The crisis of perception and the global crisis by Vincent Ostberg

Crisis of perception 1

The crisis of perception and the global crisis

Vincent Ostberg, student no. 049096670

PHL 500 Philosophy of the Natural EnvironmentRyerson University

Instructor: Robert MurrayDate: August 5, 2012


Part 1: The crisis of perception and the global crisis

According to Atleo (2008), Haw’ilume, Wealthy Mother Earth, is under considerable

strain. The immediate and noticeable problem is global warming which has resulted in

storms, earthquakes, energy crisis, rampant diseases, nuclear war, and terrorism. Atleo

suggests that in 1860, the white Europeans came to the shores of what is now known as

British Columbia and brought good tidings about civilization and a better life. Around this

time, his great-great-grandfather Haw’il Shewish told Englishman Gilbert Sprout that the

Tseshaht people wished “to live as we are” after being promised that the white man would

give his people work.

Those who favour Sprout’s position admire contemporary civilization for its

amazing accomplishments in medicine, communications, transportation and technology.

On the side of the Haw’il Shewish are the increasing numbers of scholars that are aware of

the global crisis. Has scientific reductionism contributed to the crisis of perception?

Atleo’s position is that scientific reductionism and anthropocentrism have caused a crisis of

perception which has resulted in our earth’s destruction. Can we find a solution to the

global crisis in the proposed philosophy Hahaalism? This research will show that it is

possible to reverse the effects of the global crisis with hahaalism. (Atleo, 2011)


Part 2: The crisis of perception resulted from scientific reductionism

One of the originating problems to the crisis of perception lies with the different

perspectives of creation. The traditional Nuu-chah-nulth had their own creation story

which gave them a different lifestyle from the colonialists that imposed a different creation

story (Atleo, 2011) and which also resulted in a departure from the early Greek

philosophers who believed that the universe, the stars, the sun, the moon, the earth were

all interconnected and were created by the gods. (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997)

Atleo (2011) states that the Nuu-chah-nulth never pretended to know and

understand creation. Among the Nuu-chah-nulth even the most gifted and powerful among

them considered themselves insignificant to understand how creation came to be. Rather,

they accepted their own stories based on their own views, their own versions, and each

having their own perspectives; but made the following claim that their stories were true.

Atleo states that Haw’ilume (Mother Earth) and her inhabitants have not enjoyed the better

life that was promised by the colonial rulers.

The crisis of perception came as a result of Darwin’s work ‘On the origin of Species by

Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’. Darwin’s

ideas remain influential in modern times. History has clarified that the ‘favoured races’

were those of European descent and that there was a power imbalance that favoured them

from non-Europeans. (Atleo, 2011)


Darwin wrote that “as new species in the course of time are formed through natural

selection, others will become rarer, and finally extinct. [These] forms which stand in close

competition with those going through a transformation and improvement will suffer the

most…. [because the] new species during its formation will press hardest on their kind and

tend to exterminate them”. (Goldin & Kilroe, p. 178, 1997)

Darwin concluded that man descended from a lowly form of life of which he implied

that mankind were barbarians. The evolution of man came from being a monkey to

gradually becoming a savage man who soon transformed into a painted wild barbarian.

The evolution of man saw him transform from a wild animal to barbarism of which he

subjugated women as slaves, killed and tortured his fellow man, and had no decency. Man

evolved with time and eventually possessed god-like intellect which has penetrated into

the movements and constitution of the solar system but still has the lowly form of life

within. (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997)

Korten (1999) presented a different view of reality from that proposed by Charles

Darwin. He stated that when he was looking for a model for a new economics the

conventional understanding of living systems is the Darwinian theory of ruthless

competition. Modern female biologists have discovered that living systems are

fundamentally cooperative. The biologists did agree with Darwin that there are

competitive dimensions. However, life can exist only in cooperation by different life forms.

Energy is constantly flowing back and forth among organisms as though they were

separate parts of a single organism. (Korten, 2007)


In contrast, Atleo states that self-organization appears to be a universal principal to

all levels and dimensions of reality. Each cell in the human body works in the principal of

self-organization without coercion from any organ while the health of the whole is the

apparent goal. For humans, it is a considerable task to integrate the competitive dimensions

of reality with the cooperative dimensions which is a process necessary for sustained life.

(Atleo, 2011)

Why has humanity allowed the competitive dimension to dominate in the history of

mankind which created a world order of the survival of the fittest? Huntington (1996)

wrote that world views and casual theories are indispensable guides. To further elaborate,

he states that for most of the human existence the world order has been characterized by

little contact between peoples and cultures separated by a geography made vast by the

primitive level of technology. The voyages that started in 1500 with Christopher Columbus

and Amerigo Vespucci resulted in a global colonization which is referred to the story of the

West, and which is represented chiefly by the United States of America. It is this culture

that dominates all values, patterns, and assumptions.

According to Berry (1990), the Darwinian principle of natural selection has no

psychic or conscious purpose but is instead an earthly survival that reveals its form and

function to the world. This is because there is no inherent meaning to the universe which

Darwin describes as a random sequences of physical and biological interactions the society

that is supported by this vision has no spirituality or moral values. Berry thinks that the

earth’s current problems are influenced by a story which continues to predominate.


