Human Hubris Research Articles

Russian Yearning for Elite Power: Nikolai Berdyaev’s Reflections on the Metaphysics of Democratism

The purpose of this article is to present Nikolai Berdyaev’s view of power and how it is exercised in a democracy. The Russian thinker treated power as an evil that the democratic system was not free from. Berdyaev regarded the metaphysics of democratism as a manifestation of human hubris and a fall into what is mediocre and devoid of deeper spirituality. He argued that power should be aristocratic, not egalitarian. In his view, only the chosen, few, the eminent, possessed the ability to guide the masses toward the highest values.

Fighting human hubris: Intelligence in nonhuman animals and artefacts

Abstract100 years ago, the editors of theJournal of Educational Psychologyconducted one of the most famous studies of experts’ conceptions of human intelligence. This was reason enough to prompt the question where we stand today with making sense of “intelligence”. In this paper, we argue that we should overcome our anthropocentrism and appreciate the wonders of intelligence in nonhuman and nonbiological animals instead. For that reason, we study two cases of octopus intelligence and intelligence in machine learning systems to embrace the notion of intelligence as a non-unitary faculty with pluralistic forms. Furthermore, we derive lessons for advancing our human self-understanding.

Harmony in Conservation

Many authors have noted the role that anthropocentrism has played in creating humanity’s dysfunctional relationship with the natural world. As human hubris (excessive pride or self-confidence) is an ailment that contributes to the anthropogenic sixth mass extinction of Earth’s biodiversity, we argue instead for ‘harmony with nature’. In recent decades, even the conservation discourse has become increasingly anthropocentric. Indeed, justification for nature conservation has in part shifted from nature’s intrinsic value to ‘ecosystem services’ for the benefit of people. Here we call for a transformation to a more harmonious human-nature relationship that is grounded in mutual respect and principled responsibility, instead of utilitarianism and enlightened self-interest. Far from what Tennyson called ‘red in tooth and claw’, we argue nature is a mixture of cooperation as well as competition. We argue that the UN’s ‘Harmony with Nature’ program is an innovative and refreshing path for change. If we are to achieve harmony with nature, modern industrial society will need to abandon its anthropocentric ‘human supremacy’ mindset and adopt an ecocentric worldview and ecological ethics. We conclude it is thus both appropriate (and essential) for conservationists to champion harmony with nature.

Everyday Life in extremis

Everyday Life <i>in extremis</i>

TRANSFORMATIVE CREATURES: THEOLOGY, GENDER DIVERSITY, AND HUMAN IDENTITY

AbstractGender transition may be figured as part of a broader creaturely process of being partners in our own becoming. Gender transition is explored through the lenses of transformation (including comparisons with theosis and with religious conversion) and neurodiversity. Humans are transformative creatures; trans and gender‐variant people, like others, have the power to curate their own identities and are on a journey toward perfection. Our nature as humans, including our sexed and gendered nature, is not over‐and‐done‐with. In this sense, our active building and shaping of our identities and body‐stories is not a rejection of a divine blueprint for human existence, nor an exercise of illegitimate human hubris, but rather a licit creaturely form of generativity.

Human Hubris against Nature in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”

Jack London (1876-1916) often wrote about nature in the context of literary naturalism, yet it is worth reconsidering his portrayal of the natural environment from an ecocritical perspective. In this endeavor to recontextualize London’s works in relation to ecocriticism, “To Build a Fire” (1902, 1908) may serve as a prominent exemplary text that renders a variety of ecocritical interpretations possible. Set in the frigid boreal landscape of the subarctic region of the Canadian Yukon, the story helps the reader to delve into the notion of human hubris against nature. The protagonist’s arrogance over nature and its constituents leads to a tragic moment in his life. Interestingly, his materialistic and rationalistic attitude toward nature is presented in contrast with the natural instinct of the dog with which he travels and the wisdom of the old man on Sulphur Creek. Also, it is meaningful to examine the two versions of the short story, published six years apart. The two versions reveal a set of intriguing modifications that are worth exploring from an ecocritical angle. (Hanbat National University)

Ontopoetics and the Environmental Philosophy of John Moriarty

Abstract I explore the environmental philosophy of Irish philosopher-poet, John Moriarty, particularly focusing on his use of narrative to convey philosophical principles and ideals relating to a sustainable co-existence. It is through story that Moriarty redirects environmental philosophy from a domain of knowledge in an epistemic objectivist sense to one of imagination, inviting the reader to experientially cultivate categories of perception and identification that supplement and transcend dominant forms of scientific-reductionism. Moriarty’s philomythical approach attests to an inherent strangeness, invoking those aspects of reality that lie outside the causal paradigms of human understanding, and problematizing a posture of human hubris in relation to the land. To draw out these characteristics, I locate Moriarty’s work in the framework of ontopoetics, suggesting that Moriarty is an environment animateur of sorts, opening up the symbolic and poetic potential of the landscape, and fostering relations of meaningful engagement with the natural world.

