
icing.
discerned,
precarious foothold for an aesthetic approach to the environment, such
evidenced
So
the cultures will have to be invoked if
change in approach is to be hastened in this way.
cultural features to be considered.
classes.
But
the
basis
there
of
the
as
are
aesthetic
well
more
route
to
important
environmental
omissions
and
In particular, the dominant American paradigm omits reference to
religion;
also
neglected
are
many
of
the connected older and
formerly more prominent values of American culture.
The
American
search
for
environmentally
acceptable
alternatives
has
regularly turned to these omitted features of American culture, and religious or
spiritual elements, and associated past values 4 •
establish
"the gospel of ecology" and displace the dominant paradigm have taken
a spiritual route, a quasi-religious way.
and
Indeed the primary attempts to
representative
(For example, Nash provides a
sample
list of the books he considers important in the rise of the
new environmentalis m:
virtually all that proceed beyond ecology
depend
on
an
appeal to religious elements, to divine or sacred features of natural things.)
In the context of American culture the appeal
something
to
be
said for it.
to
religious
features
has
For, firstly, a high proportion of the American
population profess some active religious commitment;
9
and, unlike
Australia,
a
substantial
proportion
do
act
in
accordance
with
that
response.
And, secondly, religious values do clash with
dominant
Northern
paradigm.
This
sort
of
conflict
socially
the
precepts
was
approved
of
perceived,
considerable puzzlement, by colonised cultures, as Lini reports in the
case
the
with
of
Melanesian society (p.9):
The fabric of this society, with its inherent communal discipline was
torn by the arrival of European commercial practices which
carried with it the message of materialism, together with the creed of
enlightened self-int-erest.
Both aspects were a direct contradiction
of Melanesian values and priorities. The introduction to Melanesia of
Christianity added a further element of division and confusion in the
minds of the people.
While the Christian religion was widely
compatible with the ethics and principles of Melanesian communalism,
with its emphasis on mutuality, compassion and caring for one another,
it was a practice that very few of the Europeans appeared to follow.
It ran also contrary to the
religion
of
individualism
and
self-interest, which not just (had) more important exponents, but was
followed by the majority of Europeans •••
It is something a a puzzle how the assimilation of elements of the dominant
Northern
paradigm with prospects of Christianity is pulled off, though achieved
it certainly is in a great many Northerners, and too many Antipodeans.
a
partial answer:
compartmentalisation.
Religion for most is a separate thing
fitted into a Sunday morning box, important elements of which do not
upset
the
standard
penetrate deep.
business
week.
escape
to
Thus for most believers religion does not
Only for a minority does it directly
such as human poverty:
There is
touch
immediate
matters
why should we expect it to work for the Environment?
Nonetheless widespread real adoption of religious
perceptions
within
the
American population, and reflected in the Administration, would presumably alter
things.
But even if some of the effects of a religious return would
beneficial,
and
to
nature
domination
highly
be welcomed, it is also true that some of the effects of a
narrow fundamentalism would be highly undesirable.
of
be
were
Unless moreover the position
abandoned in favour of one of the lesser relig ious
traditions the environmental effects would
10
be
negative
(as
Watt
testifies).
Religion could be more of a drawback than an asset.
with any depth to it appears most unlikely.
"the
scientific
world
view".
In any case such a reversal
Religion in America has lost out to
In part it failed deservedly:
world view was seriously deficient and it did not account
more
scientific
view could explain.
the case for its
for
much
the
Consider, for instance, the matter of the
existence of God, the fallaciousness of the arguments involved, etc.
no
virtue
in
front-end-in.
shape.
It
trying
return
to
the
is
world
view
in
such
great
is not just that there is much that this sort of view leaves out or
social
it is that this perspective, a paradigm,
paradigm.
So
incorporates
it is far from uniquely determined.
more intellectually satisfactory rivals (e.g.
view).
There
view with these sorts of weaknesses
But nor is the so-called scientific
cannot account for;
dominant
to
rival
a richer
intensional
the
There are
scientific
These rivals allow for value and wonder in natural things without taking
a theological way.
There is a
second
quasi-religious
set
character
of
of
reasons
some
sort,
for
not
endeavouring
Christian,
Jewish,
whatever, on deeper environmental approaches in Australia.
strongly
impose
a
Pantheistic or
These
turn
on
the
irreligious character of the culture, where an appeal through religion
is unlikely to have much
understood
as
a
(the
success.
first)
Australia,
post-Christian
it
has
been
irreligious
character
of
the
understanding much else about the culture,
society
e.g.
said,
is
'best
society, in which religion (is)
barely relevant culturally'. *4 Even if that formulation is an
generally
to
exaggeration
the
is a fact and is the key to
the
curious
extent
of
the
state's protrusion into Australian social life.
If an approach through religion is accordingly ruled out as a main approach
to
hastened
paradigm
transition - and a related approach through mysticism or
transcendentali sm excluded for analogous reasons and because of
11
the
earthiness
of
the
culture
what
alternative s
are
open?
There are other significant
features of the culture running against major elements of the
dominant
paradigm,
effectively
which
can
perhaps
be
much
applied
quasi-relig ious approaches to turn matters around.
more
Western
than
To indicate the prospects of
applying features of the culture to detach from dominant paradigms, consider how
Australian culture contrasts with American.
Australian mainstream culture
transition
from
the
dominant
is
already
American
political left has much stronger support in
difficult
to
some
culture.
Australia
way
It
along
the
leftward
is not merely that the
than
USA.
It
is
not
indicate features of the Australian cultural situation which show
its left-displac ement from the dominant Western paradigm.
some elements of the contrast:-
12
The next table
lists
TABLE 2.
CONTRASTING ELEMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
SCALE OF INCREASE
*2
individualistic ethos
inacceptability of socialist institutions
inegalitarian attitudes
POSITIVE
inegalitarian practices
ITEMS (PER
level of consumerism
CAPITA
maximization quest
WHERE
imperialist drive
RELEVANT)
extent of violence
police and military commitment
high technology involvement
functional rationality
environmental inactivism
AUSTRALIA
USA
SCALE OF
INCREASE
level of urbanisation
legal obstacles to environmental action
NEGATIVE
official opposition to environmental
practices, such as dedication of
ITEMS
wilderness
administrative delays in implementing
environmental practices, such as
pollution requirements, recycling, etc.
13
Thus there are some offsetting negative items as well as positive items
in
the
in
the
contrast.
Since, however, most of these contrasting elements bear on
first
diagram
of
rival paradigms in a way favourable to Australian culture as
opposed to American, it appears that prospects
indeed better.
themes
for
applying
the
culture
are
This important theme requires elaboration and confirmation.
The
task can profitably be combined with others:
there is much work here
both
for
environmental spectators with an empirical bent and for environmental activists.
A first task is to separate out what is known, what requires
and
what
ought to be done (ideologically ).
and their surrounds, distinguishing firstly
theses:
A
weak
confirmation,
Let us focus on transition theses,
factual
and
normative
transition
factual transition thesis, that Western (European) culture is
undergoing a transition
away
from
the
dominant
confirmed by several Northern sociologists (e.g.
better results could be obtained in Australia;
social
Marsh).
paradigm,
has
been
Presumably similar or
but appropriate samplings of the
community have not been done, analysed and so on - environmental sociology being
a
neglected
undoubtedly
field
also
in
Australia.
Another
weak
factual
transition
thesis
holds, namely that since 1960 a significant percentage of the
each human community in specifiable advanced Western countries such as Australia
have
come
to adopt main assumptions of the alternative environmental paradigm.
But again comparative-fig ures
sociological
work
are
entirely
of
data
to
Though
impressionistic
tells us that environmental activism is greater in Australia
than USA - indeed more intensive than
piece
lacking.
anywhere
else,
an
immensely
build upon - we lack solid confirmation.
sociogeographer s to do.
14
important
There is much for
Throughout, · as you may have noticed, a normative transition thesis has been
taken
largely
for
granted,
that
Australian
culture, indeed Western culture
generally, ought to be undergoing a major paradigm
Western
paradigms
and
their
away
from
dominant
variations (such as those of advocated corporate
capitalism and of the post-indus trial society),
transiting
shift,
and
towards an environmen tal alternative .
furthermore
ought
the
arguments.
It
is
also
be
That complex normative thesis
is argued for in environmen tal philosophy, and fortunately there isn't
repeat
to
time
to
argued against there, but, to sum up the
opposition case cavalierly, unconvincin gly.
Given then that the transition is going on,
indeed
emerging
are
are
clear
doing
environmen tal
encourage
enough.
for
it
in
Australia?
example,
directing
action
going
be
aiming
swing
major
Preliminary
against
the
to
organisatio ns.
on,
answers
sources
of
They
should
increase their support bases, but not merely by membership
They should be
endeavourin g
to
influence
the dominant regional culture, for the potential appears to be there
for a considerabl y greater change than has thus far been
two
be
despoilatio n and the like, primarily industrial organisatio ns and
drives and environmen tal education.
and
to
Not only should activists be continuing with what
those supposed to regulate them, further (public)
also
ought
ought then to be going on with greater rapidity, how is it hastened, how
do environmen tal activists
they
and
parts
to
this
further
practice
which
achieved.
