Delicate Balance of Existence
Charlie Murphy Environmental Ethics Professor Stone-Mediatore April 22, 2004 The Delicate Balance of Existence Environmental Ethics Paper #1 (re-write) Human society has always struggled with the philosophical question of how to interrelate, both in human society, nature and other spheres of existence. ... Henry David Thoreau, in his work Walden and Civil Disobedience, discusses the individual’s struggle to achieve harmony with the many characteristics, which create human existence. ... This paper will first examine Thoreau’s views regarding the importance of establishing intermediaries to achieve a harmonious existence, will examine Leopold’s views explaining how each individual’s personal experience shapes their own scope of compromise, and then will evaluate their views in terms of the relationship between human kind and natue. First, Thoreau discusses the multitude of conflicting forces, which comprise human life, and then establishes the necessity of discovering intermediaries between these forces in order to obtain a harmonious existence. ... He explains that because both forces can be found within oneself, an individual must strive always to maintain balance between the two extremes to achieve peace. ... It is only with the presence of evil that we are able to see good because the balance between the two forces is where we obtain perspective. ... Leopold also contends that individuals need to adapt the characteristics of a mountain, which pertain to developing a broad perspective, recognizing the balance of life’s forces and realizing that no one can independently exist, which makes interrelation and interdependence key.