One of the biggest questions in environmental philosophy pertains to humans’ place in nature.
Soazig Le Bihan, a philosophy professor at the University of Montana, has a very straightforward answer to that question, though. To her, that divide doesn’t exist.
“Look, this whole division between humans and nature is very Western. It was born in Western philosophy. And I think that this notion that humans are separate from nature, are exceptional, are fundamentally different, is philosophically and scientifically absurd,” Le Bihan said.
Another form of dissonance is navigating how to identify and live within that humans-versus-nature divide. Many Western, Christian religions regard humans as more than nature—more intelligent, more worthy of the world's resources, more likely to survive. Per Genesis, we're supposed to go forth and conquer, but where does that separation leave us when we're seeing places we love change?
In this episode, host Sarah Aronson speaks with two environmental philosophers, including Le Bihan, about whether that human-versus-nature divide exists and whether we should be ashamed of the impact we've had on the world's creatures.
Le Bihan—who has always been an animal lover particularly fond of horses—said environmental philosophy enforces the divide, and makes us feel disconnected from our impact on other species.
“And that means there is nature on one side, and us on the other side. And we don't understand how those things are intermingled,” Le Bihan said. “We don't understand how we should care for one another, how the relationships and the dependencies we have with one another result in responsibilities. Because that's the truth. I depend on air and water. That means I have responsibilities to air and the water. And so this idea of interconnection has been erased from that whole history.”
Listen to episode five here or wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode:
Christopher J. Preston (above left) is the award-winning author of Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries that Change How We Think About Animals and several other books on technology, environment and ethics. He co-directs the graduate program in environmental philosophy at the University of Montana. A native of England, he has appeared as an ethics expert on de-extinction, AI and wildlife, climate change and biotechnology for PBS, CNN, The Washington Post and other outlets.
Soazig Le Bihan serves as associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, pre-law program director and philosophy professor at the University of Montana. Her research, focused on the philosophy of science, spans topics including the philosophy of physics, ecological modeling, scientific understanding and science and values. One of her current projects examines how values are embedded in specific ecological modeling practices and what that implies for conservation.