A Sonogram of the Dark Side of the Dao: The Possibility of Antinatalism in Daoism

In the present work I study Daoist philosophy in conjunction with the radical new philosophy of antinatalism, spearheaded by South African philosopher David Benatar. Although I am not claiming equivalence between the two, a meaningful communication emerges between the classical Chinese sources used here and the modern doctrine of antinatalism. I argue that both visions partake in a radical critique of consciousness according to which this faculty of the human mind is far from what it is often held to be. In fact, it is perceived as a destructive and disruptive element of, and in, existence. Moreover, both offer a praxis of return that seeks to undo this disruption. In the case of Daoism, consciousness pushes humans ever farther away from the Dao. It is imperative to return from this exile, and to return to the Dao. This can, radically, only be achieved by the return from ‘ordinary’ conscious existence. This is the prerogative of sagehood. It will be shown that the trajectory of sagehood shares important parameters with the antinatalist quest to significantly (and perhaps conclusively) challenge human hubris in the cosmos at large, and to reinstate cosmic humility.

Confronting Ecological Monstrosity

Confronting Ecological Monstrosity

Human Hubris, Anthropogenic Climate Change, and an Environmental Ethic of Humility

This article is about how hubris, individually and collectively, has contributed to the climate emergency and how an environmental ethic of humility could play an ameliorating role in the crisis. It focuses on the relationship between virtue ethics and the natural environment, and it argues that a collective “human hubris” (“The Problem”) has contributed significantly to anthropogenic climate change and that a “humility-based approach” toward the environment that entails an appreciation of humanity’s proper place in the natural order (“A Solution”). In it, we combine theories from the social and environmental sciences to propose an environmental ethic of humility as an “antidote” to human hubris by which leaders and other stakeholders could steer institutions, organisations, and behaviour towards environmental virtuousness. We also suggest the environmental ethic of humility as a benchmark against which stakeholders could be held to account for the environmental impacts of their actions. The article discusses the implications of hubris and humility in the areas governance, consumer behaviour, reputation, learning and education, accountability, and critical reflexivity.

“This Wine Is Treacherous” (Hab 2:5a): Reading Condemnations against Violence in Habakkuk 2:5–20 from an Ecotheological Perspective

This study engages in an ecotheological reading of Habakkuk 2:5–20, a text riddled with text-critical, redaction-critical, and theological problems. I argue that the central theme permeating this text is the condemnation of human hubris and self-centredness, resulting in violent behaviour, whether it is perpetrated against nature, animals, or humanity in general (Hab 2:17). Utilising a hermeneutics of reminiscence as point of departure, the study argues that the book of Habakkuk is an ancient Near Eastern text bound to its own worldview(s) and societal issues. However, reading Hab 2:5–20 from the perspective of victims of violence against the background of exile and marginalisation opens avenues for ecotheological application. Such a reading recognises both the integrity of the ancient text and its relevance for modern readers struggling with urgent issues that did not exist in biblical times.

Altered evolution: are reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialists ready for the genetically engineered future?

Science, propelled forward by noble aspirations and, at times, human hubris, has the capacity to affect lives and alter the world in unanticipated ways. Even seemingly minor discoveries have repeatedly proven to have far reaching implications that experts within their respective fields could not have predicted. Nuclear technology is both a source of energy and a potential means of annihilation. The internet has both seamlessly connected the world but has also opened society to the misuse and manipulation of information. Both exemplify how new technologies have the potential for positive and negative outcomes that often go beyond what was initially intended. This is not a fault of science and innovation but rather an inherent occupational hazard as new discoveries exist within a gray zone between ignorance and comprehension. These gaps in our knowledge can only be filled over time as our knowledge expands. Innovations that were once seen as fringe, over time, become mainstream and that which was once revolutionary becomes a part of everyday life. Occasionally, a scientific advancement comes along that challenges societal norms and causes us to question what is feasible, acceptable, and ethical. Nowhere in the twenty-first century has this been more evident than within the fields of genetics and genetic engineering. As we gain a deeper understanding of the source code of life, from individual base pairs to epigenetic influences, the implications of new discoveries will go far beyond curing genetic diseases, and the possibilities will be endless. Reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) specialists utilize many tools including expanded carrier screening, preimplantation genetic testing, and embryo selection and have become some of the experts at the forefront of the ongoing genetic revolution. Now more than ever, there is a need for REIs to be trained in the fundamentals of genetics, exposed to novel gene sequencing and editing techniques, and involved in the coming ethical discussions in order to be prepared for the genetically engineered future.

