MODULE 1: Kinship

 Agenda

1. Quiz
2. Kinship

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MODULE 1: Moral status

• What is the moral status of an eagle or a tree?
• What principles govern the way we treat an eagle or a tree?
• What is OUR relationship to the eagle or the tree?

Today: more about the relationship

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Kyle Powys Whyte, "Kinship and environmental justice"

• philosopher at Michigan State
• Native American, Potawatomi  (pot -a -WOT - a - me)
• draws on ideas from Robin Kimmerer, also Potawatomi, a botanist, and author of Braiding Sweetgrass  and The Service Berry.

Who are the Potawatomi?

• Potawatomi   -- one nation in Oklahoma, four in Michigan
• Whyte talk at the UN 

Topics in article--

• kinship (today)
• kinship-based account of environmental justice (module 3) 
• colonization -- removal from original lands (module 4)

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Kinship

"In general, kinship refers to qualities of the relationships we have with others--whether others are humans, plants, animals, fishes, insects, rocks, waterways, or forests" (p. 267)

"Kin relations are like ideal family or friendship bonds, and are composed of types of relationships and qualities of relationships.  In a good friendship, the friends may be mutually responsible, for example, to support each other's wellbeing. Mutual responsibility is a type of relationship--that is, a general category of a relationship.  But what makes this relationship truly a kinship relationship is if the mutual responsibility has certain inherent qualities. Qualities are dimensions of relationships like trust, consensuality, transparency, reciprocity, and accountability." (p. 267-268)

"Reciprocity is an important kinship quality. A bond has the quality of reciprocity when each relative (or freind) believes the others to be in a long-term gift-receiving and gift-giving relationships." (p. 268) 

Kinship relations can be with ... corn (Potawatomi), reindeer (Sami people in Siberia), potatoes (Quechua people in Andes)  (p. 269)

"Robin Kimmerer, speaking of ecosystems as 'the living world,' says that 'the living world is understood, not as a collection of exploitable resources, but as a set of relationships and responsibilities.  We inhabit a landscape of gifts peopled by nonhuman relatives, the sovereign beings who sustain us, including the plants' (Kimmerer, 208, p. 27)."  (p. 270)

"One way to understand environmental injustice is as an assault on kinship relationships." (p. 270). 

Maori (mow-ree) people of New Zealand -- Waikato river --  river is used for power, diverted, warmed, pumped -- disrupting the kinship relationship to the river  

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How can we eat and live, if we see nature this way?

Kimmerer -- "The Honorable Harvest" (40:50 - 46:48)

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Invitation: when you encounter plants, animals, even water, over the weekend--ask yourself if these kinship ideas resonate at all. What it would take to start seeing trees and squirrels as kin? 

MODULE 1: Plants

Preview

1. Monday Feb 3: ecosystems (reporters)
2. Wednesday Feb 5: whole species (reporters)
3. Friday: Feb 7 short essay quiz on what we've done so far
4. Also Friday: article on kinship with nature

Reporting

1. Added some options for the population reporters
2. Made some suggestions for the water justice reporters

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Moral status

1. People
2. Animals
3. Plants
4. Ecosystems
5. Species

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Paul Taylor, "The Ethics of Respect for Nature" (1981)

• Article 
• excerpt from book 

Environmental decisions involving plants (and people and animals) (book, p. 256)

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Respect for nature

An individual plant/animal has "a good of its own." Read p. 199 A&B

This doesn't require sentience or interests.  Read p. 199-200 C

He's talking about wild plants/animals, and not taking a stand on others.  Read p. 200 D

A thing with a good of its own has inherent worth, and therefore we owe it respect.  Read p. 201 E

Points later in reading: we and plants and animals are fellow members of one biotic community

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Respecting a giant sequoia

   

 

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Wild vs. cultivated plants

Apple trees--wild (top) vs. cultivated (bottom)

Root stock + Grafting

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Obligations to WILD plants and animals

We have prima facie obligations to wild plants and animals. Read p. 198 F

What does he mean by a "prima facie moral obligation"? At first glance. Not absolute. Could be overridden by other obligations. 

1. Prima facie obligation to tree
2. Prima facie obligation to a human being 

Bad ways to resolve conflicts

1. Humans are superior, so we win (Taylor: humans not superior)
2. Only humans have rights, so we win (Taylor: yes only humans have rights, which give us inviolability; but no that doesn't mean we always win)

Priority principles for resolving conflicts (Taylor, "Competing Claims" p. 263). 

A. The principle of self-defense
B. The principle of proportionality
C. The principle of minimum wrong
D. The principle of distributive justice
E. The principle of restitutive justice

 

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Priority principle A: self-defense

Persons: pursuing life or other crucial goods

Plants/animals: pursuing life or other crucial goods by threatening humans

Principle: You can defend yourself in the least harmful way available

Applications

Which of these are allowed under the Self-defense Principle?

1. Shooting an attacking bear
2. Killing a bear that's on your property
3. Cutting down a wild tree that threatens to fall on someone
4. Using weed killer on wild poison ivy
5. Killing wild fish if I'm starving in the woods

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Priority principle D: distributive justice

Persons: pursuing life or other crucial goods

Plants/animals: pursuing life or other crucial goods but not threatening humans

Principle: I should distribute seriously good things and bad things fairly.

Applications

1. Must kill fish to stay alive--may I?  Taylor says: It's not unfair to choose my own life.
2. Suppose I could kill a plant instead of a fish, would that be better?

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Priority principle B: proportionality

Persons: pursuing something trivial

Plants/animals: pursuing life or other crucial goods and not threatening humans

Principle: I should give up trivial goods that are seriously costly for plants and animals.

Applications (all bad, says Taylor)

1. Cutting down wild redwoods to create beautiful furniture
2. Picking wildflowers for a bouquet
3. Killing wild animals for fun or trophies

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Priority principle C: minimum wrong

Persons: pursuing something important, but not absolutely essential

Plants/animals: pursuing life or other crucial goods and not threatening humans

Principle: I can pursue such goals if I minimize the wrongs done to plants and animals as much as possible

Applications

1. Cutting down a forest to build an art museum? Ok if we build tall, to save trees
2. Cutting down trees to build apartments, an airport, etc.

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Priority principle E: restitution

Persons: have harmed plants/animals despite following the other principles

Plants/animals: some are dead or have been harmed

Principle: I should make up for the harm by doing something good for plants/animals

Applications

1. After killing animal for food, perform acts of kindness.
2. After destroying forest for art museum, plant more trees.