A Kind of Pantheism : Escape from Cosmic Pessimism and the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic / Gregory Novak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Novak, Gregory, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy of nature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (342 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : Academica Press, [2025]

Summary:

A Kind of Pantheism: Escape from Cosmic Pessimism and the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic explores how such nineteenth-century transcendentalists as Henry David Thoreau and John Muir advanced a biocentric ethic that recognized the intrinsic worth of both plants and animals. This ethic required a pantheistic cosmology to be coherent, however. As science progressed, with developments in evolutionary biology and ecology, the paths of environmental ethics and animal rights diverged. But at the turn of the twentieth century, the nature writer Joseph Wood Krutch, inspired by quantum theory, provided a crucial link that reconnected these fields--a contribution often overlooked even by his own biographers. This book traces the historical development of humanity's attitudes toward the non-human world, highlighting the influence of philosophical, religious, and scientific ideas. In addition to Krutch, it brings attention to such lesser-known figures as Henry Stephens Salt and John Howard Moore, emphasizing their roles in shaping biocentric thought. Ultimately, the book argues that animal rights and environmental ethics are two expressions of the same biocentric outlook. By focusing on Krutch's unique contribution, the book offers a way for secular thinkers to reclaim a pantheistic ethic. In the process, A Kind of Pantheism solves the problem of "cosmic pessimism"--which postulates the cold and meaningless universe implied by modern science, a concept that often undercuts the very ethic it suggests. Through the process of free inqiury, new answers emerge.

Contents:

Escape from Cosmic Pessimismand the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic

Gregory Novak

Escape from Cosmic Pessimismand the Quest for a Biocentric Ethic

Academica PressWashington~London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Novak, Gregory (author)

Title: A kind of pantheism : escape from cosmic pessimism and the quest for a biocentric ethic | Novak, Gregory.

Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2025. | Includes references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2024946067 | ISBN 9781680535594 (hardcover) | 9781680535600 (e-book)

Copyright 2025 Gregory Novak

Contents

Introduction: Cosmic Pessimism 1

Chapter 1: Fill the Earth and Subdue 7

Chapter 2: City Upon a Hill 19

Chapter 3: Heaven Is Under Our Feet 25

Chapter 4: The Wild Beast and Lord Man 33

Chapter 5: The Subversive Science 41

Chapter 6: Against Tyranny Towards Any Brute 59

Chapter 7: A Matter of Degree 71

Chapter 8: The Very Worst Evil 83

Chapter 9: Philosophically False and Morally Pernicious 91

Chapter 10: Seventy Years Among Savages 101

Chapter 11: Solidarity of the Sentient 107

Chapter 12: The Dead Level of the Machine 117

Chapter 13: Between a Sanctuary and a Slag-heap 125

Chapter 14: An Exhibition of Savagery 135

Chapter 15: There is No God but Gasoline 145

Chapter 16: The World's Most Penetrating Minds 151

Chapter 17: That Certain Quality 159

Chapter 18: What is a Weed? 169

Chapter 19: Holistic With A Vengeance 175

Chapter 20: Freedom for What? 189

Chapter 21: A Kind of Pantheism 193

Chapter 22: Minimal Man 201

Chapter 23: The Most Absolute of all Deaths 209

Chapter 24: One Vast Fellowship 225

Conclusion: Abler and More Sophisticated Men 243

Endnotes 253

Bibliography 307

Index 329

Introduction: Cosmic Pessimism.

On an early Saturday morning, June 17, 1916, 54-year-old John Howard Moore walked over to a little wooded island in Jackson Park on the Southside of Chicago, just as he had done many mornings before, to listen to the birds sing. Moore had a deep fondness for Jackson Park and even more so its many non-human inhabitants. His family members recalled that he got to know the birds there so well that he had even learned their language. It was an obvious exaggeration, but for those who knew him well, i

But Moore did not visit Jackson Park that morning to chat with the birds or even to get some fresh air. He had a somber motive this time. Moore was in the desperate grips of a mental despondency, a severe depression that relentlessly tormented him. He had a deeply sensitive nature and was intensely affected by the many sufferings of the sentient world. Add to that a dark nihilism that made him view all life as meaningless, even as he communed with his feathered friends at Jackson Park. Whatever

Yet, by all accounts, Moore had a good life. He grew up on the prairies of Missouri, had a strong education, many brothers and sisters, a wife, and a decent life on Chicago's Southside, where he taught the biological sciences, as well as ethics, at the Crane Manual Training School. He was also a prolific author, enjoying an international audience. But all that was of little solace. Demons of a peculiar nature plagued Moore, the kind that relentlessly pursued those born out of their time, leaving.

