闻夕felicity对《The Biophilia Hypothesis》的笔记(3)

Natural environment and its living biota

Biophilia concept:

topics including the role of nature in human cognitive and mental development, the biological basis for diverse valucs of nature the evolutionary significance of the human aesthetic response to varying landscapes and species, the sociobiological importanceof human altruism and helping behavior, and the role of nature in humancmotional bonding and physical healing, to mention but sample.

• taxonomy of of presumably biologically based human values indicative of Biophilia tendency typology: heuristic device for describing the importance of nature in human evolution and development Biophobia as an element of biophilia.
• The human need for nature is linked not just to the material exploitation of the environment but also to the influence of the natural world on our emotional, cognitive, aesthetic, and even spiritual development.
• This hypothesized linkbetween personal identity and nature is reminiscent of Aldo Leopold's alteration(1966: 240)of Descartes's dictum of selfhood from"I think, therefore I am"(an anthropocentric conception of human identity) to"as a land-user thinketh, so is he (a biocentric view of selfhood, recognizing Leopold's concept of land as a metaphor for ecological process) .
• 9个维度dimension:
  • These hypothesized expressions of the biophilia tendency (regarded not as an instinct but as a cluster of learning rules) are referred to as the utilitarian, naturalistic, ecologistic-scicntific, aesthetic, symbolic, humanistic, moralistic, dominionistic, and negativistic valuations of narure.
• 分类由来：
  • A limited version of the typology of nine perspectives of nature was de velopcdin the late 197os as a way of describing basic perceptions of animals Kellert 1976). This typology was employed in a study of nearly 4,ooo ran domly distributed Americans residing in the forty-cight contiguous states and Alaska(Kellert 1979, 1980, 1981). Expanded versions of the typology were subsequently used in researching human perceptions of varying taxa including wolves(Kellert 1986d, 1991a), marine mammals(Kellert 1986b 991b), diverse endangered species(Kellert 1986c), invertebrates(Kellert 1986, 1992), and bears(Kellert I993a); in analyzing the nature-related per- ectives of diverse human groups such as hunters(Kellert 1978), birders Kellert 1984a) and the general public distin (Kellert 1985b), farmers guished by age(Kellert 1985a), gender(Kellert 1987), socioeconomicstatus orn Kellert 1983), and place of residence(Kellert 1981, 1984b); in exploring cross-cultural perspectives of nature and animals in Japan(Kellert 1991c) Germany(Schulz 1986; Kellert 1993b), and Botswana(Mordi 1991); andin examining historical shifts in perceptions of animals in Western socicty (Kellert 1985c)
• The point of this digression is to note that in each study the value di- mensions were revealed although they might vary, often greatly,in content and intensity. What began as merely the objective of describing variations in people's perceptions of animals gradually emerged as the possibility of universal expressions of basic human affinities for the natural world. The y be simply a convenient shorthand for describing varying ma perspectives of nature. Its occurrence, however, in a wide variety of taxodemographic, historic, and cultural contexts suggests nomic, behavioral the distinct possibility that these categories might very well be reflections pendence on the of universal and functional expressions of our species'det natural world.
• Classification of Values:
  • survival vs. personal fulfilment; 9个dimension.
    • Utilitarian:既对（物资获取）也不对（hiden material values in nature）.
    • Naturalistic:
      • 跟自然亲密接触获得的正面情绪（wonder, discovery, exploration, curiosity...）;
      • mental & physical;
      • recreation是工业化社会才开发的。
    • Ecologistic-scientific:
      • precise study and systematic inquiry of natural world; the belief that nature can be understood through empirical study.
      • takes a trained eye to observe and discover.
    • Aesthetics:
      • The human need for an aesthetic experience of nature has been suggested by the apparent inadequacy of artificial or human-made substitutes when people are exposed to them.(Ulrich 1983:109) Additional research suggests that this aesthetic prefereence for nature may be universally expressed across human cultures. (Ulrich 1983:110)【东京花园里导游的石灯笼哪个好看的问题】
