Dennis Coffey
Zhenbao Jin,
I was pleasantly surprised to see you in program. You ask excellent questions, many of which go over my head. 🙂 I will try to keep up.
Dennis
Bill,
I thought your name looked familiar. Your project looks quite interesting. I know you and Greg will be successful.
Dennis Coffey
Rolla,
I had the chance to visit hutongs in Beijing (2004). At that time, plans were being made to tear down these historic structures. I was disappointed; I found the old places charming.
Also, from “Dwelling, Place & Environment,” page 8:
“Dwelling involves the process by which a place in which we exist becomes a personal world and home.” Appears that if the place in which we exist doesn’t become a personal world and home, then we are merely living.
I think it might be safe to say that a necessary condition for dwelling is to live; we can live without dwelling, but we cannot dwell without first living. Just a thought.
See Seamon, David, and Robert Mugerauer, eds. Dwelling, place and environment: Towards a phenomenology of person and world. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.
Also, thank you for convincing Dr. Moore to lead our class. She was great!
Finally, I greatly appreciated your in-class commentary.
Dennis
Kathleen,
A person can be a process philosopher without explicitly stating that she or he is. I think Tyson Yunkaporta is one of those people. There is an interview that is quite interesting with Yunkaporta, one done with Emergence Magazine. You can see and hear it at https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/deep-time-diligence/
I think Yunkaporta is a fascinating person. He is funny, knowledgeable, committed, talented, …
You will not be disappointed reading his book.
Dennis
P.S. I meant to tell you that my daughter for a short period was a librarian after receiving her Masters degree in library science. Hard to find jobs as a librarian.
Hello Kent,
Thanks for your feedback. I did use the phrase, root cause, inappropriately. The concept of “root cause” is addressed within the second layer, the systemic causes. However, CLA goes beyond identifying the root cause by exploring how these causes are shaped by deeper worldviews and myths. In this way, CLA provides a more comprehensive understanding of issues, integrating the root cause within a broader, multilayered framework. I should have said that I want to explore using CLA the deeper issues related to the hindrance of the development of an ecological civilization. Irrespective, I prefer reading/evaluating Sand Talk for this class.
Dennis
Katherine,
I think the first, and perhaps most important step, is for people, especially decision makers, to acknowledge there is environmental injustice in this country and around the world. Once again, I return to the reality of willful blindness enjoyed by so many. How do we get past willful blindness? I don’t know.
Sometimes, our own US government gets in the way. For example, see https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/why-some-indigenous-tribes-are-being-left-behind-in-louisianas-ida-recovery. The story ends with the following quote:
“We don’t have much time,” she added. “I think a stronger storm will wipe this community out. We have a lot at risk. It is time for the American Indian to start making noise. We are too much of a quiet people.” [emphasis added]
We are talking about a complex situation–what is known perhaps as a wicked problem. See https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/wicked-problems for a discussion of wicked problems. Wicked problems are notorious for defying robust solutions.
Just a few thoughts.
Dennis
Eric and Kathleen,
Wow! What a rich discussion. I learned much reading it. At one time, I was adamantly opposed to the use of nuclear power plants, but I changed that attitude some time ago, especially after the development of safer technologies used in nuclear power plants. The benefits/costs ratios have greatly improved.
I try to remain optimistic that we collectively will move toward saner environmental policies, but I am finding doing so to be difficult. Of course, having a good policy is one thing, implementing it is another.
Regarding Eric’s question: Are you asking whether human life is more important than other forms of life? If so, I don’t think so. When I was young in a Presbyterian orphanage I had to study Bible verses. Here is the verse that at a young age truly bothered me:
Genesis 1:24-31 – God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Really? I rebelled against this verse even as a youngster. Even now, knots arise in my stomach when I read the verse.
Thanks Eric and Kathleen for your writings.
Dennis
Kent,
Your vision is highly optimistic, and I appreciate it. What you are describing is what we learned in the futures program that I completed at the University of Houston as an audacious goal, also known as a North Star goal. Its accomplishment may not occur, but we need to keep moving toward it.
I remember in my early teaching career (at Xavier University in Cincinnati) reading a Wall Street Journal editorial article (sometime in the late 1980s) in which two authors argued that the release of all in-ground carbon on the Earth into the atmosphere would have a potential greening effect. According to them we would be able to grow more vegetation, etc. I think we need to keep as much carbon in the ground as possible; I don’t buy into the greening effect. Strange that I have not forgotten that editorial.
Thanks for your posting.
Dennis
Hello Bill,
I am in awe of Matt. He is brilliant, and, yet, I detect an admirable humility in his demeanor. I have his books, but embarrassingly I have not read them.
There is a book by Susan Rowland and Joel Weishaus titled “Jungian arts-based research and ‘The nuclear enchantment of New Mexico’ that makes use of transdisciplinarity in combination with arts-based research. I think Susan brings transdisciplinarity to life in this book. In addition to being an author, Susan is a professor with Pacifica Graduate Institute.
I myself have not used transdisciplinarity formally, having only been introduced to it in the last two or three years. I do believe my thinking has been de facto a mix of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinarity, though not formally.