There
are
can run in tandem, a more
negative and a more positive part:
•
More negatively, it involves
cutting
down
and
countering
the
flow
of
propaganda
in favour of the dominant paradigms both locally but especially from
the North.
That is important in reversing the extent of Northern co-option.
includes
gently
a
range of activities some with solid bases in local culture, such as
lopping
anti-Americ an
It
off
the
tall
poppies
pedalling
and anti-Northe rn activities.
15
the
stuff,
and
careful
The latter practices (which should
.
.
not of course reduce merely to personall y directed antagonism ) fit in well
other
regional
environm ental
with
aims, such as independe nt and nonaligne d defence
policies.
•
More positivel y, it consists in promoting and adapting other also
despised
features
of
alternati ve paradigms .
ambassado rs,
Australia n
It
is
culture that work directly towards themes of
commonly
Northern
intellect uals
Lawrence ).
adapted
like
are,
of
course,
those
nonmaxim izing making-do socialist ic ones,
of
local
natural
the
The features to be
egalitari an,
along
environm ents.
with
the
combines
enough:
cultural
with
promoted
or
anti-auth oritarian ,
rapidly
increasin g
Nonmaxim izing, for example, is
reflected in the She'll be right and It'll do approach often
and
and
note, that are responsib le for the low repute in which some of the
cultural character s are held (e.g.
appreciat ion
commonly
taken
to
things,
egalitari an methods as encapsula ted in Fair go and Enough's
consider the effects of these, decently applied, in economics , in local
markets.
As for mateship, sure it could use widening, a main problem being its
restrictio n in practice to
extension
male
relations hips:
to communit ies (includin g nonhuman s).
is there for deep cultural transform ation:
but
why
not
encourage
its
So, to conclude, the potential
we must help to realise it.
FOOTNOTES
1.
The term 'approach es' is intended to include both theory and
both espoused ideology and behaviour .
2.
They did not go under because of the weakness of their intellect ual
positions .
At bottom their religious beliefs, for example, were no
more ridiculou s than those of Christian ity. Typically they were much
weakened by new diseases, and overwhelm ed by new technolog y often
applied in violent fashion.
3.
By integrity is meant much more than retaining represent ative samples
of this and that system or species;
not represent ative southern
sassafras , parma wallabies
and
Torres
Strait
Islanders ,
but
sufficien tly many.
16
practice,
4.
Another past philosophic al basis for environmen tal philosophy, American
naturalism, seems to have been little developed, despite the promise
some have seen in it.
*1
The aesthetic route
Highwater.
*2
Note well that it is not being claimed that Australian culture is
egalitarian (in conformity with a popular myth); only that it is less
inegalitari an than American. The hard data underlying the claim--rs
assembled in 'Culture and the roots of political divergence '.
*3
For Griffin's conception of Canberra - a much smaller Canberra, which
included a rail loop - see, to start with, Birrell (still the best
source on Griffin). The first quotation from Griffin is quoted in
Birrell, p.178;
the second is from Griffin's article in Australian
Wild Life.
*4
P.
is
well-illust rated
by
the
main
approach
in
O'Farrell.
REFERENCES
J.
Highwater, The Primal Mind. Vision
Harper & Row, New York, 1981.
J.
Birrell, Walter Burley Griffin, Queensland U.P., 1964.
W.B.
Griffin,
-.
)
,
'\
and
,•
Reality
in
Indian
America,
Australian Wild Life
W.
Lini, Keynote Address, Australia and the South Pacific, Proceedings
a Conference held at the Australian National University, 1982.
P.
O'Farrell,
'The cultural ambivalence of Australian religion', in
Culture and the State in Australia, Australian Cultural History 1
(1982) Canberra.
R.
Nash, 'Rounding out the American revolution: ethical extension and the
new environmen talism', typescript, University of California at Santa
Barbara, 1982.
A.
Marsh, Protect and Political Consciousne ss, Sage Beverley Hills, 1977.
s.
Cotgrove, Catastrophe and Cornucopia, Wiley, ,\,'. ~· , ,,
R.
Routley, 'Roles and limits of paradigms
action', in Elliot and Gare, 260-293.
R.
Elliot and A.
Ga:re, Environmen tal Philosophy.
Readings, University of Queensland Press, 1983.
of
c- r-
17
, 1982.
in environmen tal
A
thought
Collection
and
of
CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND APPROACHES TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - AN
AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE
Many of you know that Canberra was originally designed by Walter Burley
'lO
Griffin.
This talk is dedicated to him. You may not know that Griffin, an
c111,d l,ee,tJ>,, I! a ,~cJ/2...ru/.1t-l/ '";~1/n,-,l,c1...
American who migrated to Australia in 1913, was
not
simply
an
architect
and
A
lantlscape
designer_, but one of Australia's early deeper ecologists.
key elements of the Western industrial paradigm, especially
on
making
nature
the
servant
of
man',
'land
to
be
accorded
the
'concentration
and discerned instead elements of a
different 'consciousness' (the word is his).
took
the
He rejected
His approach was holistic, and
respect
he
due to a highly developed and
perfected living organism not to be exterminated or treated as dead material, or
as
a
mere
section of a map'.
Canberra, now no mere section of map, is still,
for all its deficiencies, perhaps the best approximation anywhere
.eco~osic-.w,
city;
but it is not only removed from Griffin's original conception
but far from deep ecological ideals.
*
*
*3
*
*
*
*
The objective of the larger investigation, of which this
part,
is
to
gauge
the
extent
to
which
Australian
contrasted with American culture, contains developable
will
underpin
a
under which many
suffers.
talk
sketches
a
culture, especially as
elements
(seeds)
which
different political framework from the bastardised capitalism
people
presently
labour
and
local
environment
frequently
It is not necessary to see the present political arrangements and the
political course
interested
to
in
charted
as
environmentally
alternative structures:
socially
disastrous
to
be
it is enough, for example, to view them
r ,i,v~c~ntL..:f- [.<-ol"l,-"
hd<--t r7' <-.~ .::..
P,r~t- f tl. /~J
1
or
J
I
C-IJll·A-r~u... )
~ tn "S.
those
as far from satisfactory, or very far from
the
of
best
to be interested in the prospects of turning things around somewhat, to
worlds,
increasing ecological resistance [negative action] against
vandalism
and
like, and ecological construction [direct positive action].
the
grounds
give
remarkable level of environmental activism that has
the
especially
hope,
damage,
environment
There are several distinctive features of Australian culture that
for
attainable
of
somehow emerged among the people.
It is worth trying to pull together
some
of
these features of the culture, to look at ways of furthering the valuable parts,
and increasing the level of concern and activism.
the
towards
practices,
and
attitudes
different approaches, different
1
Indeed appreciation of,
environment.
have
cultures
different
Without doubt
practices towards, and respect for the natural environment are highly culturally
dependent:
and where they still survive uncorrupted still have -
nonimperial cultures had
much
exploitative
less
whose
North,
industrial
exploitation
approaches
to
practices
not
vandalism
and
the
environment
merely
environmental
but to a marked extent depend upon such practices.
control"
their
of
local
typically under the missionary, colonial or imperial domination.
in
But occasionally, notably
retained
the
of
those
than
gross
permit
Mostly these more benign cultures have however "lost
environments,
Most
American Jews and American Indians.
instance,
for
compare,
sufficient
autonomy
the
to
adjacent
Pacific,
regional
cultures
2
have
slow or even halt environmental destruction.
Thus, for example, rainforest damaging projects have been delayed or blocked
in
Melanesia largely through Melanesian attitudes to the land.
One important way then to try to slow environmental degradation, especially
in
the
South,
is
to
foster
certain
both
sweepingly, regional cultural autonomy;
socialism
and
indigenous
for
cultural
instance
land rights movements.
2
differences
to
support
and, more
Melanesian
For, where the cultures have
not been excessively corrupted by Northern influences, this is
rapid
way
of
paradigms.
in
the
a
cultural
differences
can
also
serve
Antipodes, in particular in Australia, to at least assist in
transition to different
Such
comparatively
activating alternative paradigms to the dominant Northern social
The question arises whether
elsewhere
a
less
environmentally
exploitative
social
paradigms.
transition is unlikely to occur unless it is based on the culture.
Can
features of the culture and the social life be used to foster and make requisite
differences?
In the case of Australia, a basis
culture,
is
there
both
in
the
land
and
the
and things appear sufficiently different from those in the cultures of
the industrialised North to allow (some hope) for cultural differentiation.
the
need
for
change,
at
least
if the natural environment is to retain some
It
semblance of integrity, there is little doubt.
that
there
is,
in
is
becoming
platitudinous
the longer run not much prospect for the integrity of many
local natural environments and ecosystems
loose
Of
3
unless
we
in
the
Antipodes
break
from the damaging cultural assumptions and practice of the industrialised
North and
work
destructive
towards
establishment
of
a
less
in
some
parts,
rising
tide
war.
of
For despite
environmental
the industrialised North still appears in the grip of
established forces and unlikely to budge in time - short of
nuclear
environmentally
culture, towards a certain regional cultural autonomy.
elements of regionalism in the North, despite a
concern
different
disaster,
such
Though we who seek change can count on some support from minority
movements in the North, nonetheless if we are to achieve changes, we must go
largely
alone.
