Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
View full book text
________________
thinking reveals that what is more important and more fundamental is the human attitude or outlook towards Nature. Is Nature a matter of material utility only? If the answer is yes, then we cannot stop the mindless exploitation of Nature. Of course, even from this standpoint man will have to take a more serious and a deeper view of his relation to Nature. One tiling is doubtlessly certain that man exists in the natural world and humans have to live together with nature. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to this issue reveal the intimate relationship between mankind and environment. How then we can condemn Nature as the enemy of man?
However, the most horrible truth is-man himself is being thingified or commodified in technological society. This is the result of secularisation of both man and Nature. According to one view, secularization of man is de spiritualisation of man. It is a process of making man this worldly. Secondly, it means to separate man from his religious connection or influence. This leads to reductionism or nothing-buttery approach. Thus, secularization of man means making and treating man no more than a this-worldly animal. This leads to the monodimensional concept of man. Such a man treats nature as nothing but the material for the life of pleasures. This attitude degenerates into an exploitative attitude towards others and more so towards Nature.
It is true that the policy of environmental control once was, and even today in many cases is, adopted (and rightly so) as the means of self-preservation. But the times have changed considerably. Man must take stock of what he has done to the external nature and thereby to humanity at large. We are not Leibnizean monads, each living in its enclosed existence apart from all others and Nature. The basic fact about the things and events in the universe is that they are interrelated. "To be is to be related is the law of existence. Moreover, all things and facts seem to be relevant to one another. In this connection, Rene Debos, a microbiologist, in his book titled 'A God Within' writes: "The fundamental law of ecology, it is often said, is that everything is relevant to everything else.” Shelly poetically expresses this truth: Nothing in the world is single; by the law Divine, all things mingle. Thus we have to accept the fact not only of interconnectedness but also of interdependence.
The greatness of man is that only he can understand this universal interrelatedness as well as the relevance of each to all and vice a versa. So the attitude of mindlessly manipulating and exploiting nature is dangerous and even suicidal. Nowadays this truth can be very convincingly demonstrated by the findings of biologists, ecologists and other scientists.
So the real question then is: What should be our attitude towards
539
