VineDeloria3
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the epistemological approach of Native American philosophy, emphasizing the moral and living nature of the universe. It posits that all knowledge is intrinsically moral, guiding human conduct and our relationship with the Earth. The script discusses humility, responsibility, and the interconnectedness of all things, including inanimate objects, which are seen as alive with their own agency. It contrasts Western scientific objectivity with this holistic view, suggesting a more respectful and reciprocal interaction with nature. The video also touches on the concepts of time, space, and the potential for environmental repair, using the example of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone.
Takeaways
- π The universe is viewed as a moral universe where every experience has moral content, and knowledge is intended to guide moral responses and actions.
- π± Knowledge is not an end in itself but is produced to help find the right way to live and act in relation to the world around us.
- πΏ The idea of living 'with' the Earth rather than 'on' it emphasizes our interconnectedness with the planet and all its life forms.
- 𧬠The scientific worldview often avoids moral content for fear of leading people back to religious authorities as the main source of knowledge.
- π Humility is a key characteristic of viewing the universe as moral, recognizing our limitations and learning from the world around us.
- π± The concept of 'all of my relatives' reflects the epistemology of the tribal worldview, where everything is seen as interconnected.
- π³ The universe is also considered a living universe, with all things, including inanimate objects, being alive and part of a larger, nurturing system.
- π The idea of spirit is compared to energy, representing an underlying life force that is both universal and unique to each entity.
- π The universe is relational, with everything being alive and interconnected, challenging the scientific view of ecology and emphasizing the importance of relationships.
- β³ Time and space are also considered in this worldview, with the idea that our actions can repair past damages and restore balance to the environment.
Q & A
What is the central idea presented in the script regarding the universe?
-The central idea is that the universe is a moral universe, where everything has moral content and every experience is intended to evoke a moral response, guiding our actions and interactions.
How does the script suggest we should perceive our relationship with the Earth?
-The script suggests that we should live 'with' the Earth rather than 'on' it, emphasizing a more harmonious and respectful relationship with our environment.
What is the significance of the phrase 'all of my relatives' in the context of the script?
-The phrase 'all of my relatives' reflects the epistemology of the tribal worldview, indicating that everything is related and interconnected, thus expressing a sense of responsibility and equality towards all forms of life.
Why does the script argue that the scientific worldview avoids moral content?
-The script argues that the scientific worldview avoids moral content because Western societies fear it could lead people to turn to ecclesiastical authorities or religious leaders for knowledge, thus undermining secular knowledge.
What does the script suggest is the purpose of producing knowledge?
-According to the script, the purpose of producing knowledge is not for the sake of knowledge itself, but to find the right way to live and act in relation to all the things around us.
How does the script define humility in the context of a moral universe?
-In the context of a moral universe, humility is defined as the recognition of one's own limitations and the need to act with a degree of caution until sufficient knowledge or confidence to act in the right way arises.
What is the script's stance on the idea that the universe is alive?
-The script posits that the universe is alive, with everything being imbued with a life force, and that there is a reciprocal and inseparable relationship among all things, including inanimate objects.
How does the script differentiate the concept of 'spirit' from pantheism?
-The script differentiates 'spirit' from pantheism by stating that while everything shares in a life force, this does not mean attributing human characteristics to non-human nature, and that no single entity is considered a deity.
What does the script suggest about the personality and free will of inanimate objects?
-The script suggests that even inanimate objects have a form of agency and contribute to the broader networks of relations, implying a measure of free will and choice, even if they do not move or appear to be active.
How does the script relate the concept of a relational universe to ecological ethics?
-The script relates the concept of a relational universe to ecological ethics by emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of understanding and respecting these relationships in our interactions with the environment.