Nor
is
the
Australia because as well as the
location,
the
advantage
of
the
ground
and
its
southern
seeds of cultural difference are already there and growing.
cultivation.
Such
a
it
task of paradigm transition entirely hopeless in
like most new and more fragile developments they need attention and
speedy
as
careful
But
if
task is rendered urgent also by other matters of
3
environmental and human concern, not just the gathering signs
but
colossal
biological
losses
through
of
nuclear
rapid destruction of, e.g.
war,
tropical
rainforests, indeed mounting evidence of environmental decline almost everywhere
humans now establish.
How does philosophy fit into the strategy of harnessing regional culture to
alter approaches to the environment?
As in the title of the talk it operates in
the middle, not as an idle middleman, but more like
and
design
culture.
principles
A working
picture
that
the main components of the discussion together - a picture that also like
most images of the more abstract distorts across
organising
of the dynamic linkage in a good suspension bridge, which lifts the
environmental way on the ropes of regional
links
the
is
that
of
a
suspension
the gap often separating people from the natural environment.
bridge
There are
people, and the environment, and approaches by bridges to the environment,
like
so:-
approach
➔
Natural
Environment
People
(Of course people may be part of the natural environment:
the
picture
doesn't
exclude that important overlap.) The connecting bridges may be of very different
sorts, ranging from rustic bridges good for careful foot
traffic,
through
the
monumental suspension bridge at Middle Harbour, to modern high-tech bridges able
to carry nuclear tanks and bulldozers over large spans.
of
But it is the structure
all these types of bridges carrying the approaches that matter particularly.
The spans are carried by the ropes of culture, and the pylons of culture if
4
you
will.
~
{dC"' CULTURE
l
(--.__ APPROACH ~
____,___.- ·'---
So
with
approaches.
different
------- ----- -
cultures,
different
carrying
bridges
different
It is better to see the link component in the middle - philosophy,
but it might almost as well be sociology - not as part of the nuts and bolts and
rivets
of
the
structures.
types,
bridges,
but
rather
It has its analytical
computing
the
loads
and
as
parts,
the
design
looking
stresses
at
on them;
and
engineering of the
the
components,
and it also has its more
holistic elements, considering the bridges themselves and
of
them
their
- the social paradigms embedded in the cultures.
select
substructures
Philosophy, the link
subject, is then the architecture and engineering of the business.
Less
figuratively,
assumptions
of
a
philosophy
replacement,
or marxist philosophies.
deep ecology, asks deeper
assumptions
of
all
and
and
assumptions
paradigms.
the
operative
for
example
of
free
Philosophy, especially metaphysics and not
deeper
questions,
extracting
the
fundamental
other subjects and assembling the intellectual assumptions
embodied in a culture or social way of life, i.e.
social
assembles
culture applied in environmental practices, the assumptions,
that is, to be considered for
enterprise
isolates
In
what are sometimes called the
this respect philosophy - which includes much more than
conceptual analysis - is first among the intellectual subjects,
as
logic,
the
science of reasoning, is the first among the sciences, investigating the form of
arguments and methodology of all other sciences.
philosophical
investigation
extracts,
5
The
deeper
assumptions
such
when put together yield a philosophy in
the more popular sense (as e.g.
enterprise
philosophy):
in
philosophy
of
life
or
again
the
free
in any case the result will be a philosophical theory
or the rudiments of a philosophical paradigm, depending on how it is done.
By largely philosophical investigation then,
assumptions
of
the
techniques we try
contrasted
base.
with
operative
to
test
apparent
we
trace
and
Northern social paradigms;
the
adequacy
social
of
the
organise
the
and by sociological
assemblage,
especially
as
alternatives with some environmental support
So much has already been accomplished, in a rough and ready way, and some
results are illustrated in diagram 1.
Details of other positions, the old
culture
(as
positions
typically
offer
environmental
a
projected),
transition
alternative.
are
from
And
and
new
left
and
the
counter
included in the diagram because these
the
while
the
dominant
it
may
Western
appear
paradigm
to
indeed is - a long
political way from the dominant paradigm to the environmental alternative,
of
the
intermediate
taken one at a time.
details
steps is not so great;
To illustrate the way transitions can
of the first line (row) in macro-economic form.
construed
as
representing
package typically includes
environment,
so
the
in
components
each
and the steps can, and have, been
be
made,
consider
The dominant objective
is to maximize some economic package of goods and services
being
such
as
GDP,
a rough way standard of living.
minimal
to
quality
of
life
this
But the
and
and
pollution,
and
perhaps
with additions for non-material features excluded in dominant consciousness.
this way we arrive at New Left thinking with the objective
to considerable reservations, X(RR).
of
material
goes
back
to
Greek
philosophy;
6
In
growth
The real break however comes with
members of the counterculture, the Hippies and Yippies for example,
idea
the
objective function to be maximized gets much complicated,
with subtractions for externalities such as noise
subject
the
though
the
namely, the abandonment of growth and
maximization objectives altogether, for less material nonmaximizing
the
macroeconomic
steady-state
objective
or
will
level,
for
economy,
something
economists have so far sketched.
which
Daly
for
At
the idea gets partially represented by the goal of a
sustainable
be
goals.
example
though
the
alternative
environmental
much less inflexible and nationalistic than
In fact the "emerging steady-state
advocates,
paradigm",
affords only a shallow alternative to the
dominant paradigm, differing only as to
growth
and
reserves
themes.
But
a
fuller diagram of paradigms would include - among others such advanced corporate
capitalism
the
higher-dimensional
steady
state
position;
involve
would
However, the higher dimensional
how a better argued transition can be made;
diagram
essentially by combining
steady-state arguments against macroeconomic growth and stocks assumptions
the
Left-socialist
combination, which
framework
would
a
diagram, and remove the convenient ~simplification of the
two dimensional left-right transition.
indicates
it
so
case
does
not
against microeconomic themes.
touch
human
relations,
a
with
Even so, even with the
narrower
anthropocentric
have been left behind, deeper environmental concern would
have only began to enter.
Reaching behind the dominant Western paradigm so outlined to the underlying
social
model takes us towards the following familiar picture:
society consists
of a set of individual humans of decidedly impoverished type, e.g.
they are not
genuinely interrelated, so they are isolated, and, though they are the only sort
of items that have intensional (mental) features, they have
(e.g.
a
certain
ability
to
calculate).
but
few
of
these
At bottom, these individuals have
utilities, reflecting preferences or self-interests, which they aim to maximize;
and
so
they
are
competitive (by virtue of scarcity).
that they are possessive, and possess
capital.
The
distinctive
the
feature
means
of
Their other feature is
production,
e.g.
land,
of the American model is of course is that
individuals can separately accumulate the means of production.
7
To ensure
their
rABLI J.
COMPLll NG SOC IAL l'ARAD IGMS
<ENVIRONMENTALLY - OR I [ifl [D REPRESEIITAT IONJ
.... RIGHT - LEFT POLITICAL ORIENTAT!Otl
DOMINANT (XJ
WESTERN PARADIGM
CORE
THEMES
ECONOMIC
ORGANISATIONAL
POLITICAL
FURTHER
ENVIRONMENTAL
MATERIAL (ECONOMIC)
GROWTH
DOMINANCE OVER NATURE
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT A
RESOURCE
MARKET FORCES (MINIMALLY
REGULATED, PRODUCTIVITY
AND PROFIT MAXIMIZING)
PREDOMINANTLY PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP OF PRODUCTIVE
MEANS
I ND IV I DUALI ST I c/
COMPETITIVE ETHOS
ELITIST/REWARDS FOR
APPROVED ACHIEVEMENT
CONSUMERISM ENCOURAGED
URBAN-INDUSTRIAL
COMMODITY/CULTURAL
PACKAGING
CENTRALISED : URBAN
CENTRED
LARGE-SCALE: ORDERED
(POWER-) HIERARCHICAL
HUMAN RELATIONS
SECONDARY
/OLD
1LEFT
/NEW
LEFT
1
I
X
1X<R)
X
X
I X
IX
1X<RRl I y
IX<R) I X ➔ Y
1X<Rl I X(RR)
!COMMAND
SYSTEM
I
I
I
I y
y
I y
:X(Q)
I y
I
X
I X(Q)
I X
I X
xrn>
1
IX
:x-v
I X
X<R)
I X-'>Y
NATIONAL FOCUS; MILITARY
DEFENCE
X
I
I X
ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES
(POWER-BROKERS AND
EXPERTS PROMINENT)
LAW AND ORDER; LEGAL
REGULATION, POLICE BACKED
X
X
1X<Q>
IX(Q)
i X
I
ly(R)
FAITH IN SCIENCE: HIGH
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
SEPARATION OF REASON/
EMOTION, FACT/VALUE,
SCIENTIFIC/UTILITARIAN
RATIONALITY; ANALYTIC
REDUCTIONISTIC
y
ly(Q)
I
AMPLE RESERV~S (OR
(SUBSTITUTES)
[NVIRONMENTAL CONTROLLABLE!