Moore held a deep affection, not only for his fellow humans, but for his non-human kin as well. But he held such sentiments in a world insensitive to such emotions. As a young boy, raised in the Christian faith, he had been taught that the world existed for humans to do with as they pleased. Nature existed as an endless resource to be used and exploited. Such thoughts were prevalent in Moore's time, and they had real world consequences. The vast wilderness that once covered the American continen

But Moore also grew up in a time when new scientific theories challenged centuries of dogma and a few rare individuals could not help but contemplate their implications. Religion had taught Moore to exploit the natural world, but science, as he understood it, taught him something entirely different. To be sure, most scientists accepted the human-centered values of the time. But in Moore, science planted biocentric, or life-centered, seeds. The theory of evolution came of age in Moore's time, and

As Moore embraced the teachings of evolution, he found himself bound to a deep kinship with the natural world. However, this newfound understanding also left him deprived of intrinsic meaning or purpose, leaving him ill-equipped to cope with the pervasive cruelty and suffering he witnessed. The special creator he believed in as a youth was replaced by a god of chance, one who governed the universe without mercy or compassion, without meaning or purpose. It was a powerful deity known as Natural L.

To some extent, how such a world affects its saints is less important than how everyday people managed to survive in such a world. The twentieth century had been the most destructive era in the history of humankind. Setting aside relentless world wars responsible for the deaths of over a hundred million people, the war against nature alone distinguishes the twentieth century as something profoundly disturbing in world history. What is to blame for such an unrelenting assault? Can it be as simple

Science tells people they are animals, bound by primitive instincts driving them to kill, while also warning that if they do not behave, they may very well kill themselves and possibly all life on Earth. Unfortunately, at the same time, it cannot teach that such destruction whether directed inwardly or outwardly is a bad thing. Perhaps it is no coincidence that so much destruction has come at the same time that science implies there is no point to life, any life. Who cares if a few forest ecosys

Georgetown University Theologian John F. Haught, referred to the gloomy outlook implied by modern science as "cosmic pessimism." It leads to nothing but despair, assigning little value to either the human or non-human world. "By cosmic pessimism I mean the predominantly, but by no means wholly, modern view, now allegedly supported by science, that we live in a pointless universe, or in one that lacks any ultimate purpose." In short, it matters "that this earth is embedded in a meaningful rather.

This book examines the history of ideas about nature, including human nature, and several thinkers who wrestled with the implications of those ideas. It is about figures like John Howard Moore, whose saintly devotion to life brought him to the edge of cosmic despair. It is about Aldo Leopold, whose science repudiated the very life for which Moore so passionately advocated. And, most emphatically, it is about Joseph Wood Krutch, who also had an advanced case of cosmic pessimism, but inspired by a

And, of course, this history has a discourse, one with its own words and definitions. The most prominent word in this discourse is "anthropocentrism." If environmental historians and philosophers can agree on one thing, it is this concept. Anthropocentrism etymologically derives from the ancient Greeks. It literally means human-centered and refers to the notion that the natural world exists for human use, or that only humans have value. As philosopher Joseph R. DesJardins put it, "Thus, although

Biocentrism, however, also has implications for individuals. Since it literally means life-centered, any ethical philosophy that argues for the intrinsic worth of individual animals should be thought of as partly biocentric. Ethical vegetarians can be seen in this light, as should those who support many of the issues raised by animal rights advocates, such as opposition to vivisection or sports hunting. To avoid confusion, "biocentric holism" and "biocentric individualism" will be used whenever.

The vocabulary can get more difficult as environmental philosophers debate with animal rights advocates over who is more biocentric. Since biocentric holists tend to reject the rights of individuals, for example, they tend to see animal rights as not really biocentric. And biocentric individualists, for their part, see the holists as anthropocentric since they place no value on individual non-human life. It is difficult to find an intellectual glue to synthesize such disparate positions. And ind.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Novak, Gregory A Kind of Pantheism

ISBN:

9781680535600