The Self & Nature

Over the past week I decided I wanted to try reflecting in an environment that had a few less distractions than on campus. Red Rocks Open Space seemed like a great location where I could sit alone and reflect about my environmental values. I realized that going to another environment such as Red Rocks would not necessarily be completely going into nature. For there really isn't any place that humans go that is not a human environment. This place that is now a natural recreation park has its complex history with human interaction. The parkland was once used as a quarry, a trash dump, and other industrial uses. Remnants of the past land use are most evident in the quarry where massive steps have been chiseled away from the dark reddish sandstone of the Fountain Formation. I climbed up the quarry to get to the top of the rock like I have done in the past. The view from the top is phenomenal and you have a unique view of the park. I can look from above at the birds flying from tree to tree, the deer grazing, runners trotting by, and bikers whizzing down trails. The main goal of my project was to cultivate a greater awareness of my surroundings and of my self. I was hoping to gain a greater appreciation and respect for my environment. In doing this I would possibly work towards cultivating other environmental virtues that could help me develop practical wisdom in regards to the natural environment. However thoughts of what is natural and what is human began to confuse me. I read Conon’s “The Trouble With Wilderness” and was aware of the cultural, historical, and linguistic baggage that is involved with our conception of the natural world especially when predominantly framed by the label of “wilderness.” I had planned to contemplate some of these ideas and also attempting to cultivate a greater awareness of my surroundings while I was at Red Rocks.

I was sitting on a rock and I began to question what the rock beneath me really is. I know that it is part of the millions of years old Fountain Formation found throughout the Front Range. This reminded me of my geology fieldtrip to a similar outcropping in the park. The red mass I was sitting on was once under about a few feet of water in a shallow marine environment millions of years ago. The very ripples of the sand are still perceptibly petrified in the walls of the rock. I walked over to a wall where I could study these prehistoric sand patterns. The distinctive form of the rocks thin sheet like protrusions from the earth are due to the fact that these layers had been pushed vertical through the mountain building process of the Rockies. This is a fascinating perspective to envision. The vertical stone wall before me was once the very flat surface of a marine sand bed. This made me think of the unprecedented change that the thing before me had undergone. It was still undergoing change. Erosion through weathering and even that steps I take as I walk across it change the rock. The stone was turning back into sand. The beauty of this geological process captivated me. A scraggly shrub and some grasses were growing in the sandy gravel at my feet. Life was growing out of this sand. These hearty plants were getting nutrition from this sandy soil. There were also decaying plants next to the living ones that were slowly disintegrating and becoming the soil.

The processes of change that could bee seen by just looking at this small area of rock were so beautiful. All the different things I had been looking at really were all the same thing. It is all the same physical material just going through processes of change. All this matter is simply just engaged in a patterned dance of energy. The sublime manifestations of matter and energy are all of the same thing. The reality that we perceive is truly one single entity. That includes humans. We are part of the dance. Our reality is our own, but it can be though of as a part of a greater reality. We are just a biological manifestation. The implications of such a view mean that humans are not as special as many of us think. However evolutionarily we can see ourselves as a biological marvel in that our brains are capable of intellectual thought, reason, and consciousness. These capabilities are just a part of who we are as beings. The implications for the self are that we are not simply our egos. We are material beings part of the physical world as everything else it. Whether any ethical conclusions follow I am still unsure. A perspective such as this allows us to experience the world with greater enjoyment and respect. Maybe we should respect, consider, and empathize with all of life as Naess has suggested in his development of Deep Ecology. The ecological self is a powerful perspective. It is surely a perspective that fosters a greater awareness of the relations that I have to other things and that which I experience. I however have to do more of an investigation into the implications of such a worldview.

Awareness and Hiking

Aldo Leopold advocates for the cultivation of awareness as a key virtue in developing an environmental ethic. Similarly the practice of mindfulness involves a sharpened awareness of the present and considers one’s actions. Greater mindfulness in an outdoor setting can be very valuable. Leopold advocated for outdoor recreation as a way of personally enjoying the natural world while not making a negative impact upon the environment. I really enjoy climbing mountains especially lofty 14ners. Most recently I had lead a 4 day FOOT trip over block through the ORC for freshman up and over Pikes Peak. The trip participants (affectionly called trippies) were all freshman of varying abilities and experience when it came to backpacking and hiking at high elevation. The mileage was much smaller than I was accustomed to hiking and our pace was slow. However this actually only enhanced my experience out in the backcountry. I was able to look around and be more aware of my surroundings. I could more keenly watch birds, study the trees, plants, and look in awe at the beauty of the entire landscape surrounding the mountain. This heightened awareness was increased by the idea that I did not need to push for a summit that meant covering many miles in just a few hours (I had previously taken more pride in my ability to do so). I was experiencing my surroundings in the present and was able to hike Pikes Peak with a greater mindfulness. As a leader I enjoyed getting to know my trippies in a unique setting and the rewarding task of teaching them about backpacking skills and living in the outdoors. Imparting my modest knowledge about the natural world and how to travel through it was an incredibly fulfilling experience. I agree with Leopold that knowledge is important quality for forming an environmental ethic. Outdoor education and recreation allows for people to personally experience the natural environment and improve their understanding of their relationship to it. Being in nature and learning about how to treat it in a sustainable way when traveling through the backcountry has personally been instrumental to my understanding and the value of the natural environment. Over the year I did not enjoy "conquering" a physical landscape by hiking up it just to be on top of it. I enjoyed the view from the top and the experience in nature while hiking rather than the accomplishment of a summit. 