y
IXCQ)
I
X->Y
I
I Y<Q>
I y
I
I
v
Y
X<R)
y
/HUMAN RELATIONS
!PRIMARY
'v<Q>
I
X
X·->Y
y
y
'xrn> 'x<R>
y
X
I
1X<R)
X
I X
X
X
I X
IX
X
:x<R>
y
X
I X
y
X
I X
I RATIONALITY
I
I
I
/REJECTED
I
IDEEP ECOLOGY
1DISTINGU!Sfl[D
I
I
!GREATER VALUE
ASSUMPTIOt-j
/REJECTED (FOR
BIOSPECIES
/IMPART I ALI TY)
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WITHIN PUBLIC INTEREST
/ FRAMEWORK
LIMITED OWNERSHIP OF
/ PRODUCTIVE MEANS
jDECENTRALISED:
I
I
I
Y/NON OWNERSHIP
COMMUNAL I
I
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NON-(POWER)HIERARCHJCAL
/HUMAN RELATIONS WITHIN
/ ECO-COMMUN I TY
REGIONAL/NEIGHBOURHOOD
I FOCUS;
SOCIAL (NON-
/VIOLENT) DEFENCE
/
PARTICIPATIVE STRUCTURES
l(cJTIZEN-WORKER
I
INVOLVEMENT)
/LIBERATION; SOCIAL
/REGULATION
/EARTH SUPPLIES LIMITED
y
/NATURE DELICATELY
BALANCED
1NATURE BENIGN
/OTHER ANIMALS ALSO
INTENTIONAL
X➔Y
I
/COLLECTIVE ETHOS/
,soCJAL PROVISION
EGALITARIAN/INCOME NEED
I RELATED
/ CAREFUL USE/RECYCLING ' /Y(ES SENT IAL)
LOCALIS~LF-MANAGEMENT
/PRODUCT/CULTURE EMPHASIS/
y
y
?
!ALTERNATIVE (Y)
ENVIRONMENTAL PAR.4DIGM
1
/ LE SS MATERIAL GOALS
(E,G, SELF- REALISATION)
/HARMON Y WITH NATURE
/NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
VALUED FOR ITSELF
I
y
I y
I
I
ICOUNTER 1CULTURE
I
I
I
STATE
lowNERSHIP
X
X
X
NATURE HOSTILE/NEUTRAL
NONHUMANS ESSENTIALLY
ME CHAN I ST! C
EPISTEMIC/
PHILOSOPHIC
DOMINANT
ISTATE
I SOCIALIST
...
I
LIMITS TO SCIENCE:
IAPPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
! INTEGRATION OF REASON/
EMOTION, FACT/VALUE , , ,
I~/J DER RATIONALITY (OR)
REJECTION OF NARROWER;
/HOLi ST IC
IV /NATURAL AS
TELEOLOGICAL
I
I ..•
•
I
entitlement
to
this
is
the initial argument, on this model, for the coercive
apparatus of the (minimal) state.
natural,
this
about
self-interested
Features
There is nothing compulsory, or
Individuals
picture.
competing
individuals
are
matter
of
these
nurture,
abstract
not
nature.
of the American economic archtype are a matter of culture, a result of
training, not human nature, as a comparison
where
approximating
particularly
individuals
are
not
like
this,
individuals embody rationality either:
with
helps
other
traditional
show.
cultures,
Nor do these archtypal
only a question-begging
argument
leads
to the American model as something naturally required.
The transitions to the left already go beyond the American model.
certain
introduces
human
The
relations.
chauvinistic (anthropocentric) but they
do
left
not
models
omit
are
social
The left
still
human
relations:
the
further big step to the environmental alternative is to widen these relations to
full community relations,
independent
value.
recognising
That
is
a
creatures
and
nonhuman
things
as
of
bigger step, a step that no Western political
institutions make requisite allowance
for,
and
that
mainstream
underpinning
Western value theories do not accommodate.
The arguments from traditional cultures can also be
illustrated
paradigms
and
cultures such as those
the
of
models
Melanesia
that
and
directed
underlie
Polynesia,
them.
many
of
against
the
In traditional
the
operative
assumptions of the Northern social paradigms are, very reasonably, not accepted.
Where these cultures still prevail with some measure of regional autonomy, there
is
good
prospect
of
thwarting
more
environmentally
destructive practices.
Features of the local culture can be immediately harnessed.
But much of the
inhabited
and
there are
already
New
governed
and
by
environmentally
less
unscathed
World
peoples of predominantly European stock.
distinctive
features
8
observable
in
New
World
is
now
Although
cultures,
assumptions
of
the
dominant
Northern paradigms have hardly been sufficiently
questioned, let alone overthrown, especially among the manag~rial
other,
or
even
lesser,
features
of
surprisingly
leave
out
There are
cultures
significant
as
artistic
and
intellectual
usually
cultural
industrial culture, though economically dominated
accompanying
other
conspicuous
The incomplete social paradigms outlined do
not exhaust features of the accompanying
rather
to
be
icing.
discerned,
features.
sure,
This
does
affords
European
culture.
This
alternatives.
a
discrepancies.
established
have
an
somewhat
as
that
in romanticism and a significant feature of American Indian
gives
*l
but
Northern
precarious foothold for an aesthetic approach to the environment, such
evidenced
So
the cultures will have to be invoked if
change in approach is to be hastened in this way.
cultural features to be considered.
classes.
But
the
basis
there
of
are
the
as
aesthetic
well
more
route
to
important
environmental
omissions
and
In particular, the dominant American paradigm omits reference to
religion;
also
neglected
are
many
of
the connected older and
formerly more prominent values of American culture.
The
American
search
for
environmentally
acceptable
alternatives
has
regularly turned to these omitted features of American culture, and religious or
spiritual elements, and associated past values 4 •
establish
"the gospel of ecology" and displace the dominant paradigm have taken
a spiritual route, a quasi-religious way.
and
Indeed the primary attempts to
representative
new environmentalism:
(For example, Nash provides a
sample
list of the books he considers important in the rise of the
virtually all that proceed beyond ecology
depend
on
an
appeal to religious elements, to divine or sacred features of natural things.)
In the context of American culture the appeal
something
to
be
said for it.
to
religious
features
has
For, firstly, a high proportion of the American
population profess some active religious commitment;
•
9
and, unlike
Australia,
a
substantial
do
proportion
act
response.
And, secondly, religious values do clash with
dominant
Northern
paradigm.
This
sort
of
socially
that
with
accordance
in
conflict
precepts
the
was
approved
of
perceived,
considerable puzzlement, by colonised cultures, as Lini reports in the
case
the
with
of
Melanesian society (p.9):
The fabric of this society, with its inherent communal discipline was
torn by the arrival of European commercial practices which
•••
carried with it the message of materialism, together with the creed of
Both aspects were a direct contradiction
enlightened self-interest.
of Melanesian values and priorities. The introduction to Melanesia of
Christianity added a further element of division and confusion in the
While the Christian religion was widely
minds of the people.
compatible with the ethics and principles of Melanesian communalism,
with its emphasis on mutuality, compassion and caring for one another,
it was a practice that very few of the Europeans appeared to follow.
and
individualism
of
religion
It ran also contrary to the
self-interest, which not just (had) more important exponents, but was
followed by the majority of Europeans •••
It is something a a puzzle how the assimilation of elements of the dominant
paradigm with prospects of Christianity is pulled off, though achieved
Northern
There is
it certainly is in a great many Northerners, and too many Antipodeans.
a
compartmentalisation.
partial answer:
Religion for most is a separate thing
fitted into a Sunday morning box, important elements of which do not
the
upset
standard
penetrate deep.
business
to
Thus for most believers religion does not
week.
Only for a minority does it directly
such as human poverty:
escape
touch
immediate
matters
why should we expect it to work for the Environment?
Nonetheless widespread real adoption of religious
perceptions
within
the
American population, and reflected in the Administration, would presumably alter
things.
But even if some of the effects of a religious return would
beneficial,
and
to
nature
domination
highly
be welcomed, it is also true that some of the effects of a
narrow fundamentalism would be highly undesirable.
of
be
were
Unless moreover the position
abandoned in favour of one of the lesser religious
traditions the environmental effects would
10
be
negative
(as
Watt
testifies).
Religion could be more of a drawback than an asset.
Religion in America has lost out to
with any depth to it appears most unlikely.
the
There
existence of God, the fallaciousness of the arguments involved, etc.
no
But nor is the so-called scientific
front-end-in.
cannot account for;
it is that this perspective, a paradigm,
a richer
more intellectually satisfactory rivals (e.g.
view).
such
great
the
incorporates
There are
it is far from uniquely determined.
So
paradigm.
social
dominant
in
view
world
is not just that there is much that this sort of view leaves out or
It
shape.
is
view with these sorts of weaknesses
the
to
return
to
trying
in
virtue
rival
Consider, for instance, the matter of the
view could explain.
scientific
much
for
world view was seriously deficient and it did not account
more
the case for its
In part it failed deservedly:
view".
world
scientific
"the
In any case such a reversal
intensional
scientific
These rivals allow for value and wonder in natural things without taking
a theological way.
character
quasi-religious
reasons
of
set
second
There is a
of
some
sort,
for
not
endeavouring
Christian,
strongly
These
on
turn
the
irreligious character of the culture, where an appeal through religion
is unlikely to have much
as
understood
a
(the
Australia,
success.
first)
post-Christian
it
has
been
irreligious
character
the
of
understanding much else about the culture,
society
e.g.