      • 不同生物在（生态功能）易见性、引发人好恶上的区别&人对它们的情感态度：Living organisms often function as the centrally valued clement in people's aesthetic experience of nature. Unlike the previously described ecologistic-scientific emphasis on relatively obscure organisms, the aes thetic response is typically directed at larger, charismatic megavertebrate species. The basis for this aesthetic focus on relatively large animals is clu sive vet. in all likelihood, critical to the understanding of the human attrac tion to and dependence on nature. Leopold (1966: 137,129-130) powerfully describes this acsthetic significance in alluding to the presence and absence of wildlife in the natural landscape.
    • Symbolic:
      • human use of nature as a means of facilitating communication and thought.(Levi Strauss 1970; Shepard 1978)
      • 体现在human language & symbolic methodology：Nature, as a rich taxonomy of species and forms, provides a vast metaphorical tapestry for the creation of diverse and complex differentiations.
        • A limited indication of the symbolic function is reflected in the finding (Kellert 1983) that animals constitute more than go percent of the charac tersemployed in language acquisition and countinginchildren'spreschool books. Studies by Shepard (1978), Bettelhcim (1977), Campbell (1973) Jung(1959), and others indicate the significance of natural symbols in myth, fairy tale, story, and legend as an important means for confronting thedevelopmental problems of selfhood, identity, expressive thought, and abstraction.
        • An enduring question of modern life is the degree to which the human capacity for technological fabrication has provided an effective substitute for traditional natural symbols as the primary means of communication and thought. The unlikelihood of this possibility is suggested by the evolutionarily very short time period of modern industrial life relative to the long coursc of human evolution during which nature constituted the sole environment for our species language development( Shepard 1978). More important, the dependence of the human psyche on highly varied and re fined distinctions scems to be matched only by the extraordinary diversity, complexity, and vividness of the natural world as an extremely richand tex tured system. Plastic trees, stuffed animals, and their fabricated kin seem but a meager substitute more likely to result in a stunted capacity for sym bolic expression, metaphor, and communication.
    • Humanistic:
      • emotional attachment to individual elements of natural environmt.
      • sentimental.
      • companion animals vs. invertebrates.
      • The humanistic experience of nature can result in strong tendencies toward care and nurturance for individual elements of nature. 有助于人类的social animal特性发展，altruism, sharing. 【companion animals对Aspie的社交功能恢复】
    • Moralistic
      • strong feelings of affinity, ethical responsibility, and even reverence for the natural world. Often reflect the conviction of a fundamental spiritual meaning, order and harmony in nature.
      • Often associated with indigenous people.
      • It might be supposed that a moralistic outlook articulated in a group conext fostered feelings of kinship, affiliation, and loyalty leading to cooperative altruistic, and helping behavior.
    • Dominionistic:
      • reflects the desire to master the natural world.
      • often associated with destructive tendencies. But too narrow .
      • Survival value: Pioneer, pilgrim, explorer, settlers.
      • may foster increased knowledge of natural world.
    • Negativistic:
      • fear, aversion, antipathy toward various aspects of natural world.
      • one of the most basic motives in animal world.
      • 人类的厌恶和恐惧：reptiles, arthropod, biting and stinging invertebrates.
      • "Specicide" (Singer, 1977) : fear and alienation from nature can foster unreasonable human tendencies and infliction of excessive harm and even cruel behavior on animals and other elements of nature.
      • integral & not rational.
• Exploration:
  • material, commodity benefits; emotional, cognitive, spiritual needs in the human animal.
  • BH的批评：
    • B is an expression of cultural and class bias.
    • 如何批驳：Abraham Maslow (19754): hierarchy of needs.
  • US & Japan:
    • pronounced appreciation for the natural world.
    • limited concern for the natural world among general public.
      • Japan: love of semi-nature.
    • restricted to particular species and landscapes.