The Judeo-Christian Tradition

(Aristotle cont.)

Great Chain of Being

Aristotle saw all life as organized as a ladder leading from lowest to highest, simple to complex, with worms at the bottom Man at the top of the ladder.

The chain is perfect: no link is missing and no link contains more than one species.

Three kinds of soulsSoul = form, essence, life force

• Vegetative soul: capable of nutrition and growth

• Sensitive soul: capable of sense perception and movement

• Rational soul: capable of intelligent thought

Plants have only vegetative soul.Animals have vegetative and sensitive souls.Only humans have all three.

Dualism in AristotleForm vs. matter

The first cause vs. other causes

Humans vs. other animals

Humans are animals, but they are special.Humans are at the top of the Great Chain of Being.Only humans have a rational soul.

Questions for discussionAre people rational animals? Are they the only rational animals?

Is there a better way to define a human being?

Does nature have a plan?

Does everything have a function?

What is the function of a grasshopper?

Is an organism’s natural functioning necessarily good?

What about the natural function of the smallpox virus?

GenesisGod creates the universe in six days.

Creation of man in Chapter 1:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Creation of man in Chapter 2:

God creates Adam out of dust. He plants a garden in Eden and puts Adam there “to dress it and to keep it”.

Tells Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

God tells Adam to name all the beast and birds.

God then makes Eve out of Adam’s rib, to help him.

“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”

The Fall of ManA serpent tempts Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, saying:

“Ye shall not surely die:For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Eve tastes the fruit, she likes it and she gave some to Adam.

“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and make themselves aprons.”

God finds out and he is angry.

He curses the snake, and says to Eve:

I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

And to Adam:

“cursed in the ground for they sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field;In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, til thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.”

And God “made coats of skins and clothed them.”

God says, “”Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil”

And God evicts them from Eden “to till the ground from whence he was taken.”

Man in Nature in Genesis

Man is made in God’s image.

He is given dominion over all other creatures (at least before the Fall).

Adam names all the creatures.

But Adam and Eve lose their harmonious relationship with nature: now they must suffer to till the land and make bread, and to give birth, and now there is enmity between people and snakes.

Reading for next week

Required:

J. Baird Callicott, Earth's insights: a survey of ecological ethics from the Mediterranean basin to the Australian outback, p. 57-87, available on reserve at the Philosophy department library

Suggested:

J. Baird Callicott, Earth's insights: a survey of ecological ethics from the Mediterranean basin to the Australian outback, p. 14-24 (about the Judeo-Christian tradition), available on reserve at the Philosophy department library