'best
is
said,
society, in which religion (is)
barely relevant culturally'. *4 Even if that formulation is an
generally
a
Pantheistic or
Jewish,
whatever, on deeper environmental approaches in Australia.
impose
to
exaggeration
the
is a fact and is the key to
the
curious
extent
of
the
state's protrusion into Australian social life.
If an approach through religion is accordingly ruled out as a main approach
to
hastened
paradigm
transition - and a related approach through mysticism or
transcendentalism excluded for analogous reasons and because of
11
the
earthiness
of
the
culture
-
what
alternatives
are
open?
There are other significant
features of the culture running against major elements of the
dominant
paradigm,
effectively
which
can
perhaps
applied
be
much
quasi-religious approaches to turn matters around.
more
Western
than
To indicate the prospects of
applying features of the culture to detach from dominant paradigms, consider how
Australian culture contrasts with American.
Australian mainstream culture
transition
from
the
dominant
is
already
American
political left has much stronger support in
difficult
to
some
culture.
Australia
way
It
along
the
leftward
is not merely that the
than
USA.
It
is
not
indicate features of the Australian cultural situation which show
its left-displacement from the dominant Western paradigm.
some elements of the contrast:-
12
The next table
lists
TABLE 2.
CONTRASTING ELEMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
SCALE OF INCREASE
*2
individualistic ethos
inacceptability of socialist institutions
inegalitarian attitudes
POSITIVE
inegalitarian practices
ITEMS (PER
level of consumerism
CAPITA
maximization quest
WHERE
imperialist drive
RELEVANT)
extent of violence
police and military commitment
high technology involvement
functional rationality
environmental inactivism
USA
AUSTRALIA
SCALE OF
INCREASE
level of urbanisation
legal obstacles to environmental action
NEGATIVE
official opposition to environmental
practices, such as dedication of
ITEMS
wilderness
administrative delays in implementing
environmental practices, such as
pollution requirements, recycling, etc.
13
Thus there are some offsetting negative items as well as positive items
in
the
in
the
contrast.
Since, however, most of these contrasting elements bear on
first
diagram
of
rival paradigms in a way favourable to Australian culture as
opposed to American, it appears that prospects
indeed better.
themes
for
applying
the
culture
are
This important theme requires elaboration and confirmation.
The
task can profitably be combined with others:
there is much work here
both
for
environmental spectators with an empirical bent and for environmental activists.
A first task is to separate out what is known, what requires
and
what
ought to be done (ideologically).
and their surrounds, distinguishing firstly
theses:
A weak
confirmation,
Let us focus on transition theses,
factual
and
normative
transition
factual transition thesis, that Western (European) culture is
undergoing a transition
away
from
the
dominant
confirmed by several Northern sociologists (e.g.
better results could be obtained in Australia;
social
Marsh).
paradigm,
has
been
Presumably similar or
but appropriate samplings of the
community have not been done, analysed and so on - environmental sociology being
a
neglected
undoubtedly
field
also
in
Another
Australia.
weak
factual
transition
thesis
holds, namely that since 1960 a significant percentage of the
each human community in specifiable advanced Western countries such as Australia
have
come
to adopt main assumptions of the alternative environmental paradigm.
But again comparative-figures
sociological
work
are
entirely
of
data
to
Though
impressionistic
tells us that environmental activism is greater in Australia
than USA - indeed more intensive than
piece
lacking.
anywhere
else,
an
immensely
build upon - we lack solid confirmation.
sociogeographers to do.
14
important
There is much for
Throughout, as you may have noticed, a normative transition thesis has been
taken
largely
for
granted,
that
Australian
culture, indeed Western culture
generally, ought to be undergoing a major paradigm
Western
paradigms
and
their
away
from
dominant
variations (such as those of advocated corporate
capitalism and of the post-industrial society),
transiting
shift,
and
towards an environmental alternative.
furthermore
ought
the
arguments.
It
is
also
be
That complex normative thesis
is argued for in environmental philosophy, and fortunately there isn't
repeat
to
time
to
argued against there, but, to sum up the
opposition case cavalierly, unconvincingly.
Given then that the transition is going on,
indeed
emerging
are
are
clear
doing
environmental
encourage
enough.
for
it
in
Australia?
example,
directing
action
going
be
aiming
swing
major
Preliminary
against
the
to
organisations.
on,
answers
sources
of
They
should
increase their support bases, but not merely by membership
They should be
endeavouring
to
influence
the dominant regional culture, for the potential appears to be there
for a considerably greater change than has thus far been
two
be
despoilation and the like, primarily industrial organisations and
drives and environmental education.
and
to
Not only should activists be continuing with what
those supposed to regulate them, further (public)
also
ought
ought then to be going on with greater rapidity, how is it hastened, how
do environmental activists
they
and
parts
to
this
further
practice
which
achieved.
There
are
can run in tandem, a more
negative and a more positive part:
•
More negatively, it involves
cutting
down
and
countering
the
flow
of
propaganda
in favour of the dominant paradigms both locally but especially from
the North.
That is important in reversing the extent of Northern co-option.
includes
gently
a
range of activities some with solid bases in local culture, such as
lopping
anti-American
It
off
the
tall
poppies
pedalling
and anti-Northern activities.
15
the
stuff,
and
careful
The latter practices (which should
not of course reduce merely to personally directed antagonism) fit in well
other
regional
environmental
with
aims, such as independent and nonaligned defence
policies.
•
More positively, it consists in promoting and adapting other also
despised
features
of
alternative paradigms.
ambassadors,
Australian
It
is
culture that work directly towards themes of
commonly
are,
of
course,
those
Lawrence).
like
nonmaximizing making-do socialistic ones,
appreciation
Northern
intellectuals
of
local
natural
the
The features to be
egalitarian,
along
environments.
with
the
combines
enough:
cultural
with
promoted
or
anti-authoritarian,
rapidly
increasing
Nonmaximizing, for example, is
reflected in the She'll be right and It'll do approach often
and
and
note, that are responsible for the low repute in which some of the
cultural characters are held (e.g.
adapted
commonly
taken
to
things,
egalitarian methods as encapsulated in Fair go and Enough's
consider the effects of these, decently applied, in economics, in local
markets.
As for mateship, sure it could use widening, a main problem being its
restriction in practice to
extension
male
relationships:
to communities (including nonhumans).
is there for deep cultural transformation:
but
why
not
encourage
its
So, to conclude, the potential
we must help to realise it.
FOOTNOTES
1.
The term 'approaches' is intended to include both theory and
both espoused ideology and behaviour.
2.
They did not go under because of the weakness of their intellectual
positions.
At bottom their religious beliefs, for example, were no
more ridiculous than those of Christianity. Typically they were much
weakened by new diseases, and overwhelmed by new technology often
applied in violent fashion.
3.
By integrity is meant much more than retaining representative samples
of this and that system or species;
not representative southern
sassafras, parma wallabies
and
Torres
Strait
Islanders,
but
sufficiently many.
16
practice,
4.
Another past philosophical basis for environmental philosophy, American
naturalism, seems to have been little developed, despite the promise
some have seen in it.
*1
The aesthetic route
Highwater.
is
well-illustrated
by
the
main
approach
in
*2
Note well that it is not being claimed that Australian culture is
egalitarian (in conformity with a popular myth); only that it is less
inegalitarian than American. The hard data underlying the claim---ri
assembled in 'Culture and the roots of political divergence'.
*3
For Griffin's conception of Canberra - a much smaller Canberra, which
included a rail loop - see, to start with, Birrell (still the best
source on Griffin). The first quotation from Griffin is quoted in
Birrell, p.178;
the second is from Griffin's article in Australian
Wild Life.
*4
P.
O'Farrell.
REFERENCES
J.
Highwater, The Primal Mind. Vision
Harper & Row, New York, 1981.
J.
Birrell, Walter Burley Griffin, Queensland U.P., 1964.
W.B.
Griffin,
(,0· cc,,/' «.,PL'0"1 d I
(on
and
Reality
in
Indian
America,
· __ ,.,.,,
ja,n;~, Australian Wild Life J_
(f9Jt-f/), ty ·-J,
W.
Lini, Keynote Address, Australia and the South Pacific, Proceedings
a Conference held at the Australian National University, 1982.
P.
O'Farrell, 'The cultural ambivalence of Australian religion', in
Culture and the State in Australia, Australian Cultural History 1
(1982) Canberra.
R.
Nash, 'Rounding out the American revolution: ethical extension and the
new environmentalism', typescript, University of California at Santa
Barbara, 1982.
A.
Marsh, Protect and Political Consciousness, Sage Beverley Hills, 1977.
s.
Cotgrove, Catastrophe
R.
Routley, 'Roles and limits of paradigms
action', in Elliot and Qlre, 260-293.
R.
Elliot and A.
Gare, Environmental Philosophy.
Readings, University of Queensland Press, 1983.
or-
aae
Cornucopia, Wiley,
17
~~J~rh ,
of
1982.
in environmental
thought
A Collection
and
of
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WORKING DRAFT
·. , ' I
·
CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND APPROACHES TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT - AN
AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE
Many of you know tha~ Canberra was originally
Griffin.
This
talk
is
(, ,~ ,/ h (: (tJ m,
, .
designed
by
Walter
Burley
'i.C
to him. You may not know that Griffin, an
dedicated
/ 1,• <, , ' ' ! I ·,/ .• r : , J,,--.T~- l, c :....