What’s real is immaterial: What are we doing with new materialism?

New materialism is emerging as one of the most signifi cant developments in healthcare research in recent years, offering radical new ways to rethink our critical relationship with forms, matter, objects and things. As with any new paradigm, it can take some time for the limitations of the approach to become clear. In this article I examine some of these limitations, focusing particularly on new materialist defi nitions of objects and the ontology of affect. Drawing on the recent work of Graham Harman and Timothy Morton, I argue that new materialism fails the ‘fl at ontology test’, and reinforces the kinds of idealism that it purports to critique. Object Oriented Ontology, on the other hand, may allow us to shape a radical new ethics of objects, using that to transform our abusive relationship with the ecosystem, disturb raditional enlightenment binaries and hierarchies, and to put aside human hubris.

Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas by J. R. C. Cousland

Reviewed by: Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas by J. R. C. Cousland Reidar Aasgaard j. r. c. cousland, Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (LNTS 560; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017). Pp. xi + 148. £76.50. The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in early Christian apocryphal infancy Gospels. Cousland's monograph is a thorough study of one of these: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which deals with the childhood of Jesus. C. designates it Paidika, in accordance with several of the ancient manuscripts. In the useful introductory chapter, C. agrees with the majority of scholars who place the work within a Greek-speaking, second-century setting, and he pays special attention to some contested areas, particularly the story's genre. C. describes it as a "parevangelical" work related to, but also independent of, the canonical Gospels in virtue of its being a rounded-off story in itself. In chaps. 2–4, which form the bulk of the volume, C. focuses on the figure of Jesus, whom he describes as both a "holy terror" and a "benevolent son of God." In chap. 2, C. discusses the strange depiction of Jesus in the story. Here he helpfully systematizes the various attempts of scholars to come to terms with this, such as Jesus as a Jewish holy man; Paidika as a children's story or an anti-Christian document; and Jesus as a developing child. C. points in particular to many parallels to the special Jesus figure in the Greco-Roman religions, with their mythological stories and pandemonium. He argues that Paidika's Jesus mirrors popular understandings of the Greco-Roman gods, with the gods often avenging human hubris far beyond the gravity of the actual transgressions. At the same time, Paidika also reflects a humor similar to that found in Greco-Roman descriptions of the gods. In chap. 3, C. analyzes Paidika's portrayal of Jesus as a child, emphasizing that both Jesus and his social milieu are described in ways that are true to life. At the same time, what [End Page 314] is unique to Jesus throughout are his power to perform miracles and his divine insight. C. argues convincingly against interpreters who explain the mixture of the human and divine in Jesus as a reflection of an ancient "puer senex" notion, the idea of a wise man in a child's body. Instead, he interestingly contends that the author of Paidika aimed at depicting Jesus undergoing a psychological development as would be expected of a child, with a turning point around the middle of the story when Jesus, after acting previously on impulse, appears to mature into an altruistic and morally responsible person. According to C., Jesus's development is modeled on the idea in Luke 2:52 that Jesus "increased in wisdom and in years." Chapter 4 is devoted to an insightful study of Paidika's christology, of Jesus's divine nature. C. demonstrates that this idea builds on three strands: Luke's account of Jesus in the temple, his "father's house" (2:41-52); John's logos christology, particularly Jesus's preexistence; and Jesus as a miracle worker, acting not as a magician but as the Creator, both in his deeds and in his teaching. C. ably argues that Paidika has a (proto-)orthodox and consistently high christology; it is not—as has been held—of a gnostic, docetic, or Ebionitic kind. In the short chap. 5, C. discusses Paidika's audience, arguing that its intended addressees were pagans or Christians of a non-Jewish origin, primarily recent converts among the nonintellectual populace who belonged to what he terms the "Great Church." This chapter is somewhat uneven in content, and C. tends to take sides with the early Christian intellectual elite—and some modern scholars—in seeing in Paidika a crude form of christology, and in its audience converts of a less sophisticated kind. Cousland throughout is in close and balanced dialogue with recent scholarly literature, sometimes supporting and strengthening the views of others but also in central areas adding his own views to the discussions. At times, he appears to press the evidence too far...

