In Defense of Inequality II: It’s Divine!

1. In Defense of Inequality II: It’s Divine!

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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

6. II. God and the Cosmic Order “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

7. II. God and the Cosmic Order • 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?

8. II. God and the Cosmic Order “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

9. II. God and the Cosmic Order • Proof of God’s existence • From G.W. Leibniz’s Theodicy (1710) • Order of the Universe • Divine Watchmaker • Plenitude • Continuity • Chain of being

10. II. God and the Cosmic Order • If God is the Creator of the Universe, raises two questions: • What sort of God is it? • What sort of Creation did it fashion?

11. II. God and the Cosmic Order • Attributes of God: • Omnipotent -- all powerful • Omniscient -- all knowing • Omnibenevolent -- all good

12. II. God and the Cosmic Order • 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?)

13. II. God and the Cosmic Order • The universe is organized along 3 ideas: • 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 That Wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must full or not coherent be, And all that rises, rise in due degree” -- I, 43-46

14. II. God and the Cosmic Order • 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

15. II. God and the Cosmic Order • 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:

16. II. God and the Cosmic Order “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:

17. II. God and the Cosmic Order “From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.” -- I, 237-247

18. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G God Angels Extraterrestrials Human Beings Mammals Reptiles Fish Plants Pond Scum

19. II. God and the Cosmic Order “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

20. II. God and the Cosmic Order • Given that the universe is ordered as a chain or scale of being; how “good” is that universe? • Pope’s answer:

21. II. God and the Cosmic Order “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

22. 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

23. III. Man’s Place in Nature

24. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G God Angels Extraterrestrials (superior beings) Possible breaks in chain Human Beings Mammals Reptiles Fish Plants Pond Scum

25. III. Man’s Place in Nature • Remember: “Of Systems possible, if ‘tis confessed That Wisdom infinite must form the best, Where all must full or not coherent be, And all that rises, rise in due degree”

26. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G Europeans Asians Human Beings Americans Pacific Islanders Africans “Orangs outang” Elephants Mammals Beavers

27. III. Man’s Place in Nature 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

28. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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

29. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G Europeans Asians Human Beings Americans Pacific Islanders Africans “Orangs outang” Elephants Mammals Beavers

30. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G Europeans Caucasus Region Northern Europe Western Europe Southern Europe Asians

31. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G King Earls Dukes Counts Gentlemen Peasants

32. T H E G R E A T C H A I N O F B E I N G God Angels Extraterrestrials (superior beings) Possible breaks in chain Human Beings Mammals Reptiles Fish Plants Pond Scum

33. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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

34. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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”

35. Tyson’s “Pygmie” (1699)

36. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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.”

37. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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”

38. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 1718 Daniel Beeckman wrote that his orang was “handsomer I am sure than some Hottentots that I have seen.” • Beeckman’s orang

39. III. Man’s Place in Nature • Physical similarity included reports that orangs walked like human beings

40. Chimpaneze

41. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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

42. III. Man’s Place in Nature • 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

43. Female Orang outang (1641 edition)

44. Female Orang outang (1744 edition)

45. Female Orangs Gaze averted

46. Female Orangs Gaze averted Hands covering genitals

47. Female Orangs Softer jaw line

48. Female Orangs Softer jaw line More “human” like mammaries

49. III. Man’s Place in Nature • Tyson reported that when given a choice of associating with either human beings or monkeys, his pygmie preferred human beings

50. 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)