American who migrated to Australia in 1913, was
not
simply
an
architect
and
,1
lantlscape
designe ~ but one of Australia's early deeper ecologists.
key elements of the Western industrial paradigm, especially
on
making
nature
the
servant
of
man',
'land
to
be
accorded
the
'concentration
and discerned instead elements of a
different 'consciousness' (the word is his).
took
the
He rejected
His approach was holistic, and
respect
he
due to a highly developed and
perfected living organism not to be exterminated or treated as dead material, or
as
a
mere
section of a map'.
Canberra, now no mere section of map, is still,
,.,i/f . ,:i:.
for all its deficiencies, perhaps the best approximation anywhere
~~l-0gical
city;
*
to
*
*
*
*
*
gauge
the
extent
to
which
Australian
contrasted with American culture, contains developable
will
underpin
a
under which many
suffers.
-,/
/h ,1 ;1 ~11._r
talk
sketches
a
culture, especially as
elements
(seeds)
which
different political framework from the bastardised capitalism
people
presently
labour
and
local
environment
frequently
It is not necessary to see the present political arrangements and the
political course
interested
aeeper
*3
The objective of the larger investigation, of which this
is
a
but it is not only removed from Griffin's original conception
but far from deep ecological ideals.
part,
to
in
charted
as
environmentally
alternative structures:
f) '
r ,nt
1
or
socially
disastrous
to
be
it is enough, for example, to view them
t__
ri __f. _________
---1
n__
{- ,-; ,:_... --1 (.
"'I n,l ._
1
,.
(•✓ L / ~• • }
'
<: l7' 1 •-rt,,,_
c, ,
/---5-0-J. i +- I~.,, )•
I
as far from satisfactory, or very far from
worlds,
those
of
the
best
attainable
to be interested in the prospects of turning things around somewhat, to
increasing ecological resistance [negative action] against
vandalism
and
the
environment
hope,
damage,
like, and ecological construction [direct positive action].
There are several distinctive features of Australian culture that
for
of
especially
the
give
grounds
remarkable level of environmental activism that has
somehow emerged among the people.
It is worth trying to pull together
some
of
these features of the culture, to look at ways of furthering the valuable parts,
and increasing the level of concern and activism.
Without doubt
attitudes
and
different
practices,
cultures
towards
have
the
different
environment.
approaches,
1
different
Indeed appreciation of,
practices towards, and respect for the natural environment are highly culturally
dependent:
compare,
for
nonimperial cultures had
much
less
North,
exploitation
and
American Jews and American Indians.
whose
approaches
to
practices
not
vandalism
the
environment
merely
permit
those
of
the
environmental
gross
control"
of
their
local
typically under the missionary, colonial or imperial domination.
But occasionally, notably
retained
than
but to a marked extent depend upon such practices.
Mostly these more benign cultures have however "lost
environments,
Most
and where they still survive uncorrupted still have -
exploitative
industrial
instance,
sufficient
in
autonomy
the
to
adjacent
Pacific,
regional
cultures
2
have
slow or even halt environmental destruction.
Thus, for example, rainforest damaging projects have been delayed or blocked
in
Melanesia largely through Melanesian attitudes to the land.
One important way then to try to slow environmental degradation, especially
in
the
South,
is
to
foster
both
certain
sweepingly, regional cultural autonomy;
socialism
and
indigenous
for
cultural
instance
land rights movements.
2
differences
to
support
and, more
Melanesian
For, where the cultures have
not been excessively corrupted by Northern influences, this is
rapid
way
of
paradigms.
in
the
a
cultural
differences
can
also
serve
Antipodes, in particular in Australia, to at least assist in
transition to different
Such
comparatively
activating alternative paradigms to the dominant Northern social
The question arises whether
elsewhere
a
less
environmentally
exploitative
social
paradigms.
transition is unlikely to occur unless it is based on the culture.
Can
features of the culture and the social life be used to foster and make requisite
differences?
In the case of Australia, a basis
culture,
is
there
both
in
the
land
and
and things appear sufficiently different from those in the cultures of
the industrialised North to allow (some hope) for cultural differentiation .
the
need
for
change,
at
least
there
is,
in
It
is
becoming
platitudinous
the longer run not much prospect for the integrity of many
local natural environments and ecosystems
loose
Of
if the natural environment is to retain some
semblance of integrity, there is little doubt.
that
3
unless
we
in
the
Antipodes
break
from the damaging cultural assumptions and practice of the industrialised
North and
work
destructive
towards
establishment
of
a
concern
in
different
less
some
parts,
rising
tide
war.
of
For despite
environmental
the industrialised North still appears in the grip of
established forces and unlikely to budge in time - short of
nuclear
environmentally
culture, towards a certain regional cultural autonomy.
elements of regionalism in the North, despite a
disaster,
such
largely
alone.
Nor
is
the
Australia because as well as the
location,
the
as
Though we who seek change can count on some support from minority
movements in the North, nonetheless if we are to achieve changes, we must go
advantage
of
the
ground
and
its
southern
seeds of cultural difference are already there and growing.
cultivation.
Such
a
it
task of paradigm transition entirely hopeless in
like most new and more fragile developments they need attention and
speedy
the
careful
But
if
task is rendered urgent also by other matters of
3
environmental and human concern, not just the gathering signs
but
colossal
biological
losses
through
of
nuclear
rapid destruction of, e.g.
war,
tropical
rainforests, indeed mounting evidence of environmental decline almost everywhere
humans now establish.
How does philosophy fit into the strategy of harnessing regional culture to
alter approaches to the environment?
As in the title of the talk it operates in
the middle, not as an idle middleman, but more like
and
design
culture.
principles
A
working
picture
that
the main components of the discussion together - a picture that also like
most images of the more abstract distorts across
organising
of the dynamic linkage in a good suspension bridge, which lifts the
environmental way on the ropes of regional
links
the
is
that
of
a
suspension
the gap often separating people from the natural environment.
bridge
There are
people, and the environment, and approaches by bridges to the environment,
like
so:-
approach
➔
People
Natural
Environment
(Of course people may be part of the natural environment:
the
picture
doesn't
exclude that important overlap.) The connecting bridges may be of very different
sorts, ranging from rustic bridges good for careful foot
traffic,
through
the
monumental suspension bridge at Middle Harbour, to modern high-tech bridges able
to carry nuclear tanks and bulldozers over large spans.
of
But it is the structure
all these types of bridges carrying the approaches that matter particularly.
The spans are carried by the ropes of culture, and the pylons of culture if
4
you
will.
\
\
\
\
)
(......._ APPROACH
_ .,__ _.
So
with
approaches.
different
'--
--------- ---~
cultures,
__,.;::;f
---
different
carrying
bridges
different
It is better to see the link component in the middle - philosophy,
but it might almost as well be sociology - not as part of the nuts and bolts and
rivets
of
the
structures.
types,
bridges,
but
rather
It has its analytical
computing
the
loads
and
as
parts,
the
design
looking
stresses
at
on them;
and
engineering of the
the
components,
and it also has its more
holistic elements, considering the bridges themselves and
of
them
their
- the social paradigms embedded in the cultures.
select
substructures
Philosophy, the link
subject, is then the architecture and engineering of the business.
Less
figuratively,
assumptions
of
a
philosophy
replacement,
or marxist philosophies.
deep ecology, asks deeper
assumptions
of
all
and
and
assumptions
paradigms.
the
operative
for
example
of
free
Philosophy, especially metaphysics and not
deeper
questions,
extracting
the
fundamental
other subjects and assembling the intellectual assumptions
embodied in a culture or social way of life, i.e.
social
assembles
culture applied in environmental practices, the assumptions,
that is, to be considered for
enterprise
isolates
In
what are sometimes called the
this respect philosophy - which includes much more than
conceptual analysis - is first among the intellectual subjects,
as
logic,
the
science of reasoning, is the first among the sciences, investigating the form of
arguments and methodology of all other sciences.
philosophical
investigation
extracts,
5
The
deeper
assumptions
such
when put together yield a philosophy in
the more popular sense (as e.g.
enterprise
philosophy):
in
philosophy
of
life
or
again
the
free
in any case the result will be a philosophical theory
or the rudiments of a philosophical paradigm, depending on how it is done.
By largely philosophical investigation then,
assumptions
of
the
techniques we try
contrasted
base.
with
operative
to
test
apparent
we
trace
and
Northern social paradigms;
the
adequacy
social
of
the
organise
the
and by sociological
assemblage,
especially
as
alternatives with some environmental support
So much has already been accomplished, in a rough and ready way, and some
results are illustrated in diagram 1.
