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21 J. Value Inquiry 3 (1987)

handle is hein.journals/jrnlvi21 and id is 1 raw text is: The Journal of Value Inquiry 21:3-20 (1987). ©1987, Martinus Nifhoff Publishers, Dordrecht. Printed in the Netherlands. Articles SOME MEANINGS OF THE EARTH: A PROCESS PERSPECTIVE DAVID LEE MILLER Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, WI 54601 1. Preface This paper is offered in the spirit of connecting the parts to the whole, of hoping that the parts, most particularly the human parts, will find themselves increasingly attracted to both the thought and the experience of locating their identity, voca- tion, and destiny within the whole Earth itself. Humans and their civilizations are specific expressions of the Earth. Civilizations spring deliberately out of the con- tinuous interaction of humans with the natural elements. Human civilizations shape themselves in dynamic and delicate interaction with waterways, physical terrain, and climatic patterns. They are fundamental expressions of the Earth. Presently, human civilizations are confronted with a unique threat: they may vanish from the Earth. They may disappear long before they run their natural course to completion. That is to say, they may perish millions of years before they might, as a result of lethal human intervention. The reasons for this possibility are many, but in some sense they can be summarized as follows: some human civiliza- tions regularly exceed their limits in taking from the rest of the Earth, and there might come a point where the Earth will no longer be able to support such excesses. The fatal excess might be a thermonuclear war, or it might be a very gradual but all consuming toxicity. At that time, perhaps the whole Earth will die. One analogy here is that of a virulent cancer, finally destroying a human organism and itself as well. More than anything else, the crisis of human civilization is a crisis of the whole Earth. Whatever else human beings are, we are creatures of and from the Earth, and our moving, mortal bodies along with our emotional and rational capabilities are rooted in the basic elements of the Earth. We must, therefore, try to rethink and reexperience ourselves as natural parts linked with many other natural parts to shape a natural whole - the Earth. The Earth itself is linked in turn to a universe so large and impenetrable to our understanding as to leave us absolutely mute in the face of such questions as what is our ultimate meaning in the context of the entire cosmos, and what is its origin, development, and destiny? These might very well be the most important questions of all, but in this paper, the focus will be

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