Once again, I am a fan of Matthew, a person wise beyond his chronological age.
Thanks for your posting,
Dennis
Hello Chris,
I spent about one year on Grandfather Mountain, a local official biosphere. More information can be gathered at https://grandfather.com/about-grandfather-mountain/. I wrote a series of essays exploring various facets of the mountain. I became quite close to the mountain. While doing that, I came to realize that the mountain is in process of change. Famous artist, Paul Cezanne, painted many works of Sainte Victoire, and some questioned why he continued to use the same mountain as a centerpiece of his paintings. At one point he stated that the mountain was communicating to (and through) him; he saw the mountain’s consciousness being expressed through him in his paintings. More importantly, he never painted the same mountain; the mountain and Cezanne’s perception of it were always in flux. I have had a similar experience on Grandfather Mountain. It has been a haunting experience, one in which I have been hesitant to express. I think from a process perspective, I may be able to talk more about it. I will …
Dennis
Hey Chris,
I cannot locate the zoom link for the 1:00 PM (?) discussion. If I return home in time, I would like to join you.
Can you email the link directly to me at dennis.coffey@gmail.com
Thanks,
Dennis
Douglas,
Thanks for responding to my posting. My problem with much of organized religion is that so many participants curtail or stop their critical thinking given that they are following the herd.
I have a friend, PhD trained in electrical engineering, who periodically calls me. I never bring up politics; he does. In his most recent phone call, he told me he was voting for Kennedy. So, I said, you prefer an anti-vaccine person. His response was “What do you mean, anti-vaccine?” He was clueless.
Political outcomes are consequential for all of us. We need to carefully consider our choices. My father (WWII and Korea) and brother (Vietnam) sacrificed so that we would have a choice.
By the way, Gaza has been an unforgivable disaster. I have communicated my profound displeasure with the Whitehouse. I am sure that had an impact.
Dennis
Charlie,
You are correct, evil appears quite frequently in not only this week’s readings, but throughout the course. I appreciate the fact that we have this topic frequently appear.
You seem to be asking about what constitutes evil? Forgive me if you are not. After thinking about this for some time, I have arrived at the conclusion that the greatest evil is when someone offloads their thinking responsibility to a spouse, to a school, to a religious institution, etc. I initially wrote much more, but I will leave it with what I have said.
As we say here in my neck of the woods (the mountains of North Carolina), I appreciate you.
Dennis
Any of my fellow classmates reading this posting,
The following is a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal that appeared on March 12; I think it supports my original posting:
“Thanks to Barton Swaim for examining evangelical support of Donald Trump (“Biden Backers Sound Like Trump Evangelicals,” op-ed, March 6). I am an evangelical protestant minister who has voted for Mr. Trump and plans to again in 2024.
I believe that more than 80% of white evangelicals voted for him in 2016 and 2020 because they believed he would stand for life, make traditionalist appointments to the Supreme Court and support religious liberty. They also believed he would stand against the imposition of LGBTQ ideology on the nation, against a tsunami of illegal aliens flooding our southern border and against wokeness in the U.S. military.
These are issues of vital concern to America’s evangelical voters”.
James V. Heidinger II
I read the Barton Swaim editorial referred to in Heidinger’s letter, and I was not happy with what he said. In fact, I was so upset that I told my spouse that I would be terminating my subscription to the WSJ. She convinced me not to do so, arguing that all but the editorial pages frequently contain valuable reading. As always, she is right.
By the way, this letter writer has written extensively on the rise of theological liberalism (whatever that means). He also uses the word woke. I noticed Dr. Davis used that word in one of his writings. What does it mean? I asked a friend from the other side what he meant when he used the word woke, and he told me that he didn’t know exactly what it means, but I am certain he was using it to diminish the other.
One more thing, Heidinger probably would like to assign me to the bowels of hell because I am studying Whitehead and process theology. Am I woke? 🙂
Done rambling,
Dennis
Kathleen,
Thank you for your assuring words. A former football coach of the Auburn Tigers obviously felt close to the natural world, especially to a tree he had planted on his farm. The following describes his burial:
“I want to fertilize this tree and for my spirit to hover around this tree,” Pat told Jimmy Rane, one of his closest friends. who is the owner of Great Southern Wood Preserving, Inc., Abbeville, Ala.
The tree was especial [sic] for Dye. He had gotten a cutting from the famous tree at Toomer’s Corner after it had been poisoned by an Alabama fan in 2013. Dye gave the tree special attention for over six years. It has now reached a height of at least 15 feet, Rane said late Tuesday.” Found at https://www.onlineathens.com/story/sports/2020/06/02/pat-dye-buried-beneath-tree-grown-from-toomers-corner-trimming/43053101/
I feel a profound connection to the earth. I often walk upon it barefooted, and I can feel it penetrating my becoming.
I have read George Haskell’s book; it is on my shelf. My local university (Appalachian State) has online access to Belden Lane’s books including the one you have referenced. I don’t understand why I have never heard of Belden Lane; thank you for pointing out that author to me.
Dennis