“A Wilderness of Oil Pictures”: Reframing Nature inA Tramp Abroad

AbstractMark Twain begins his 1880 travelogue, A Tramp Abroad, with the ostensible goal of studying art. Early on, he describes inserting his own paintings into a gallery's “wilderness of oil pictures,” calling attention to the text's complicated relationship with nature and art. Quite often, Twain approaches art as a reflection of human hubris, his own included: his consideration of the overblown reputations of Old Masters who owe time more than skill for their veneration is a case in point. But it is notable that throughout A Tramp Abroad, Twain perseverates on the imagistic and physical imposition of the human over the landscape, questioning what goes into, and comes out of, anthropocentric visions of the environment. Rather than perpetuating the split between human and nature, so prominent in nineteenth-century picturesque and sublime art, he reorients himself and his reader so that we are off to the side, no longer chasing after dominance but coexisting, even minimized. In A Tramp Abroad, Twain disrupts the petrification of the natural world and the overwriting of the human onto the nonhuman from aesthetic, touristic, and nationalist vantage points by confronting the way the world is often translated into human terms. While Twain's characteristic humor ripples across the surface of A Tramp Abroad, the text uses his course of study to pose serious questions, ones connecting the author's aesthetic reflections with his perambulations. He asks what is wilderness? how do we define (or refine) it? and how do our renderings of it affect our relationship to it?

HUMANS, NONHUMAN OTHERS, MATTER AND LANGUAGE: A DISCUSSION FROM POSTHUMANIST AND DECOLONIAL PERSPECTIVES

ABSTRACT Our objective is to discuss decolonial and, mainly, posthumanist perspectives, as we engage in an inter-epistemic dialogue, which encompasses discussions on matter and language. At first, we address Indigenous thoughts in order to relate them to decolonial and posthumanist worldviews, briefly concentrating our attention on some arguments concerning their relation, and we justify our choices. We draw on critiques of colonial and humanist ideas about humans, nonhuman others and matter, and we then discuss traditional conceptions of language. From a posthumanist framework, we approach understandings of language that directly intertwine it with materiality. Based on the problematizations we present, our aim is to expand understandings of what it means to be human and perceptions of language, as we become involved in a project that seeks to see and go beyond human hubris. Therefore, we encourage an onto-epistemological review of language, based on its entanglement with matter.

Hyperobjects, Human Hubris and J. G. Ballard’s The Wind from Nowhere

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to re-evaluate J. G. Ballard’s first novel, The Wind from Nowhere, from the perspective of Timothy Morton’s theory of the hyperobject. According to Morton, hyperobjects are entities that, like climate change, challenge the human ability to conceptualise and represent them. Ballard’s novel depicts a world overwhelmed by a steadily strengthening wind that itself resembles the footprint of a hyperobject. However, Ballard’s strategy for representing the impact of the hyperobject risks turning the novel into a conventional example of disaster-oriented fiction. Confronted by a phenomenon of such apocalyptic severity, his characters have few options. Nonetheless, Ballard’s approach problematises Morton’s prediction of a future in which humankind cares for the hyperobject, whilst anticipating the emergence of a new form of ‘weird’ realism perhaps better able to render life in the time of hyperobjects.