Outlines
π Moral and Living Universe
The paragraph discusses the concept of a moral universe where every experience has moral content, guiding our actions. It emphasizes the importance of understanding our relationship with the Earth and other entities. The author critiques the scientific worldview for avoiding moral content, fearing it might lead to reliance on religious authorities. The text also touches on humility, recognizing human limitations, and the interconnectedness of all things, suggesting a shift from a predatory to a symbiotic relationship with nature.
πΏ The Universe as a Living Entity
This section delves into the idea that the universe is alive, with everything from the Earth to inanimate objects being part of a living system. It challenges the notion of stones as inert, suggesting they too have a form of agency and life force. The concept of 'spirit' is introduced, akin to energy, representing an underlying life force that is both universal and unique. The paragraph distinguishes this view from pantheism, clarifying that ascribing human characteristics to non-human entities is not the intention. Instead, it suggests that personhood or personality is a universal trait, not exclusive to humans.
π The Relational Universe and Ecological Ethics
The final paragraph focuses on the relational aspect of the universe, where all entities are interconnected. It draws parallels with ecological ethics and the importance of understanding these relationships to coexist harmoniously. The text suggests that indigenous people's observations of nature provide knowledge for living without undue intrusion on other creatures' lives. It contrasts this with scientific ecology, highlighting the need for a deeper, more respectful approach to the environment. The paragraph concludes with a mention of time and space, and the potential for environmental repair through living in harmony with nature.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Moral Universe
π‘Epistemological Approach
π‘Humility
π‘Relational
π‘Living Universe
π‘Spirit
π‘Responsibility
π‘Personhood
π‘Ecological Ethics
π‘Time and Space
Highlights
The universe is viewed as a moral universe, implying that every experience has moral content.
Indian knowledge is about the physical world arranged to evoke moral responses.
Knowledge is not abstract; it is intended to guide us in finding the right path in life.
Everything is related, and knowledge production is attentive to these relations.
We live with the Earth, not on it, emphasizing our interconnectedness with the planet.
The scientific worldview avoids moral content to prevent reliance on religious authorities.
Humility is a characteristic of viewing the universe as moral, recognizing our limitations.
Indigenous peoples refer to themselves as 'younger brothers', indicating a sense of being part of a larger, older community of life.
Responsibility and equality are themes, with humans expected to act towards other forms of life with self-discipline.
Life should be viewed as a symphony of reciprocal relations, not a predatory jungle.
The universe is alive, with everything, including inanimate objects, interacting in necessary ways.
Spirit is compared to energy, representing an underlying life force in all things.
The idea of spirit does not equate to pantheism; it's about recognizing the life force in all entities without attributing human characteristics.
Everything shares in the same life force, suggesting that personhood or personality is not unique to humans.
The universe is relational, with all entities, alive or seemingly inanimate, being interconnected.
Ecological ethics and environmental ethics are rooted in the understanding of the universe as relational and alive.
The reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone illustrates the interconnectedness and impact of living entities on the environment.
Transcripts
foreign
so now I'm just going to talk a little
bit about the knowledge which is
produced from the epistemological
approach that we discussed or that I
discussed in previous videos uh and the
first and most obvious idea here
is that the universe is a moral Universe
which is to say that everything every
experience has some more content and
Indian knowledge is the knowledge of the
physical Universe arranged in such a
manner is to call forth some some moral
response
um so we're attentive to the moral
content of our experience to the moral
content of the world that we experience
and this can tell us how to act there's
no Knowledge abstracted from this all
knowledge his knowledge that is intended
to help us find the right course the
proper road to walk during our lifetime
he says this multiple times I think
so
knowledge is produced in this way in
part due to the experience that
everything is related and I'm going to
come back to this but in
being attentive to things and what they
can tell us we're attempted to the
relations among things and I think I
have
yeah there's a good example of this at
the bottom of 77 onto page 78.
