Nature and Culture
Nature is what we are given. Culture is what we do with it.
Why Nature and Culture?
Nature is the source of culture. Nature is not closed but rather is open – open to be engaged by man's rationality. Man as anthrōpos - the Greek generic term for 'man' - due to a rational nature is the summit of creation. Culture, then, comes from the work of the human mind and human hands. History attests to this openness and engagement.
Nature and culture have been constant companions in every time and place. However, while nature does not change, culture does. And so, culture does not have to be the way it is. In Ancient Greece two approaches toward nature were put forth. One was to understand ‘what is’ (Socrates); the other was to know the cause of ‘what is’ (Democritus).
But in the 16th and 17th centuries human rationality sought to master nature. From this emerged a culture of science and technology which has come to dominate the culture of the 21st century. In such a culture, man (anthrōpos) has become separated from nature such that nature is no longer a given but a construct of human reasoning. But in spite of man's desire, efforts, and scientific accomplishments nature cannot be mastered.
Sunrise and Sunset
The image is a photograph taken in Canada's Arctic in the first week of January in the mid-1970s. But it is a sunrise and a sunset! This is the first appearance of the sun in over a month, thus ending the season of darkness and, at the same, heralding the season of light to come. And so, as the sun first appears over one horizon, it also begins its descent over the other. But how can that be for the sun rises in the East and sets in the West? No two events could be further apart than East from West.
And yet, on this day in the Canadian Arctic the two are one at the same time and in the same place. And so, while anthrōpos may know of the movement of the sun and planets, this natural event cannot be mastered.
Understanding Culture
Culture is ever-present; however, it is not fixed, for it is ever-changing. Culture, then, is dynamic. A feature of every culture is an understanding of anthrōpos, i.e. a stance toward humanity which informs how we see ourselves, each other, and the world. While this may not be in our consciousness, it is ever-present in our subconscious. The challenge, then, is to bring to the surface what is below the surface. Nature itself provides an example of this.
The universal experience of this phenomenon is the presence of a rainbow when sunlight passes through a drop of rainwater. It is in a rainbow that that colours of the spectrum are brought to the surface. The following verse also speaks of this:
Passing white light through a solid glass prism
Unveils all the colours of the spectrum.
What was concealed is now revealed.
This is called enlightenment.
A prism, then, unveils reality and thereby illuminates what is. And so, passing a culture through a 'prism,' figuratively -speaking, unveils the many parts of that culture. But it also reveals where those parts are placed within the whole. The most important part is anthrōpos and knowing where that part belongs. This is man's appropriate place – the place proper to anthrōpos. That proper place is at the summit of creation.
Understanding culture is to know where anthrōpos is situated within that culture. Passing culture through a 'prism' tells us where others place us and where the world places us. But is this place where we belong? And if not. where, then, is that place, and how can one go there?
Culture is Creative
Culture is created at every encounter in life. Culture is always present and, at the same time, is always in the process of becoming. Culture, then, is creative, and each of us is both an artist and a work of art. This is the 'why nature and culture'.
The publications presented here, each in its own way, are about this 'present' and this 'becoming - about the artist and the art.