49
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-5
4
The Forgotten Ground
Recollecting the
Primordial Harmony
Joseph Milne
University of Kent
In the old days, all living creatures, from the biggest animal to the tiniest bug, lived side by side with
the People in total peace and friendship ( Cherokee) ( Kerven, 2018: 140).
THE PRIMORDIAL SENSE OF ORDER
Since most ancient times, the human race has pondered its place in the great order of things. The
earliest written records are myths. These ancient myths tell of how at the beginning all the different creatures lived together in harmony. In one form or another, a great order ruled everywhere,
either through a natural wisdom of all creatures or through divine beings who presided over the
world. Other myths tell of how the world came into existence from a primordial being, such as the
Purusha in the Hindu Vedas. In some myths, there was darkness and nothing before anything came
into being; in some, there was perpetual ice; in some, there were gods in the heavens but no living
creatures on earth till they made them; and in some, there was a great void or chasm out of which
arose the world and all beings. The beginning time in some was a Golden Age, a time in which gods
and the people lived in harmony and there was no vice and all the earth was shared in common.
Whether these ancient myths conceived the world as always existent in a primordial time, or
whether the world arose or was made by divine beings, or from the breaking of the cosmic egg,
or from the great ocean, or from the original void, or the progeny of the marriage of heaven and
earth, they each give the cosmos a story, a narrative. As the philosopher Paul Ricoeur has shown,
narrative understanding is foundational to human consciousness. We initially grasp the world as
CONTENTS
The Primordial Sense of Order ........................................................................................................ 49
Orders of Truth ................................................................................................................................. 50
Narrative Consciousness and Teleology .......................................................................................... 50
The Ethical Relation with Nature .................................................................................................... 51
Justice and Nature ............................................................................................................................ 52
Nature as Intelligent ......................................................................................................................... 52
The Natural Inclination to Responsible Knowledge ........................................................................ 53
The Natural Virtues .......................................................................................................................... 54
Natural Law ..................................................................................................................................... 54
Ownership and Right Use ................................................................................................................ 55
The Rise of the Proprietorial Self .................................................................................................... 56
The Commodification of Nature ...................................................................................................... 57
Recollecting the Primordial Harmony ............................................................................................. 57
References ........................................................................................................................................ 58
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-5
4
The Forgotten Ground
Recollecting the
Primordial Harmony
Joseph Milne
University of Kent
In the old days, all living creatures, from the biggest animal to the tiniest bug, lived side by side with
the People in total peace and friendship ( Cherokee) ( Kerven, 2018: 140).
THE PRIMORDIAL SENSE OF ORDER
Since most ancient times, the human race has pondered its place in the great order of things. The
earliest written records are myths. These ancient myths tell of how at the beginning all the different creatures lived together in harmony. In one form or another, a great order ruled everywhere,
either through a natural wisdom of all creatures or through divine beings who presided over the
world. Other myths tell of how the world came into existence from a primordial being, such as the
Purusha in the Hindu Vedas. In some myths, there was darkness and nothing before anything came
into being; in some, there was perpetual ice; in some, there were gods in the heavens but no living
creatures on earth till they made them; and in some, there was a great void or chasm out of which
arose the world and all beings. The beginning time in some was a Golden Age, a time in which gods
and the people lived in harmony and there was no vice and all the earth was shared in common.
Whether these ancient myths conceived the world as always existent in a primordial time, or
whether the world arose or was made by divine beings, or from the breaking of the cosmic egg,
or from the great ocean, or from the original void, or the progeny of the marriage of heaven and
earth, they each give the cosmos a story, a narrative. As the philosopher Paul Ricoeur has shown,
narrative understanding is foundational to human consciousness. We initially grasp the world as
CONTENTS
The Primordial Sense of Order ........................................................................................................ 49
Orders of Truth ................................................................................................................................. 50
Narrative Consciousness and Teleology .......................................................................................... 50
The Ethical Relation with Nature .................................................................................................... 51
Justice and Nature ............................................................................................................................ 52
Nature as Intelligent ......................................................................................................................... 52
The Natural Inclination to Responsible Knowledge ........................................................................ 53
The Natural Virtues .......................................................................................................................... 54
Natural Law ..................................................................................................................................... 54
Ownership and Right Use ................................................................................................................ 55
The Rise of the Proprietorial Self .................................................................................................... 56
The Commodification of Nature ...................................................................................................... 57
Recollecting the Primordial Harmony ............................................................................................. 57
References ........................................................................................................................................ 58