Imponderable / re-read

Marc Bekoff Ph.D. Animal Emotions Terminal Philosophy Syndrome: A Wake-up Call for All Jane Morrison and Michael Tobias's book is moving and insightful but sobering. Posted January 15, 2023 Reviewed by Davia Sills KEY POINTS The sobering new book 'Terminal Philosophy Syndrome' will likely be discomforting. Climate change, while important to reduce and stop as soon as possible, is but one of many things that need close attention. An important message of hope: Everyone, no matter who you are or where you live, can do something to help our troubled planet right now. Source: Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, with permission. A young wild orangutan in Indonesian Kalimantan, Borneo.Source: Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, with permission. No strangers to Psychology Today, Jane Gray Morrison and Michael Charles Tobias have for many years run the Dancing Star Foundation, which is devoted to international animal liberation, conservation biology and environmental education. Their latest collaboration, Terminal Philosophy Syndrome: Ecology and the Imponderable, is powerfully described by the Nobel Peace Prize nominee, philosopher, systems scientist, and founder of the Club of Budapest, Dr. Ervin Laszlo, who writes, “A phenomenally thorough and insightful book that deserves to be read and re-read by everyone who has seriously contemplated the possibility that we are at the threshold of our own species-extinction….This is not an easy book to read, and it was even harder to put it down once I started reading it.”1 article continues after advertisement I had the chance to catch up with Morrison and Tobias to ask them a few basics regarding Terminal Philosophy Syndrome.. Why did you write Terminal Philosophy Syndrome? There’s the implicit concept of terminal velocity, when acceleration through a fluid, usually air, settles to zero, based upon a number of correlates, like buoyancy, drag coefficient, density of the fluid, etc. These are all metaphors for human thought. You take a constant, such as gravity, then jump off a cliff, and you’ll quickly understand the usually predictable outcome, at least in physiology, math, and physics. In philosophy, however, we ignore gravity and that is a major flaw, especially when coupled with the current global ecological crisis we’re all part of. The conditions accounting for terminal philosophy are less a mathematical constant than a uniquely human syndrome. Until we honestly attempt to feel what a rooster or an orangutan feels, our systems of logic can’t possibly help the world. Our tens of thousands of years of consciousness have been little more than some endless cognitive rehearsal. But rehearsal for what? Every child knows there’s something wrong with this picture. Source: Nova, used with permission "Terminal Philosophy Syndrome — Ecology and the Imponderable" by Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray MorrisonSource: Nova, used with permission Like any disease or behavioral anomaly, a syndrome suggests a disorder.1 In the case of philosophical speculation regarding the Anthropocene—the current massive spasm of extinctions and worldwide environmental depredations—our thought processes have invaded center stage in the entire spectrum of biological evolution. That’s both a positive potential and a devastating quagmire. We wrote this book to better gauge whether there might not be some alternative to humanity jumping off that cliff. Can enough individuals sway the global collective? Yes, or no? If so, what does that look like? By what immediate mechanisms? Thousands of treaties, pacts, and pledges haven’t done it. article continues after advertisement The forensics are ill-boding, and there is no time left for long-term deliberations. What are the near-term implications for our species stepping back from the brink? How would that come about? Is it even possible, given our more than 300,000 years of seemingly hardwired physiological repetitions? If we don’t learn from history, might we learn from imagined future scenarios? The recent UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal (COP15) reveals just how unlikely our species is to suddenly engage in what can only be described as a necessary ecological revolution. That truly leaves us marooned on an abyss. So then what? Who is your intended audience? This is a primer for everyone. The book ranges across two-dozen disciplines, so there is ample fodder for nearly every conceivable level of interest in the sciences, the arts, and the humanities, as well as geopolitics and economics. Most critically, this is a sobering book about the fate of our kind—not of evolution or of this planet, but of our potentially obsolete species. What are some of the other topics you weave into your book, and what are some of your most pressing messages? If we take as our premise that humanity has engendered, over time, a cumulative crime scene that is the entire Earth, how, then, do we effectively own up to that? Is there no other recipe than piecemeal restitutions? We recognize that the continuing human population explosion multiplied by its largely gruesome consumerism has proved disastrous for most of our eight billion-kind, and trillions of other animals, every year. Every form of human aggression has quite clearly declared itself. The data—much of it embodied throughout the book—is a blur for most of us, and we include ourselves in that group of troubled, frustrated, often heartbroken individuals. article continues after advertisement Yes, serious discussion of animal rights and biodiversity conservation is now totally top, front, and center, though most people—according to polls—chalk all our woes up to climate change, and that alone. Moreover, as John Steinbeck masterfully described in his book detailing his six-week expedition in 1940 along the Sea of Cortez, one almost feels like a traitor to our species by casting even the least doubts regarding any prospects of hope for the world. A word as potent or as useless as the word "love." That depends on what we do next (today, tomorrow) as a species and as individuals. We examine the philosophical tension between the idea of solutions and the realization of possible hopelessness. Can something positive come of that dialogue? We can’t just wait and see. We need something far more persuasive and immediate than that. Is our species up to it? We truly don’t know. Are you hopeful that as people learn more about what is happening to our magnificent and fascinating planet, they will change their ways? That is our only fail-safe position, philosophically and pragmatically. Embrace kindness and compassionate restraint at every juncture, every day. But importantly, be the truth you decipher in other minds, of all species. Live in that mindfulness, that untarnished, pure emotion; wake up responsibly to its universal cries for justice; embody and engage unobtrusively the spellbinding world while we still—each of us—are a critical part of it