Details of other positions, the old
culture
(as
positions
typically
offer
environmental
a
projected),
transition
alternative.
are
from
And
and
new
left
and
the
counter
included in the diagram because these
the
while
the
dominant
it
may
Western
appear
paradigm
to
indeed is - a long
political way from the dominant paradigm to the environmental alternative,
of
the
intermediate
taken one at a time.
details
steps is not so great;
To illustrate the way transitions can
of the first line (row) in macro-economic form.
construed
as
representing
package typically includes
environment,
so
the
in
components
be
made,
consider
The dominant objective
such
as
GDP,
a rough way standard of living.
minimal
to
quality
of
life
this
But the
and
and
pollution,
and
perhaps
with additions for non-material features excluded in dominant consciousness.
this way we arrive at New Left thinking with the objective
to considerable reservations, X(RR).
of
material
goes
back
to
Greek
philosophy;
6
In
growth
The real break however comes with
members of the counterculture, the Hippies and Yippies for example,
idea
the
objective function to be maximized gets much complicated,
with subtractions for externalities such as noise
subject
each
and the steps can, and have, been
is to maximize some economic package of goods and services
being
the
though
the
namely, the abandonment of growth and
maximization objectives altogether, for less material nonmaximizing
the
macroeconomic
steady-state
objective
or
will
level,
for
economy,
something
economists have so far sketched.
which
Daly
for
At
the idea gets partially represented by the goal of a
sustainable
be
goals.
example
though
the
alternative
environmental
much less inflexible and nationalistic than
In fact the ''emerging steady-state
advocates,
paradigm",
affords only a shallow alternative to the
dominant paradigm, differing only as to
growth
and
reserves
But
themes.
a
fuller diagram of paradigms would include - among others such advanced corporate
capitalism
the
higher-dimensional
steady
position;
state
it
would
involve
However, the higher dimensional
how a better argued transition can be made;
diagram
essentially by combining
steady-state arguments against macroeconomic growth and stocks assumptions
the
Left-socialist
combination, which
framework
would
a
diagram, and remove the convenient oversimplification of the
two dimensional left-right transition.
indicates
so
case
does
not
against microeconomic themes.
touch
human
relations,
a
with
Even so, even with the
narrower
anthropocentric
have been left behind, deeper environmental concern would
have only began to enter.
Reaching behind the dominant Western paradigm so outlined to the underlying
social
model takes us towards the following familiar picture:
society consists
of a set of individual humans of decidedly impoverished type, e.g.
they are not
genuinely interrelated, so they are isolated, and, though they are the only sort
of items that have intensional (mental) features, they have
(e.g.
a
certain
ability
to
calculate).
but
few
of
these
At bottom, these individuals have
utilities, reflecting preferences or self-interests, which they aim to maximize;
and
so
they
are
competitive (by virtue of scarcity).
that they are possessive, and possess
capital.
The
distinctive
the
feature
means
of
Their other feature is
production,
e.g.
land,
of the American model is of course is that
individuals can separately accumulate the means of production.
7
To ensure
their
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entitlement
to
this
is
the initial argument, on this model, for the coercive
apparatus of the (minimal) state.
natural,
this
about
self-interested
Features
There is nothing compulsory, or
picture.
competing
Individuals
individuals
are
matter
of
these
nurture,
abstract
not
nature.
of the American economic archtype are a matter of culture, a result of
training, not human nature, as a comparison
where
approximating
particularly
individuals
are
not
like
this,
individuals embody rationality either:
with
helps
other
traditional
cultures,
Nor do these archtypal
show.
only a question-begging
argument
leads
to the American model as something naturally required.
The transitions to the left already go beyond the American model.
introduces
certain
relations.
human
chauvinistic (anthropocentric) but they
The
do
left
not
models
omit
are
social
The left
still
human
relations:
the
further big step to the environmental alternative is to widen these relations to
full community relations,
independent
value.
recognising
That
is
a
creatures
and
nonhuman
things
as
of
bigger step, a step that no Western political
institutions make requisite allowance
for,
and
that
mainstream
underpinning
Western value theories do not accommodate.
The arguments from traditional cultures can also be
illustrated
paradigms
cultures such as those
and
of
the
models
Melanesia
that
and
directed
underlie
Polynesia,
them.
many
against
the
In traditional
of
the
operative
assumptions of the Northern social paradigms are, very reasonably, not accepted.
Where these cultures still prevail with some measure of regional autonomy, there
is
good
prospect
of
thwarting
more
environmentally
destructive practices.
Features of the local culture can be immediately harnessed.
But much of the
inhabited
and
there are
already
New
governed
and
by
environmentally
less
unscathed
World
peoples of predominantly European stock.
distinctive
features
8
observable
in
New
World
is
now
Although
cultures,
assumptions
of
the
dominant
Northern paradigms have hardly been sufficiently
questioned, let alone overthrown, especially among the managerial
other,
or
even
lesser,
features
of
surprisingly
leave
There are
out
cultures
significant
as
artistic
and
intellectual
usually
cultural
industrial culture, though economically dominated
accompanying
other
conspicuous
The incomplete social paradigms outlined do
not exhaust features of the accompanying
rather
to
be
sure,
does
affords
European
culture.
This
alternatives.
a
discrepancies.
established
have
an
somewhat
as
that
in romanticism and a significant feature of American Indian
gives
*l
but
Northern
features.
This
icing.
discerned,
precarious foothold for an aesthetic approach to the environment, such
evidenced
So
the cultures will have to be invoked if
change in approach is to be hastened in this way.
cultural features to be considered.
classes.
But
the
basis
there
of
the
as
are
aesthetic
well
more
route
to
important
environmental
omissions
and
In particular, the dominant American paradigm omits reference to
religion;
also
neglected
are
many
of
the connected older and
formerly more prominent values of American culture.
The
American
search
for
environmentally
acceptable
alternatives
has
regularly turned to these omitted features of American culture, and religious or
spiritual elements, and associated past values 4 •
establish
"the gospel of ecology" and displace the dominant paradigm have taken
a spiritual route, a quasi-religious way.
and
Indeed the primary attempts to
representative
(For example, Nash provides a
sample
list of the books he considers important in the rise of the
new environmentalis m:
virtually all that proceed beyond ecology
depend
on
an
appeal to religious elements, to divine or sacred features of natural things.)
In the context of American culture the appeal
something
to
be
said for it.
to
religious
features
has
For, firstly, a high proportion of the American
population profess some active religious commitment;
9
and, unlike
Australia,
a
substantial
proportion
do
act
in
accordance
with
that
response.
And, secondly, religious values do clash with
dominant
Northern
paradigm.
This
sort
of
conflict
socially
the
precepts
was
approved
of
perceived,
considerable puzzlement, by colonised cultures, as Lini reports in the
case
the
with
of
Melanesian society (p.9):
The fabric of this society, with its inherent communal discipline was
torn by the arrival of European commercial practices which
carried with it the message of materialism, together with the creed of
enlightened self-int-erest.
Both aspects were a direct contradiction
of Melanesian values and priorities. The introduction to Melanesia of
Christianity added a further element of division and confusion in the
minds of the people.
While the Christian religion was widely
compatible with the ethics and principles of Melanesian communalism,
with its emphasis on mutuality, compassion and caring for one another,
it was a practice that very few of the Europeans appeared to follow.
It ran also contrary to the
religion
of
individualism
and
self-interest, which not just (had) more important exponents, but was
followed by the majority of Europeans •••
It is something a a puzzle how the assimilation of elements of the dominant
Northern
paradigm with prospects of Christianity is pulled off, though achieved
it certainly is in a great many Northerners, and too many Antipodeans.
a
partial answer:
compartmentalisation.
Religion for most is a separate thing
fitted into a Sunday morning box, important elements of which do not
upset
the
standard
penetrate deep.
business
week.
escape
to
Thus for most believers religion does not
Only for a minority does it directly
such as human poverty:
There is
touch
immediate
matters
why should we expect it to work for the Environment?
Nonetheless widespread real adoption of religious
perceptions
within
the
American population, and reflected in the Administration, would presumably alter
things.
But even if some of the effects of a religious return would
beneficial,
and
to
nature
domination
highly
be welcomed, it is also true that some of the effects of a
narrow fundamentalism would be highly undesirable.
of
be
were
Unless moreover the position
abandoned in favour of one of the lesser relig ious
traditions the environmental effects would
10
be
negative
(as
Watt
testifies).
Religion could be more of a drawback than an asset.
with any depth to it appears most unlikely.
"the
scientific
world
view".
In any case such a reversal
Religion in America has lost out to
In part it failed deservedly:
world view was seriously deficient and it did not account
more
scientific
view could explain.
the case for its
for
much
the
Consider, for instance, the matter of the
existence of God, the fallaciousness of the arguments involved, etc.
no
virtue
in
front-end-in.
shape.
It
trying
return
to
the
is
world
view
in
such
great
is not just that there is much that this sort of view leaves out or
social
it is that this perspective, a paradigm,
paradigm.
So
incorporates
it is far from uniquely determined.
more intellectually satisfactory rivals (e.g.
view).
There
view with these sorts of weaknesses
But nor is the so-called scientific
cannot account for;
dominant
to
rival
a richer
intensional
the
There are
scientific
These rivals allow for value and wonder in natural things without taking
a theological way.
There is a
second
quasi-religious
set
character
of
of
reasons
some
sort,
for
not
endeavouring
Christian,
Jewish,
whatever, on deeper environmental approaches in Australia.
strongly
impose
a
Pantheistic or
These
turn
on
the
irreligious character of the culture, where an appeal through religion
is unlikely to have much
understood
as
a
(the
success.
first)
Australia,
post-Christian
it
has
been
irreligious
character
of
the
understanding much else about the culture,
society
e.g.
said,
is
'best
society, in which religion (is)
barely relevant culturally'. *4 Even if that formulation is an
generally
to
exaggeration
the
is a fact and is the key to
the
curious
extent
of
the
state's protrusion into Australian social life.
