in defense of inequality ii: it’s divine!. in defense of inequality 2: it’s divine!...

In Defense of Inequality II: It’s Divine!

In Defense of Inequality 2:It’s Divine!

Historical/Biographical Background God and the Cosmic Order Man’s Place in Nature Inequality as Divine Will

I. Historical/Biographical Background

“A little learning is a dangerous thing."

"Good nature and good sense must ever join;

To err is human, to forgive divine."

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread"

-- Essay on Criticism

Alexander Pope

(1688-1744)

I. Historical/Biographical Background

One of the leading poets of the English Elightenment

born in 1688 to Catholic parents, which meant, in England at that time, limited access to schooling

Physically handicapped (suffered from spinal tuberculosis), but nonetheless was an active player in London literary scene

Died at home in 1744 from complications

II. God and the Cosmic Order

“Expatiate free o’er all this scene of Man;

A mighty maze! But not with a plan”

-- “Essay on Man”

Epistle 1, lines 5-6


“Say first, of God above, or Man below,

What can we reason, but from what we know?

Of Man what we see, but his station here,

From which to reason, or to which refer?

Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known

‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own”

-- 1, 16-22


In order to discover the cosmic order and man’s place in nature, we need to observe the universe, or at least those parts of which we can form a proper understanding

So what does observation of the universe reveal?

What is the Divine Plan for the universe?


“Of Systems possible, if ‘tis confessed

That Wisdom infinite must form the best,

Where all must full or not coheret be,

And all that rises, rise in due degree;

Then, in the scale of reas’ning life, ‘tis plain

There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man”

-- I, 42-48


Proof of God’s existence From G.W. Leibniz’s

Theodicy (1710)

Order of the Universe Divine Watchmaker

Plenitude Continuity Chain of being


If God is the Creator of the Universe, raises two questions:

What sort of God is it? What sort of Creation did it fashion?


Attributes of God: Omnipotent -- all powerful Omniscient -- all knowing Omnibenevolent -- all good


What sort of Creation did God fashion? How is it ordered? How “good” is it? (that is, did the Divine

Watchmaker fashion a Timex or a Rolex?)


The universe is organized along 3 ideas:

1. Plenitude -- The idea that the universe should be as “full” as possible

Follows from the idea that a just God would not deny existence to any potential being

“Of System’s possible, if ‘tis confessed


Where all must full or not coherent be,

And all that rises, rise in due degree”

-- I, 43-46


2. Continuity – the idea that no “gaps” exist between the various parts of creation Follows from the idea of plenitude, in that if the

universe is as full as possible, we should not find any gaps in the sequence


3) The Chain of Being – description of the order of nature resulting from the principles of plenitude and continuity The arrangement of all natural phenomena along a

single continuum:


“Vast chain of Being, which from God began,

Nature’s ethereal, human, angel, man

Beast, bird, fish, insect! what no eye can see,

No glass can reach! from Infinite to thee,

From thee to Nothing! -- On superior pow’rs

Were we to press, inferior might on ours:

Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed:


“From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike,

Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.”

-- I, 237-247

God

Angels

Extraterrestrials

Human Beings

Mammals

Reptiles

Fish

Plants

Pond Scum

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING


“Nothing is foreign: Parts relate to whole;

One all-extending, all-preserving Soul

Connects each being, greatest with the least;

Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beast;

All served, all serving! nothing stands alone;

The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.”

III, 21-26


Given that the universe is ordered as a chain or scale of being; how “good” is that universe?

Pope’s answer:


“All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;

All Discord, Harmony, not understood;

All partial Evil, universal Good;

And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite,

One truth is clear, “WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT”

-- II, 289-294

III. Man’s Place in Nature

Given this understanding of the universe, where do human beings fit into the overall scheme of things?

“Superior beings, when of late they saw

A mortal Man unfold all Nature’s law,

Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,

And showed a NEWTON as we show an Ape.”

