Nature, Culture, and Human Progress: Gains and Losses

Introduction

Wild as beasts yet civilized just like that — we are both. Humans, as philosophers have agreed and poets have pictured, are a unique and astonishing mix of raw nature and cultivated culture. This paper studies Emily Dickinson's poems, Annie Dillard's "In the Jungle" (1992), Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2009), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The First and Second Discourses (1964), Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays as edited by Turpin (2005), and Henry David Thoreau's Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854). These sources are examined together to identify the gains and losses of the human journey from nature to culture.

Defining Nature and Culture

One might wonder why people so often categorize the behavior of others as either natural or artificial. Nature is, at its core, something we are born with. Even plants and all other animals exhibit natural behavior: plants grow toward daylight, and human beings naturally seek social connection. It is nature that resides within us and signals that something is wrong when we lie, because nature is truth and deception is artificial. Natural behavior, then, can be described as both unpolluted and unrefined. On one hand, human nature inclines us toward truth and honesty; on the other, it does not concern itself with social etiquette. A hungry person who has never been introduced to culture or civilization will focus entirely on eating — not on the manner in which he eats.

People are refined by their culture, and so they behave according to the norms of different civilizations. Culture has changed and evolved across time and geography, and different regions take pride in their distinct traditions. Sometimes nature is ignored, and natural laws are violated, in the strict following of cultural codes. Nevertheless, culture and civilization have also played a defining role in human progress. It is culture, not nature, that drives a person to wear fashionable clothing. Culture prompts humans to distinguish themselves through language, racial identity, and regional affiliation — distinctions that have no basis in the natural world. People of all backgrounds are equally qualified to be called human: they are equally affected by pain, equally feel the loss of loved ones, and experience pleasure and happiness in the same fundamental way. What varies is only the manner of expression.

Human progress is generally considered to have begun once our ancestors left the caves and established the first river-valley civilizations. Humans are today centuries ahead of the animals with which they once shared a common world. They value privacy and respect for family. They understand the sanctity of life and the importance of manners and social behavior, and their understanding of the natural world has deepened over time.

Rousseau and the Natural Man

Rousseau defines the state of nature in the opening sections of the Second Discourse. He criticizes the theorists who preceded him for not reaching far enough in their understanding of nature. He argues that those thinkers simply analyzed civilized man and treated him as representative of the natural condition, without ever studying natural man on his own terms. Rousseau is convinced that natural man is fundamentally different from civilized man. The natural man had far fewer fears, for he belonged not to walls and rooftops but to trees and rivers. He was also much more physically active and energetic — not rendered passive by the technologies of modern life. Natural man never knew the diseases of civilization, having developed genuine immunity through direct interaction with his environment. His body was a home of health, not illness. Unlike civilized man, natural man had access to pure, unprocessed natural resources. He was a free being, not a slave to technology and convenience. In Rousseau's own words: "Nature commands every animal, and the beast obeys. Man feels the same impetus, but he realizes that he is free to acquiesce or resist; and it is above all in the consciousness of this freedom that the spirituality of the soul is shown" (Rousseau, p. 114, 1964).

Rousseau seems frustrated by the tendency to analyze human beings only in their polished, refined, and civilized state. He believes that man will always carry the components of nature within him and will always be drawn back toward the natural world. Even when a person does not consciously recognize it, he leans toward nature, and his body suffers when he is too passive to expend his natural energies.

This point can be illustrated with two examples: the problem of depression and its natural remedy. Human beings have a drive to achieve and accomplish, but they also have a natural need for adequate rest and renewal. People need to interact with nature, and when they are so consumed by work that they no longer find time to notice green spaces, feel the clouds overhead, experience rain, or watch children grow, they easily become ill or depressed. They gradually lose interest in their surroundings because their deeper nature seeks contact with the living world. The remedy, as many have discovered, is the vacation: busy people traveling to beaches, rainforests, or mountains simply to be themselves and to hear the voice of nature again. Only then do they realize that birdsong is more rewarding than the click of a mouse, and that the sound of cascading water is more soothing than music played on the most expensive stereo system. A civilized person, disoriented from the natural world, often finds peace only in places where nature is present and technology is absent.

Rousseau does not, however, see nature and civilization as entirely opposed. Man has natural desires that have remained constant since the earliest times; only the expressions of those desires have changed with the rise of civilization. People seek love and affection today as they always have, but with the evolution of social structures, the sense of personal insecurity has grown. People today have more food, prepared with greater effort, more elaborate clothing, and larger houses — yet their desire for genuine love often goes unsatisfied.

I am not anti-technology and do not deny the ease that civilization has brought into our lives. The working capacity of human beings has likely increased many times over compared to when people worked with bare hands alone. Civilization has also taught humanity that every person deserves dignity and that the rights of others must be respected. At the very least, modern society recognizes — even if it does not always act accordingly — that every human being has a right to an equal and better life. It is civilization that teaches people not to be enemies of one another, but to coexist in peace and harmony.

Yet there are real dangers that technology has introduced. Some are mild, but others are more serious. Modern man has become so consumed by the business of daily life that he cannot find adequate time for relationships or for himself. He is so disconnected from the natural pleasures of existence that he can barely imagine the simple blessing of spending a quiet morning in a garden. To him, a television sitcom provides more pleasure than a walk through green fields. Perhaps the most telling "small peril" of civilization is that his very definitions of loss and gain have been transformed.

Conclusion

Rousseau, J. J. (1964). The First and Second Discourses. St. Martin's Press.

Turpin, E. H. L. (Ed.). (2005). Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Retrieved from http://www.pgdp.net

Thoreau, H. D. (1854). Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Retrieved from