If an approach through religion is accordingly ruled out as a main approach
to
hastened
paradigm
transition - and a related approach through mysticism or
transcendentali sm excluded for analogous reasons and because of
11
the
earthiness
of
the
culture
what
alternative s
are
open?
There are other significant
features of the culture running against major elements of the
dominant
paradigm,
effectively
which
can
perhaps
be
much
applied
quasi-relig ious approaches to turn matters around.
more
Western
than
To indicate the prospects of
applying features of the culture to detach from dominant paradigms, consider how
Australian culture contrasts with American.
Australian mainstream culture
transition
from
the
dominant
is
already
American
political left has much stronger support in
difficult
to
some
culture.
Australia
way
It
along
the
leftward
is not merely that the
than
USA.
It
is
not
indicate features of the Australian cultural situation which show
its left-displac ement from the dominant Western paradigm.
some elements of the contrast:-
12
The next table
lists
TABLE 2.
CONTRASTING ELEMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
SCALE OF INCREASE
*2
individualistic ethos
inacceptability of socialist institutions
inegalitarian attitudes
POSITIVE
inegalitarian practices
ITEMS (PER
level of consumerism
CAPITA
maximization quest
WHERE
imperialist drive
RELEVANT)
extent of violence
police and military commitment
high technology involvement
functional rationality
environmental inactivism
AUSTRALIA
USA
SCALE OF
INCREASE
level of urbanisation
legal obstacles to environmental action
NEGATIVE
official opposition to environmental
practices, such as dedication of
ITEMS
wilderness
administrative delays in implementing
environmental practices, such as
pollution requirements, recycling, etc.
13
Thus there are some offsetting negative items as well as positive items
in
the
in
the
contrast.
Since, however, most of these contrasting elements bear on
first
diagram
of
rival paradigms in a way favourable to Australian culture as
opposed to American, it appears that prospects
indeed better.
themes
for
applying
the
culture
are
This important theme requires elaboration and confirmation.
The
task can profitably be combined with others:
there is much work here
both
for
environmental spectators with an empirical bent and for environmental activists.
A first task is to separate out what is known, what requires
and
what
ought to be done (ideologically ).
and their surrounds, distinguishing firstly
theses:
A
weak
confirmation,
Let us focus on transition theses,
factual
and
normative
transition
factual transition thesis, that Western (European) culture is
undergoing a transition
away
from
the
dominant
confirmed by several Northern sociologists (e.g.
better results could be obtained in Australia;
social
Marsh).
paradigm,
has
been
Presumably similar or
but appropriate samplings of the
community have not been done, analysed and so on - environmental sociology being
a
neglected
undoubtedly
field
also
in
Australia.
Another
weak
factual
transition
thesis
holds, namely that since 1960 a significant percentage of the
each human community in specifiable advanced Western countries such as Australia
have
come
to adopt main assumptions of the alternative environmental paradigm.
But again comparative-fig ures
sociological
work
are
entirely
of
data
to
Though
impressionistic
tells us that environmental activism is greater in Australia
than USA - indeed more intensive than
piece
lacking.
anywhere
else,
an
immensely
build upon - we lack solid confirmation.
sociogeographer s to do.
14
important
There is much for
Throughout, · as you may have noticed, a normative transition thesis has been
taken
largely
for
granted,
that
Australian
culture, indeed Western culture
generally, ought to be undergoing a major paradigm
Western
paradigms
and
their
away
from
dominant
variations (such as those of advocated corporate
capitalism and of the post-indus trial society),
transiting
shift,
and
towards an environmen tal alternative .
furthermore
ought
the
arguments.
It
is
also
be
That complex normative thesis
is argued for in environmen tal philosophy, and fortunately there isn't
repeat
to
time
to
argued against there, but, to sum up the
opposition case cavalierly, unconvincin gly.
Given then that the transition is going on,
indeed
emerging
are
are
clear
doing
environmen tal
encourage
enough.
for
it
in
Australia?
example,
directing
action
going
be
aiming
swing
major
Preliminary
against
the
to
organisatio ns.
on,
answers
sources
of
They
should
increase their support bases, but not merely by membership
They should be
endeavourin g
to
influence
the dominant regional culture, for the potential appears to be there
for a considerabl y greater change than has thus far been
two
be
despoilatio n and the like, primarily industrial organisatio ns and
drives and environmen tal education.
and
to
Not only should activists be continuing with what
those supposed to regulate them, further (public)
also
ought
ought then to be going on with greater rapidity, how is it hastened, how
do environmen tal activists
they
and
parts
to
this
further
practice
which
achieved.
There
are
can run in tandem, a more
negative and a more positive part:
•
More negatively, it involves
cutting
down
and
countering
the
flow
of
propaganda
in favour of the dominant paradigms both locally but especially from
the North.
That is important in reversing the extent of Northern co-option.
includes
gently
a
range of activities some with solid bases in local culture, such as
lopping
anti-Americ an
It
off
the
tall
poppies
pedalling
and anti-Northe rn activities.
15
the
stuff,
and
careful
The latter practices (which should
.
.
not of course reduce merely to personall y directed antagonism ) fit in well
other
regional
environm ental
with
aims, such as independe nt and nonaligne d defence
policies.
•
More positivel y, it consists in promoting and adapting other also
despised
features
of
alternati ve paradigms .
ambassado rs,
Australia n
It
is
culture that work directly towards themes of
commonly
Northern
intellect uals
Lawrence ).
adapted
like
are,
of
course,
those
nonmaxim izing making-do socialist ic ones,
of
local
natural
the
The features to be
egalitari an,
along
environm ents.
with
the
combines
enough:
cultural
with
promoted
or
anti-auth oritarian ,
rapidly
increasin g
Nonmaxim izing, for example, is
reflected in the She'll be right and It'll do approach often
and
and
note, that are responsib le for the low repute in which some of the
cultural character s are held (e.g.
appreciat ion
commonly
taken
to
things,
egalitari an methods as encapsula ted in Fair go and Enough's
consider the effects of these, decently applied, in economics , in local
markets.
As for mateship, sure it could use widening, a main problem being its
restrictio n in practice to
extension
male
relations hips:
to communit ies (includin g nonhuman s).
is there for deep cultural transform ation:
but
why
not
encourage
its
So, to conclude, the potential
we must help to realise it.
FOOTNOTES
1.
The term 'approach es' is intended to include both theory and
both espoused ideology and behaviour .
2.
They did not go under because of the weakness of their intellect ual
positions .
At bottom their religious beliefs, for example, were no
more ridiculou s than those of Christian ity. Typically they were much
weakened by new diseases, and overwhelm ed by new technolog y often
applied in violent fashion.
3.
By integrity is meant much more than retaining represent ative samples
of this and that system or species;
not represent ative southern
sassafras , parma wallabies
and
Torres
Strait
Islanders ,
but
sufficien tly many.
16
practice,
4.
Another past philosophic al basis for environmen tal philosophy, American
naturalism, seems to have been little developed, despite the promise
some have seen in it.
*1
The aesthetic route
Highwater.
*2
Note well that it is not being claimed that Australian culture is
egalitarian (in conformity with a popular myth); only that it is less
inegalitari an than American. The hard data underlying the claim--rs
assembled in 'Culture and the roots of political divergence '.
*3
For Griffin's conception of Canberra - a much smaller Canberra, which
included a rail loop - see, to start with, Birrell (still the best
source on Griffin). The first quotation from Griffin is quoted in
Birrell, p.178;
the second is from Griffin's article in Australian
Wild Life.
*4
P.
is
well-illust rated
by
the
main
approach
in
O'Farrell.
REFERENCES
J.
Highwater, The Primal Mind. Vision
Harper & Row, New York, 1981.
J.
Birrell, Walter Burley Griffin, Queensland U.P., 1964.
W.B.
Griffin,
-.
)
,
'\
and
,•
Reality
in
Indian
America,
Australian Wild Life
W.
Lini, Keynote Address, Australia and the South Pacific, Proceedings
a Conference held at the Australian National University, 1982.
P.
O'Farrell,
'The cultural ambivalence of Australian religion', in
Culture and the State in Australia, Australian Cultural History 1
(1982) Canberra.
R.
Nash, 'Rounding out the American revolution: ethical extension and the
new environmen talism', typescript, University of California at Santa
Barbara, 1982.
A.
Marsh, Protect and Political Consciousne ss, Sage Beverley Hills, 1977.
s.
Cotgrove, Catastrophe and Cornucopia, Wiley, ,\,'. ~· , ,,
R.
Routley, 'Roles and limits of paradigms
action', in Elliot and Gare, 260-293.
R.
Elliot and A.
Ga:re, Environmen tal Philosophy.
Readings, University of Queensland Press, 1983.
of
c- r-
17
, 1982.
in environmen tal
A
thought
Collection
and
of
Collection
Citation
Richard Routley, “Box 24, Item 1699: Working draft of Culture, philosophy and approaches to the natural environment - an Australian perspective,” Antipodean Antinuclearism, accessed March 28, 2024, https://antipodean-antinuclearism.org/items/show/160.