Incessantly Growing Human Needs — A Succesful Strategy for Survival

Another great post. Discussing the relationship between man and nature is too important to be left to religious fanatics, who unfortunately dominate the public discourse. I sigh with relief when the debates about nature and the environment are joined by people with an open mind, capable of critical thinking and willing to let fallible science guide them to the closest approximations to truth that we are capable of. James Lovelock seems to be one of them. Thanks for pointing me to him (and many other authors well worth reading), Nick. 

Human by Virtue of Language

In fact, the key to cultural evolution is the human language which is different from any other animal language in that it enables humans to systematically describe things, thus literally objectifying (turning into an object open to public assessment) what people feel and think. From the objectifying descriptive function of human language, man derives the argumentative function, the ability to probe, assess and criticise what others say and think. No other animal can do that. These peculiar functions of the human language and the resultant ability to argue and systematically question matters in an unending quest to learn more about the world he lives in — this is what makes human beings human beings. Which is, incidentally, why dogmatism, which suppresses this fundamental quality of being a human, is actually inhumane.

Now, the link between the anthropological theory of man as the critical animal — the animal capable of systematic criticism — and economics is provided by my theory of human adaptation for survival.

Man — Creator of Needs

Owing to his ability to question their surroundings, humans have come to evolve a unique way of survival. They survive by inventing new needs. Which is why humans have central heating unlike any other animals who would welcome pleasant innovations if only they had the ability to bring them about.

We Survive By Inventing New Desires

Surviving by creating new needs is so natural to us that we hardly notice our practising it daily.  Say, all of a sudden something is wrong with the tea pot: its wobbling on the kitchen table. It has never done that before. Now you are likely to develop desires that you never had before. You start inspecting the tea pot in novel ways, testing it in different ways until you begin to understand what the problem is. Now you will continue to develop new desires: you come up with theories and visions of repairing the pot, perhaps affixing a certain piece to its bottom so as to stabilise it again. Animals do not repair pots because they are not particularly inventive; man cannot help being inventive because of its developed critical faculties. In this fashion man survives by altering its environment. 

Natural Resources Do Not Exist, Only Human-Induced Resources

There are no such things as natural resources. Something becomes a resource because man discovers/invents a way to link a useless object with a practical way to make it serve a human desire. Only if this process has been completed does a "natural resource" spring into life. And man's ability to come up with ingenious solutions is unlimited unlike those useless things that man might turn into a resource.

(Economic) Growth Is the Natural and the Right Condition of a Planet Inhabited by Humans

By his nature man grows his resources. Defining new desires all the time and realising a large number of them is the fundamental characteristic of the human being. In other words, she will always tend toward the growth of her wealth, her ability to satisfy her desires and thus generate economic growth if no one hinders her to do so.

Why Man Is a Masterful Steward of Nature

The fact that man incessantly pursues the fulfillment of his desires is of itself the reason why he has been such a masterful steward of nature. Ultimately, when we speak of nature, we mean the relationship between man and nature. For nature per se does not exist. Nature exists only through the conceptions man has of her. Perversions, such as the green myth that man is a net destroyer of nature, and dead-ends aside, man naturally seeks a balance with nature. That is, he endeavours to overcome nature's hostility to him and turn her into his maiden. Nature is neither a subject with her own views, nor does she deserve to be worshiped for her own sake, as if she were a God, as the green cult suggests. 

Nature ought to be man's instrument, and if this instrument helps us satisfy our needs then nature is in balance, she is being treated right and is protected (in her capacity to serve man). 

Because he so skillfully subjects nature to his desires, man has been able to constantly increase his resource base. The greatest triumph of all was the surmounting of the Malthusian trap, perhaps 250 years ago. Nature lost her capacity to deny (by diminishing returns to land) mankind the constant growth of per capita income. This was the end of the greatest environmental degradation of all: land that cannot sustain human being. Our species has learnt to ensure the environment is in her healthiest state, i. e. fit to support the growing wealth, convenience, and security of the human being.