8 - Origins: political, religious and cultural diagnoses of environmental problems

Summary

How dangerous are our ideas?

The study of ethics, politics, history, the sciences and literature is dominated by claims about significant thoughts, great books (dealing with “great ideas”) and even “dangerous ideas”. Daniel Dennett called his book on evolutionary theory Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Visions, ideas and ideals are often said to have driven our cultural and intellectual progress. Ideas can be socially or emotionally unsettling, or can be at the centre of waves of progress. In a three-volume study of the growth of Western science, A. C. Crombie announced that the “history of science” was the “history of a vision and an argument initiated in the West by ancient Greek philosophers, mathematicians, physicians” (1994: vol. 1, 3). It is not only progress that is driven by ideas and arguments. Feminists claim that patriarchal modes of thought have structured not only men's relations with women, but have been a component of colonial exploitation and have played a part in developing and maintaining social class divisions and even the exploitation of nature and animals.

Can ideas, beliefs, visions and arguments really do these things? People obviously hold – and claim to act under the sway of – beliefs and ideals. Writers, political activists and philosophers often assume that their words, ideas and theories have spurred people into action on occasion. But sometimes the words come after the deeds, and some theories maybe reflect rather than create social, cultural and political reality.