Browsing by Author "de Villiers, Annemarie"

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    Vergil and the land : Georgic wonder and ethics of place
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) de Villiers, Annemarie; Hattingh, Johan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy. Applied Ethics.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study considers parallels between the environmental thoughts of the ancient Latin poet Vergil and three contemporary frameworks in environmental ethics: Aldo Leopold’s land ethic, Arne Naess’ Deep Ecology, and Peter Berg’s bioregionalism. Long before environmental ethics or even the notion of nature conservation existed, ancient thinkers were already reflecting on human impact on the environment and on our interaction with non-human animals. In his didactic poem on agriculture, the Georgics, Vergil presents us with a farmer who takes a holistic approach to his land. He regards his land and its non-human inhabitants with respect, sympathy and even love in some cases. This farmer is not trying to conquer the land; rather, he is keenly aware that he is taught by the land and that he needs to work with the land and its non-human inhabitants as his partners. Furthermore, he is living in a particular place, where the landscape, soil, weather, and natural vegetation are particular, and the kind of care needed for domestic crops and animals in this place also has to be particular. Vergil does not hesitate to praise the beauty of his native Italy and to wonder at the marvel of new life and new growth. Similarly, he does not conceal his disappointment and sadness, even empathy at times, at the loss of biotic life. Against the background of Leopold’s, Naess’ and Berg’s work, this study therefore argues that there is an ethic which emerges from a close reading of the Georgics, which resembles the thoughts from the land ethic, the Deep Ecology movement and bioregionalism, almost two thousand years before any of these frameworks were conceptualized. The notions of land as a community of which humans are mere members, of co-operation and co-existence, of self-realization through others, localization and of living-in-place may all be detected in Vergil’s ethical thoughts on farming. This ethic guides not only the ancient farmer but should guide humankind today to deal more ethically in our engagement with the natural world. The discussion rests on both emotional and intellectual arguments. Firstly, I argue that the natural world sparks a sense of wonder in the attuned viewer, which is heightened by an embodied experience of the non-human. The georgic farmer clearly has such a relational experience of the land and his co-inhabitants. This is georgic wonder. Secondly, I argue that georgic wonder sparks an attraction, a sense of care which informs ethical engagement with the biotic community. This study thus contends that the georgic farmer’s lived experience reveals a code of conduct which offers timeless moral principles that closely resemble those of Leopold, Naess, and Berg, prescribing how we ought to live in and with the natural world. This is the georgic ethic.