Relation to the world· Nature and the living

Stewardship

Axis: Humanity's place in nature — What place should human beings hold in nature: master, guardian, or simply one member among others?

Humanity's technological power confers an unprecedented responsibility: to preserve nature and the conditions of an authentically human life. Humans are neither owners of the world nor mere elements of it, but its guardians.

Foundations and implications

↑ What grounds it

A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.

↑ What grounds it

Explaining nature

If nature and the living have their own ends and a worth that our power can destroy, then that very power obliges us to preserve them. Finalism grounds stewardship: Jonas draws from nature's vulnerability an unprecedented responsibility, that of keeping the world for those to come.

↓ What it implies

A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.

Problems

PrescriptiveMoral Thought experiment
The last man
If the last human being could, as he died, wipe out all remaining life with no witness, would he do wrong? Does nature have worth only for us, or does it have worth in itself, independent of any human gaze?
the living world
PrescriptiveVital
The domination of nature
To command nature by understanding it has pushed back hunger and disease; but does the will to dominate it not turn into the domination of humankind, reducing the world to a mere stock on call? Does mastery emancipate, or does it impoverish both nature and ourselves?
nature as a resource
PrescriptiveAesthetic
Sanctuary or garden
Should nature be left wild and untouched, preserving the part we did not make, or is the ideal a tended, gardened nature that human care completes rather than violates? And is there any "untouched" nature left to save at all?
wild nature