-- II, 31-34

God

Angels

Extraterrestrials(superior beings)

Human Beings

Mammals

Reptiles

Fish

Plants

Pond Scum

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Possible breaks in chain


Remember:“Of Systems possible, if ‘tis confessed


Where all must full or not coherent be,

And all that rises, rise in due degree”

Human Beings

Mammals

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Europeans

Asians

Pacific Islanders

Americans

Africans

“Orangs outang”

Elephants

Beavers


Remember:

“Far as Creation’s ample range extends,

The scale of sensual, mental pow’rs ascends:

Mark how it mounts to Man’s imperial race,

From the green myriads in the peopled grass...

-- I, 207-210


In the same stanza Pope catalogs the special gifts of a variety of species and then concludes:

“How instinct varies in the grov’ling swine,

Compared, half-reas’ning elephant, with thine:

Twixt that, and Reason how allied;

What thin partition Sense from Thought divide:

And Middle natures, how they long to join,

Yet never pass th’ insuperable line”

-- II, 222-228

Human Beings

Mammals

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Europeans

Asians

Pacific Islanders

Americans

Africans

“Orangs outang”

Elephants

Beavers

Europeans

Asians

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Southern Europe

Western Europe

Northern Europe

Caucasus Region

King

Peasants

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Gentlemen

Counts

Dukes

Earls

God

Angels

Extraterrestrials(superior beings)

Human Beings

Mammals

Reptiles

Fish

Plants

Pond Scum

THE

GREAT

CHAIN

OF

BEING

Possible breaks in chain


Bridge potential gap in chain by emphasizing physical/behavioral similarities between populations presumed to be closest to the break

Emphasize the human attributes of the newly discovered great apes and the simian attributes of the newly “discovered” peoples of Africa & Australia


Physical similarities between orangs outang and human beings: 1699 Edward Tyson

(1651-1708) describes a primate called a “pygmie” that had a “human face” and ears which “differ nothing from the human form”

Tyson’s “Pygmie” (1699)


1744 William Smith (English explorer) described a primate called a “boggoe” or “mandrill” that bore “a near resemblance of a human creature, though nothing at all like an Ape.”

In the Second Discourse, Rousseau quotes a passage from a natural history text describing a “pongo” with “a human face” and which “resembles man exactly.”


On the other hand, human beings were sometimes described in terms of their animal similarities: 1708 François Leguat compared an ape to a

Hottentot and claimed that “its Face had no other Hair upon it than the Eyebrows, and in general it much resembled one of those Grotesque Faces which the Female Hottentots have at the Cape”


1718 Daniel Beeckman wrote that his orang was “handsomer I am sure than some Hottentots that I have seen.”

Beeckman’s orang


Physical similarity included reports that orangs walked like human beings

Chimpaneze


Behavioral similarities of apes and humans 1625 Samuel Purchas (1577-1626) reports that

pongos may have a kind of religious understanding

1774 Lord Monboddo reports that orangs outang have a sense of justice

Numerous reports that some primates could speak L’abbé Prévost wrote that “guinous” are suspected of

feigning muteness in order to escape being used as slaves


Other behavioral similarities: Prévost and Tyson report on the elegant table

manners of primates introduced to European dining

Tyson said his pygmie naturally adopted a conservative view towards alcohol and nudity

Reports from 1641 through 1788 report that orangs have high degree of sexual modesty

Female Orang outang (1641 edition)

Female Orang outang (1744 edition)

Female Orangs

Gaze averted

Female Orangs

Gaze averted

Hands covering genitals

Female Orangs

Softer jaw line

Female Orangs

Softer jaw line

More “human” like mammaries


Tyson reported that when given a choice of associating with either human beings or monkeys, his pygmie preferred human beings

III. Man’s Place in Nature 1748 Benoît de Maillet writes:

“If we could not say that these living creatures were men, at least they resembled them so much that it would have been unfair to consider them only as animals.”