Radical Observation

Radical Observation Joni Seager (bio) Before Rachel Carson exposed the dangers posed by chemical pesticides, she was a chronicler of the ocean. Raised far from any sea, Carson became one of its most famous environmental interlocutors. Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1907, Carson's mother inculcated in her a love of nature, and a mentor at the Pennsylvania College for Women—now Chatham College—steered her toward marine biology. The rest, as they say, is history. In the early years of the twentieth century, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole was one of the few scientific institutions that welcomed women and treated them as equal participants in science. There Carson pursued marine biology as a postgraduate before receiving her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. (Gertrude Stein, another Pennsylvanian-born woman bound for fame and notoriety, also studied at Woods Hole and then Johns Hopkins, some thirty years before Carson.) Carson was a skilled writer; she entered college as an English major before her mentor, Mary Scott Skinker, lured her into the study of biology. Offering an unusual combination of skill in both science and writing, Carson was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression, and she supplemented her income by writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. In 1936 she began a sixteen-year career as a scientist and editor for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), eventually rising to the position of editor in chief. For the FWS she wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources, synthesized field reports on fisheries, and edited scientific articles. She also continued her freelancing life: her first national-audience [End Page 269] commercial success was "Undersea," an article she wrote for the Atlantic Monthly in September 1937. Received to acclaim, this essay became the basis of Under the Sea-Wind (1941), a book that garnered good reviews but never sold particularly well. In 1951 she published her lyrical study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us.1 This book leapt to the New York Times best-seller list where it remained for almost ninety weeks; it won the National Book Award, was condensed in Reader's Digest, and made Carson a household name. The Sea Around Us also gave Carson the financial independence she needed to resign from government service in 1952 and devote herself full time to her writing. In 1955 she followed the success of The Sea Around Us with a study of the coastal Atlantic, The Edge of the Sea—retrospectively, the third of a trilogy "biography of the ocean." Carson's ocean trilogy established her reputation as a popularizing nature observer. Before Jacques Cousteau entranced audiences with tales of the mysteries of the deep, Carson was mapping the rhythms of the ocean for a wide and enthralled readership. Unlike her later book, Silent Spring (1962), which was a hard-hitting exposé of human hubris in which Carson raised an overt challenge to business as usual in boosterish America, The Sea Around Us (and, later, Edge) was primarily a descriptive, naturalist chronicle. Lyrical, beautiful, scientifically based, and "safe" writings of the wonders-of-nature genre, these books didn't advance a polemic or make explicitly political arguments. Carson herself carefully cultivated a public reputation as a reliable narrator of nature observation. Nonetheless, radical currents ran deep throughout her ocean trilogy. Women in/of Science Carson's positionality as a woman in the sciences was never far out of view—hers or others. The genteel art of careful nature observation has a long history as a socially acceptable avocation—and, at times, vocation—for women. Indeed, it was one of the few portals for women into science. Observing and writing about the "charms" of nature were considered suitable undertakings for women in early western scientific traditions (Shteir 1997; Jackson-Houlston 2006). Echoes of this association are evident in the reviews of The Sea Around Us. A 1951 review referred to Carson, admiringly, as "the slender, gentle Miss Carson" (cited in Dreier 2012, 229), while another review by the science editor of Time magazine reassured readers that Carson's book about sea life was...

A Weird Tonic for the Anthropocene: Poe’s Use of Gardenesque Landscapes as Nature Cure

ABSTRACT: Poe is not generally seen as a health advocate, much less a proponent of a “nature cure” for human ailments. Even critics who acknowledge Poe as an environmental thinker tend to see only his role as a “dark” critic of human hubris. Yet, a closer look at such landscape sketches as “The Domain of Arnheim” and “Landor’s Cottage” alongside his apocalyptic tales, “The Colloquy of Monos and Una” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” reveals an author both concerned with the pathogenic effects of human-driven environmental degradation and committed to curing it. Thoreau’s “tonic of wildness,” which calls for immersion in an illusory pure nature defined as distinct from the human, has dominated modern environmentalist thinking about the possibilities of a nature cure. Poe, by contrast, draws on a medical paradigm that proposed an osmotic continuum between human bodies, human-built environments, and nonhuman wilderness. Human health thus requires the shaping of a salubrious environment, and the proper tool in Poe’s view is the aesthetic sense, which acknowledges rather than elides the place of art in nature. What results are landscape sketches that shade from the clearly artful “gardenesque” into the “weird,” a heightened artificiality that not only resists the ravages of industrialism but also points toward a potential “supernal” existence. This paper thus proposes an alternative American environmental literary tradition that wends its way, not just through Emerson and Thoreau and their “wilderness cure,” but through Poe and his healing art of landscaping.

Climate Plumbing: The Use of Experts in Framing the Geoengineering Controversy in German News Media

Controlling and manipulating the weather is surely a human fantasy as old as the desire to fly. At the beginning of the Trojan War, King Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis, providing good wind and allowing him to cross the Aegean Sea. Witches were frequently accused of brewing potent potions producing heavy storms and Native Americans like the Zuni made it rain by dancing. More recently, China’s hightech war against rain clouds at the 2008 Olympics and US American research into climatic warfare raised eyebrows everywhere. Tinkering with such elementary forces might sound very much like human hubris – Icarus’ fate is well remembered. But humanity’s impact on the planet has never been so severe and now seems to reach a critical limit. Adapting to the modern environment we created is probably humanity’s greatest challenge. Global warming and the changing climate in general appear to be the most pressing issues today with many people already being under direct threat of droughts, floods and extreme storms