existential questions cannot be answered once and for all. A philosophical
question is by definition something that each generation, each individual even,
must ask over and over again.”
“A bleak thought.”
“I’m not sure I agree. Surely it is by asking such questions that we know
we are alive. And moreover, it has always been the case that while people
were seeking answers to the ultimate questions, they have discovered clear
and final solutions to many other problems. Science, research, and
technology are all by-products of our philosophical reflection. Was it not our
wonder about life that finally brought men to the moon?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, he said ‘One small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.’ With these words he summed up how it felt
to be the first man to set foot on the moon, drawing with him all the people
who had lived before him. It was not his merit alone, obviously.
“In our own time we also have completely new problems to face. The
most serious are those of the environment. A central philosophical direction in
the twentieth century is therefore ecophilosophy or ecosophy, as one of its
founders the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess has called if. Many
ecophilosophers in the western world have warned that western civilization as
a whole is on a fundamentally wrong track, racing toward a head-on collision
with the limits of what our planet can tolerate. They have tried to take
soundings that go deeper than the concrete effects of pollution and
environmental destruction. There is something basically wrong with western
thought, they claim.”
“I think they are right.”
“For example, ecophilosophy has questioned the very idea of evolution
in its assumption that man is ‘at the top’—as if we are masters of nature. This
way of thinking could prove to be fatal for the whole living planet.”
“It makes me mad when I think about it.”
“In criticizing this assumption, many ecophilosophers have looked to the
thinking and ideas in other cultures such as those of India. They have also
studied the thoughts and customs of so-called primitive peoples—or ‘native-
peoples’ such as the Native Americans—in order to rediscover what we have
lost.
“In scientific circles in recent years it has been said that our whole mode
of scientific thought is facing a ‘paradigm shift.’ That is to say, a fundamental
shift in the way scientists think. This has already borne fruit in several fields.
We have witnessed numerous examples of so-called ‘alternative movements’
advocating holism and a new lifestyle.”
“Great.”
“However, when there are many people involved, one must always
distinguish between good and bad. Some proclaim that we are entering a new
age. But everything new is not necessarily good, and not all the old should be
thrown out. That is one of the reasons why I have given you this course in
philosophy. Now you have the historical background, you can orient yourself
in life.”
“Thank you.”
“I think you will find that much of what marches under the New Age
banner is humbug. Even the so-called New Religion, New Occultism, and