Capture of the Past

This week, the topic of discussion was nature and non-humans; at first, I had a hard time trying to realize what that was going to have to do with philosophy. But then as we watched Grizzly Man it became more clear. Is there really a massive distinction between nature, animals, and human, or are we a part of it? If there is a distinction should we deem ourselves protectors over it.



The film I watched, though, was The Cave of Forgotten Dreams which was a perfectly capsuled archaeological site of cave paintings depicting animals. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, he accounts for his love and feelings about Nature: "In the wilderness I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature."

The cave paintings were from close to thirty thousand years ago when there is no evidence of "streets" or "villages." And the depictions of these animals make me believe that the people of that time put animals way more up on a pedestal than our society does. It almost seemed like their were sacred and completely one with their people. Why do we create such a divide between us and nature? We have started to worship the manmade and not the natural.

I also take an archaeology class this semester, and was charmed by the experimental archaeologists that showed up on this documentary. Experimental archaeologists try to imitate the past in order to try and understand culture. In this film, they tried to understand hunting and the relationship with their food. I believe this worship-like thing they have with animals is due to them giving them life. If our lives did not consist of technology and its development to what it is now and leisure activities and depending on nature for survival, our relationship would be much more like those of the past.

In our other reading George comments that humans are not really more than smart apes according to Darwinism. In class this week we are discussing ancestry of humanity and when culture really started. It makes me wonder what in particular happened in the evolution process to start art, and why? For philosophy is something we believe to be impossible for animals to comprehend, so at what point in the past did we gain a "love of knowledge."