Darwinism reflects the principals of natural selection and survival of the fittest of

which the powerful prevail and the weaker are destroyed or dominated. The outcome is

there is an inequitable distribution of wealth and political goods as a result. This applies

politically, socially, and economically and results in disharmony and conflict. This is the

crisis of perception. (Berry, 1990)

The nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzche understood this crisis of

perception in his writings in which he asks “Where has God gone? How were we able to

drink up the sea? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun?” Nietzche

created controversy in declaring that spirituality was surpassed by science and another

faith, namely the faith and belief in omnipotent technology. (Allison, 2000)

Concerning technology and its power, from the beginning of time of the Son of

Raven the Nuu-chah-nulth developed a way of life that served their basic needs. In their

ancient customs there was no contemporary technology like computers, advanced

transportation, and communication – all which were made possible by scientific

reductionism. (Atleo, 2012) Reality is reduced to one or two variables of which science

determines how they are related. To pick the value of power as criteria for humanity’s

existence is to put technology first and this conflicts with humility, spirituality, and the

environment. (Murray, 2012) It is common knowledge that all humans know that

pollution has created the greenhouse effect which is global warming and that this has

triggered off various catastrophes from earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and wildfires.


Atleo (2011) proposes a solution in ‘hahuulism’ which is a neologism for defining the

ways of the Nuu-chah-nuuth and of humanity in general. Hahuulism is a philosophy of life

just as socialism, communism, capitalism, and environmentalism are a way of life. It seeks

to introduce the principles that come from the ancient beliefs of the Nuh-chah-nulth to

strengthen life through emphasizing relationships between all life forms (including plants

and animals). “Hahuulism is a way of life based on the ancient view of an integrated reality,

which consists of the physical and the non-physical… [the] general description of hahuulism

is ‘qua’ which is a Nuu-chah-nulth word that includes every aspect of reality – empirical

and non-empirical, physical and non-physical, normal and paranormal – which in terms of

human development, is reflected in the physical body and its non-physical soul/spirit”

(Atleo, p. 141, 2011)

In Physics, Aristotle commented “Some beings are by nature, while others have other

causes.” (Goldin & Kilroe, p. 19, 1997) Aristotle observed that these beings are animals

(and their parts), plants, earth, fire, air, and water. All are different from those not

composed by nature. Each has a principal of change and rest within itself. Aristotle cited

an example of rain where he shows that it does not rain so that the grass will grow but it

rains so that which is drawn up must cool off and having turned into water must go down

causing grain to grow. There is evidence of interrelatedness (holism) and scientific

reductionism in water and the above listed example. (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997)


In his writing On the soul, Aristotle stated that plants have souls. The definition of a

soul is that “[it] is the first actuality of a natural body that has life potentially. This sort of

body is the sort that has organs. The parts of plants, too, are organs, albeit extremely

simple ones. For example, the leaf is a covering of a pod, and the pod is a covering of fruit.

The roots are analogous to a mouth, for both take in food. Then if we must say what is

common to all soul, it would be “the first actuality of a natural body having organs””.

(Goldin & Kilroe, p. 24, 1997)

In Politics 1.8 (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997), Aristotle wrote that there are different types

of food and this is why that for both animals and humans there are several ways of living.

In the animal kingdom the various animals may live in herds or live alone and this

contributes to what is eaten by the animal kingdom. Nature has given them different ways

of living whereas some are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. This is also true of

humans. Humans have diverse ways of living be it living off the plants, different animals,

fish, birds, and various ways of sustaining their lives.

Although, Aristotle was a holist in seeing the interrelations between all life forms he

did say that nature does nothing in vain and all things were made for the sake of humans.

Aristotle said that hunting and war were for the purpose of acquiring things that must be

employed against wild animals and against humans that by nature are meant to be ruled,

but are unwilling. This confirms that Aristotle had an anthropocentric view along with a

holistic view. (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997)


Aguinas (Goldin & Kilroe, 1997) stated that brute animals are subject to man by

order of divine providence and quoted Genesis 1:26 “Let us make man in our own image

and likeness and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air,

and the beasts of the earth”. Aquinas stated that the brute animals were devoid of

understanding but had some knowledge in accord with the divine providence that the

animals rank higher than the plants and other things that lack knowledge.

Aquinas also stated that only man has the ability to know and love God. (Goldin and

Kilroe, 1997) “[Sometimes] this moral hierarchy is referred to as the great chain of being.

The things at the top have the right to use the things at the bottom; authority is present.

This is in contrast to Atleo’s position of equality between humanity and life forms.”