um
um
we don't produce knowledge under this
epistemological approach for the sake of
knowledge we we produce knowledge
um for the sake of finding what the
right way to live what the right thing
to do in relation to all the things
around us
um so you might say that one of the
ideas here is that we live
with the Earth rather than on the Earth
right
um I don't know if it's in text or in
one of the videos that I'll show you but
he talks uh fine talks about you know
the Earth is not just some inner object
right it's uh it's something which is
alive which will lead us to the next
point but before that I want to say uh
he stayed somewhere that the scientific
worldview intentionally avoids moral
content
um because
um
Western societies fear that
um
having inherent moral content in
knowledge will lead people to turn to
the ecclesiastical authorities right the
Priestly class
um
or religious leaders more generally
speaking or more broadly speaking and so
ever since we've secularized knowledge
in the West
um we've had this fear that if we don't
apply morality subsequently in some form
that we consider rational but not
attached directly to the knowledge that
we develop if we claim that there is a
moral value to knowledge that this will
lead people back to religion as their
main source of knowledge so this is I
guess a fear
um that could be
um
part of the explanation on on Delores
behalf a few things that are
characteristic of viewing the universe
as a moral Universe one is humility he
says the wise person will realize his or
her own limitations and act with some
degree of humility humility until
sufficient knowledge or the confidence
to act in the right way arises it's page
70.
he says that human beings refer to
themselves so
um the tribal peoples refer to
themselves as the younger brothers so
it's not a matter of being the highest
most intelligent life form it's
recognizing that most of the life on
Earth evolved to the state that it's in
before us which makes us young rather
than old that's page 74. and then this
phrase all of my relatives as expressing
the epistemology of the tribal worldview
and providing the mythological basis
right because
um everything is related which we're
going to come back to again in a second
another theme Here responsibility and
equality
self-disciplined by humans and acting
towards other forms of life instead of
this idea of a predatory jungle I don't
know if you've studied any sort of basic
political Theory Western political
Theory like Hobbes Hobbs who believes
we're in this state of nature and uh you
know we're gonna be vying for survival
and killing each other and trying to
trick each other unless we have this
social contract right so instead of this
instead of the predatory jungle where we
live at the expense of other beings life
should be viewed as something like a
symphony a complex arrangement of
reciprocal relations and interplay and
I'm pulling that from page 75. so
we need to establish forms of
communication among humans towards other
forms of life on a mutually agreeable
basis that's important mutually
agreeable basis so before we mess with
the quote unquote natural world
from this view we need to understand
that these things are okay and I think
there's a passage here I'm sorry I don't
have the page number written down but
where he talks about
um
not hunting animals until they've had
the chance to go through the whole life
cycle and talks about eagles but you can
imagine other forms of game and things
like this you know hunting at the
seasons in which you know that these
animals have borne children raised them
and you know maybe before hibernation
something like this
um
it's a much different approach than we
have the other idea here the universe is
a moral Universe the universe is also a
living universe
everything is alive the Earth is alive
and and the justification if you're
saying the Earth is alive is uh that
this is easily observable
um because everything is nurtured
by
larger beings so the Earth nurtures Us
in the way that we nurture our children
and so on and so forth
there are a lot of ways to talk about
this this is usually a point for class
discussion so I'm not going to go into
this too much here
um
there is a reciprocal and Inseparable
relationship among all things all things
including inanimate things are
interacting with one another in some
necessary way so things like stones that
we would say are inert not alive don't
have the ability to move by themselves
they think that they do and they have
reasons for that that are in the text
and you should
give serious consideration to this stuff
um
another feature we get here is this idea
of spirit that's compared in the bead
account to energy this is something you
know the alert the word comes from
Lakota that he's using something like
the Breath of Life similar to
um the etymology of the word Soul or the
idea of soul in Western cultures
um seems to represent something like an
underlying life force you know
everything is in spirited as it were
imbued with certain life force that is
both Universal and unique to this thing
um
and this is compared to energy which is
uh you know basic definition energy is
what is required for matter to perform
work or be involved in any process
that's just like a really basic um
a really basic sort of uh physical
definition of
energy
um but this idea of spirit doesn't
amount to pantheism nor any other mode
of attributing human characteristics to
non-human nature
so his argument against pantheism is
that even those tribes that projected
from the experiences of birds animals
and plants and personify these
experiences did not make any particular
entity a deity alone so no one thing was
a deity even if some knowledge came from
visions of someone being as another type
of being as an animal for a period of
time and that when they pass this
knowledge on they personified these
non-human beings
um another things that humans are but
one thing that is alive remember
everything is alive
so asserting that everything shares in
this life is not to say that everything
is like a human
um though we might say that humans are
like everything else
kind of the opposite direction of an
anthropomorphization
um so when deloria speaks of stones as
communities of persons it does not
appear to me that person is intended in
the same way that we speak of ourselves
as persons but rather that everything
shares in the same life force and has
some form of agency some Freedom or free
will
um in giving to the broader networks of
relations that they're in so by the
sheer fact that everything is related in
such and such a way everything has
mobility and everything is contributing
even those things that seem like they're
not moving are doing anything at all
um every entity had a personality and
could exercise a measure of Free Will
and choice this is on 77.