 I thought about the hiking that I most enjoyed and came to the conclusion that I value my time in nature when I have a lot of time to contemplate and observe my surroundings. The places I backpack and hike are some of the most beautiful places in the world. Leopold's a land ethic hopes to change the role of Homo Sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to a member and citizen of it. It truly doesn’t make sense that humans should have such a hostile view of nature. I wondered if this idea still applied to something such as outdoor recreation. I realized that my distaste for high mileage and high paced through-hiking was tied to this idea of conquest. People become consumed with mileage and destinations and conquering the trail in as little time as possible rather than fully experiencing their environment. A person’s awareness of nature can be limited by their goal of reaching a destination or be blinded by shaving down time while doing an activity. It is the same with hiking just for a summit. A fixation on summiting diminishes the hiking experience. I believe that the natural world should be enjoyed and contemplated by experiencing it with a greater awareness. This awareness then can foster a greater value for the environment and affect the way I conceive of it and act towards it. When you take the time to hike with greater mindfulness you see complexity of the mountain with its animals and plants, the many ecosystems that exist in an alpine environment, the rock that is eroding away, and the soil that is being formed though decay. Through greater awareness I feel as if I have a greater connection to the natural world and I form valuable relationships with the things I experience. These relationships become a part of myself, my memories, knowledge, and values. Awareness of the natural world is a virtue I praise very highly and a quality that is essential to creating a virtuous environmental ethic.

Environmental Virtue

Over the next few couple of weeks I will be preforming an experiment in living more deliberately. Through my behavior I wish to act in ways that are in accordance with my environmental values. I am interested in cultivating my environmental ethical virtues that are based off of the ethical theories of Aristotle and modern authors such as Aldo Leopold.

Aristotle developed an ethical theory that focused on living a happy and flourishing human life. He proposes that living a good life is achieved by living a life of moral virtue (Hourdequin 2015). The way to develop our moral virtues is through our behavioral actions. A person can foster moral character through a process of self-cultivation by habit. The goal of cultivating moral virtue is to have “practical wisdom” in which an individual knows how to act in a particular situation or environment to promote living of a good life. This theory of ethics promotes the importance of relationships. A virtuous relationship is defined in so much as a person acts in accordance with achieving the ideal moral virtue in their behavior for that situation or “environment”.

An “environment” can simply be a label for the parameters of a situation in which something exists. Defining “environment” seems rather subjective in so far as that it can be applied to many different contexts. We live in a world where often-social environments and natural environments are distinguished as different. There seems to exist a prominent worldview that a dichotomy exists between humans and nature. It also could be reasoned that the humans are part of nature and everything that exists is part of the natural environment. The question can be raised on how one should act in the natural environmental to live a good and flourishing life?

Aristotle’s virtue ethics do not explicitly expand into this area of moral human relationships and actions in the natural environment, however the principles of his ethical theory can apply to socio-environmental relationships. The modern theory of environmental virtue ethics draws strongly from Aristotle’s ethics as well as Non-Western ethical theories. Philip Cafaro identifies modern authors and environmentalists as having developed theories of environmental virtue ethics. Henry David Thoreau is seen to value simplicity, while Aldo Leopold places importance upon one’s attentiveness to nature, whereas Rachel Carson seems to see significance in the virtue of humility (Cafaro 2001).

Over the course of the next two weeks I wish to cultivate my moral virtues through my behavior in my natural environment. I plan to peruse an environmentally virtuous behavior in hopes of enriching my life by strengthening my understanding of the natural world and my socio-environmental relationship with it. Living a morally virtuous life in regards to the environment will further my living a good and flourishing life. Leopold developed an ethic of “enlightened self-interest” with a goal of furthering knowledge and perception. I will specifically focus on nurturing Leopold’s prominent virtue of “attentiveness to nature” (Cafaro 2001). Fostering a greater awareness to my natural environment could further my understanding of the world and myself and ultimately leading to a fully developed moral socio-environmental relationship. This virtue applies to varying situations and activities that involve my engagement with the natural world (Cafaro 2001). In a world filled with beauty and complexity, I agree that the “aesthetic appreciation of plants, animals, and places” is important in developing moral behavior in the natural environment (Cafaro 2001). To cultivate this environmental virtue I plan on taking at least half an hour a day to observe and contemplate various natural environments I experience in my life. I will go to a location and journal about my experience as well as what I notice and reflect upon.

Works Cited

Cafaro, Philip (2001). Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an environmental virtue ethics. Environmental Ethics 23 (1):3-17.

Marion, Hourdequin (2015). Environmental Ethics: from theory to practice