(Murray, p. 32, pt. II, 2012) The idea of a constitution between all life forms would not

make sense because there is no place for reciprocity between life forms with this

authoritarian view. (Murray, 2012)

Both Aristotle and Aquinas fall in the side of Stoicism within Hellenism (Greek

culture). Stoicism views the cosmos as a single final existence in nature. This is possible by

a material stuff called pneuma, which is a “divine intelligent ordering principle. [This]

principal is rational in nature; indeed is sometimes called the logos, “reason”… [b]ecause,

of all parts of the cosmos, only human beings are rational… all nonhuman organisms in the

cosmos are there for the sake of human beings”. (Goldin & Kilroe, p. 35, 1997)


On the other side Hellenism is Epicureanism which holds that the world is a result of

blind physical processes without purpose; morality is simply human convention. This is

another reductionist view. Both Stoicism and Epicureanism are two very different forms of

materialism. (Murray, 2012) While these are philosophical views adopted there is another

neological view that should be considered.

The neological view that should seriously be considered as a way of life is

‘Hahaalism’. The creation story for hahaalism is the Son of Raven and his community and

their quest to obtain light in order to get out of the darkness. Basically, the Son of Raven

had to become humble and become an insignificant leaf to acquire the light from the

community of wolves who were the keepers of the light. This required the diverse

creatures “to work together, recognize each other, and practice democratic principles of

mutual consent and consensus building without compromising personal integrity.” (Atleo,

pp. 34-35, 2011)

This creation story for hahaalism combines the physical and non-physical within a

singular reality. “This story proposes that the primary characteristics of creation are:

1. Reality is one.

2. Reality is polarized.

3. Reality is composed of the physical and non-physical.

4. Non-physical reality is the source of physical reality.

5. Polarity is inherent and purposeful, and it necessitates:

a. a negotiation of oppositions and contradictions of apparent

fragmentation;


b. making choices between opposing realities;

c. development of management regimes (such as governance of self, family,

community, and the living environment); and

d. multidimensional development of body, soul, and spirit.

6. Identity is like an insignificant leaf.

7. Light is both the source and goal of life.” (Atleo, pp. 143-144, 2012)

Part 3: The crisis of perception and the discovery of light

To summarize, “Darwin’s theory portrays the world as a ruthless battleground in

which organisms are competing for a niche in which they can survive and propagate; most

are unsuccessful. Evolution is based on massive amounts of death and frustration. The

evolutionary process, in which certain less well-adapted kinds of organisms are weeded

out, has become known as “the survival of the fittest,” a phrase Darwin borrowed from the

English philosopher Herbert Spencer.” (Goldin & Kilroe, p. 176, 1997)

The theory of evolution and its notion of survival of the fittest may be reflected in

the behavior of some corporations as it’s not their responsibility to take care or sustain the

world with ethical considerations. The gigantic competitive edge that corporations have

over individually owned businesses continues to devastate the environment. (Atleo, 2011)

In contrast, a solution to the global crisis is to use the constitutional principles of the Nuu-

chah-nuuth such as recognition, consent, and continuity which are founded upon a sacred

respect for all life forms. It may be the only way for humanity to find its way out of the

darkness that enshrouds us.


The global crisis – which is referred to as the darkness – is brought on by climate

change, energy crisis, diseases, the threat of nuclear war, and terrorism, replicates the

original condition that the Son of Raven and his companions found themselves. Light is the

final destination. The philosophy of hahaalism is of significant importance because it has

important principles that all lead to the sacred respect of all life forms in our existence. It is

through sacred respect for all life forms that balance can be achieved and the global crisis

of our earth’s destruction can be avoided.

This research has shown how scientific reductionism and anthropocentrism has led

to the crisis of perception which has led to the earth’s destruction; this global crisis and its

effects can be reversed by adhering to hahaalism and its principles. Although the crisis of

perception was a result of scientific reductionism Hahaalism is the light that can bring us

hope as it recognizes all life forms and will achieve balance and harmony in nature and to

Haw’ilume (Mother Earth).


Bibliography

Allison, D.B., (2001). The new Nietzche: the birth of tragedy, the gay science, thus spoke

Zarathustra, and on the genealogy of morals. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield as cited

in Atleo, E. R., (2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to global crisis.

Vancouver, BC: UBC Press

Atleo, E. R., (2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to global crisis.

Vancouver, BC: UBC Press

Berry, T., (1990). The dream of the earth. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books as cited in

Atleo, E. R., (2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to global crisis.

Vancouver, BC: UBC Press as cited in Atleo, E. R., (2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an

indigenous approach to global crisis. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press

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(2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to global crisis. Vancouver,

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- an indigenous approach to global crisis. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press


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CA/West Harford, CT: Berret-Koeler/Kumerian Press as cited in Atleo, E. R., (2011).

Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to global crisis. Vancouver, BC: UBC

Press

Korten, D.C., (2007). The Sun Magazine September 2007 Issue 207. Everybody wants to

rule the world: David Korten on putting an end to global competition by Arnie

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http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/381/everybody_wants_to_rule_the_world

as cited in Atleo, E. R., (2011). Principals of Tsawalk - an indigenous approach to

global crisis. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press

Murray, R., (2012). PHL 500 Philosophy of the natural environment. [Course content:

powerpoint slides and lectures – p. I & II]. Toronto, ON: Ryerson University

http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/381/everybody_wants_to_rule_the_world

The crisis of perception and the global crisis by Vincent Ostberg

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