um so this is to say the person the idea
of personhood or personality doesn't
necessarily originate with us but it's
something that we have again because
everything else has it it's not that we
project our existence onto other things
it's that we understand our existence as
coming from and sharing in what
everything else has
um or comes from or is the last thing
that I want to mention sort of is uh
that the universe is a relational
universe so if everything is alive then
everything must be related to one
another in some way right now this is
the science of wholeness in some sense
that he refers to and if you uh
if you don't know this
um sort of fundamental idea of ecology
not necessarily as a science but in the
sense that it's a
um an approach to Nature and the
environment right now ecological ethics
environmental ethics is what we're going
to be doing in this class and this is a
good text to uh sort of start that Trend
um sort of the the
the catchphrase or the the uh
uh victim of uh of ecology is that
everything is related right so that
there's this totality of relations
um
we should ask however
um how this idea might be different from
our idea
um of ecology which is derived from you
know a scientific view that's not the
same as theirs I wanted to read here
um on page 77
American Indians
understanding that the Universe
consisted of living entities were
interested in learning how other forms
of life behaved
for they saw that every entity had a
personality and could exercise a measure
of Free Will and choice
consequently Indian people carefully
observed phenomena in order to determine
what relationships existed between and
among the various peoples of the world
their understanding of the relationships
of these relationships provided them
with the knowledge necessary to live
comfortably in the physical world and
not unduly intrude into the lives of
other creatures
um so those are the big main features of
the body of knowledge that they produced
right
um the universe is moral the universe is
relational the universe is alive and
there are some other things that he
mentions towards the end of the essay
talks about time and space I'm not going
to get into these the conceptions of
time and space are interesting
especially these ideas of proper places
um he mentions at one point in time how
um when we learn to live with our
environment in a certain way damages
that we caused will be repaired
and there is an interesting video you
can look it up
um just look for a video on
um the reintroduction of wolves I think
into not Yosemite into Yellowstone
and uh they didn't realize the people
who did this there was an endangered
species of wolves and they were breeding
them and they
um introduced them back into the area of
the national park and uh what happened
is just incredible so look that up I
mean it didn't just change patterns
amongst other animals it changed growth
patterns in nature growth of plants and
things like that it also changed
patterns in waterways
um really just from reintroducing a few
wolves back in so um that's crazy and
you should definitely look it up
I don't have a good video version of it
um that I'm aware of but if I find one
ever I'll add it
um
and I think that that's it
um
I hope that you enjoyed this text I
don't know if I said this in one of the
previous videos but it's one of my
favorite um that we do uh I think that
it's not provoking and challenges us to
really get outside of
um
this sort of intellectual conditioning
that we have in the social and cultural
conditioning that we have even more so
than some of the Eastern like uh Far
East Asian philosophy that we'll do um
so
take care
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