Bahai Philosophy and the Question of the Environment

Regardless of differing theoretical interpretations of the ethnographic data, one conclusion emerges out of the diverse accounts of premodern societies: the organizing principle of their worldview affirmed the universal solidarity of all beings. iv

B. From Descartes and Jansenism to the Enlightenment

The transition from the organic conception of reality to the mechanistic paradigm occurred through various developments between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. French philosophy of the seventeenth century was strongly influenced by Cartesian and Jansenist currents. Both perspectives, one philosophical and the other theological, set the stage for a new conceptualization of nature and culture. v Rene Descartes, whose principle of methodic doubt is perceived as one of the most important moments in the birth of modernity, divided reality into two fundamental substances: mind and body. According to Descartes, mind and body are exact opposites in terms of their essences. Mind is substance endowed with consciousness but lacking extension. In contrast, matter lacks consciousness but has extension. It is important to realize that Cartesian philosophy was intended to demonstrate the reality of the spiritual nature of human beings and to prove the existence and wisdom of God. Descartes’ statement “I think therefore I am,” was intended as a proof of the independent reality of the soul which became the foundation for his proofs of the existence of God. However, Descartes’ philosophy unintentionally initiated a theoretical model which led to the dominance of the mechanistic paradigm. The crucial step taken by Descartes was the substitution of a mechanical conception of nature for the previous organic view. As we saw, Descartes defined matter as lacking consciousness but endowed with extension. vi This meant that extension became the essence of matter. That is why the realm of nature was defined simply in terms of extension. It meant that the essential properties of matter are nothing but their mathematical quantities in terms of different dimensions. The realm of nature was thus stripped of any spiritual, organic, conscious, living, or magical characteristics. The Pythagorean mystic and spiritual mathematics was replaced by abstract and uniform mathematics. From then on mathematics became the language and principle of physics and physical reality, while the realm of nature became a uniform space subject to calculation, quantification, formalization, operationalization, and domination. For Descartes this implied that the realm of nature should be understood in terms of mechanical phenomena. A machine works by mechanical laws, and the material universe is nothing but a gigantic machine. This mechanistic conception of nature was

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