Benoît de Maillet(1656-1738)


Flip side of finding the missing link by raising animals was denigrating human populations, especially Africans and specifically Hottentots

Naturalists and explorers routinely drew parallels between these people and the newly discovered great apes


Physical similarities 1696 Sir John Ovington describes Hottentots as

“the very reverse of Human kind, so that if there’s any medium between a Rational Animal and a Beast, the Hotantot lays the fairest claim to that Species.”

1718 Beeckman claimed that Hottentots “are not really unlike Monkeys or Baboons in their Gestures and Postures, especially when they sit Sunning themselves.”


Beeckman goes on to add that Hottentot men have “broad flat noses, blubber lips, great heads, disagreeable features, short trifled Hair” and that “nothing can be more ugly.”

Hottentot women were “as ugly in their kind as the Men, having long flabby breasts odiously dangling down to the waist, which they can toss over their shoulders for the children to suck.”


This confirms an earlier report (1632) from English explorer Sir Thomas Herbert describing similar attributes in these women.


1774 Oliver Goldsmith would later extend this attribute to all African women, noting that once they begin childbearing their breasts “hang down to the navel; and it is customary with them, to suckle the child at their backs, by throwing the breast over the shoulder.”


Behavioral similarities“As their persons are thus naturally deformed, at least to our imaginations, their minds are equally incapable of strong exertions.” -- Oliver Goldsmith (1774)


Behavioral Similarities 1753 Count Buffon writes that the Africans of

Guiney “appear to be perfectly stupid, not being able to count beyond the number three, that they never think spontaneously; that they have no memory, the past and the future being equally unknown to them.”

Beeckman writes that Hottentots are “filthy animals” who “hardly deserve the name of Rational Creatures.”


On speech: Beeckman compared Hottentot speech to the

cackle of hens or turkeys Herbert described it as “apishly sounded (with

whom ‘tis thought they mix unnaturally)” and “very hard to be counterfeited” since it was voiced “like the Irish.”


African sexual practices Contrast with orang descriptions Herbert claimed that Hottentot women expressed

gratitude by displaying their genitalia and noted that these people live communally “coupling without distinction, the name of wife or brother unknown among these incestuous Troglodites.”


Prévost mentions that marriage was unknown among the Africans in Bomma

1745 John Green describes the Africans of Teneriffe as a “rude uncivilized people” living in a society where “everyone took as many women as he pleased.”


Orangs might be offspring of human/simian copulation 1688 Olfert Dapper claimed that the orangs of the

Congo were so numerous and so nearly human in appearance that “it has entered the minds of some travelers that they may be the offspring of a woman and a monkey”


Leguat noted that “Nature who does not oppose the copulation of

horses with asses, may well admit that of an ape with a female animal that resembles him, especially where the latter is not restrained by any principle. An ape and a negro slave born and brought up out of the knowledge of God, have not less similitude between them than an Ass and a Mare.”


Slavery and African/Primate relations Slavery is a uniquely human institution Africans subjugate inferior African tribes Orangs subjugate some Africans


Monboddo writes: “The great Orang Outang carries off boys and

girls to make slaves of them, which not only shows him, in my apprehension to be a man, but proves that he lives in society, and must have made some progress in the arts of civil life; for we hear of no nations altogether barbarous who use slaves.”


Contemporary descriptions of both primates and so-called “primitive” human populations were meant to demonstrate continuity of the chain of being in God’s creation

IV. Inequality as Divine Will

In other words, inequality is sanctioned by God:

“ORDER is heav’ns first law; and this confessed

Some are and must be greater than the rest”

-- IV, 49-50

in defense of inequality ii: it’s divine!. in defense of inequality 2: it’s divine!...

Documents

cosmic orderif god

cosmic orderattributes

god fashion

sort of god

just god

cosmic orderthe universe

cosmic ordercontinuity

cosmic ordersay