54
Subtle Agroecologies
Cicero, taking up this question from a Stoic perspective, conceives of this responsibility in a number
of steps:
In order to have value, a thing must either be itself in harmony with nature or else be the means of
procuring something which is so. All objects, then, that are in accordance with nature are relatively
choiceworthy on their own account, while their opposites have negative value and call for rejection. The
primary duty is that the creature should maintain itself in its natural constitution; next, that it should
cleave to all that is in harmony with nature and spurn all that is not; and when once this principle of
choice and rejection has been arrived at, the next stage is choice, conditioned by inchoate duty; next
such a choice is exercised continuously; fnally, it is rendered unwavering and in thorough agreement
with nature; and at that stage the conception of what good really is begins to dawn within us and be
understood.
Cicero, De Finibus, III, 20–21, in Hicks (2018: 80)
Contrary to the Enlightenment notion that ‘fact’ and ‘value’ cannot be related, Cicero here shows
how the value of anything is to be judged by its integrity or coherence within itself or its harmony
with nature as a whole. Every creature has a duty to maintain its integrity, and while the other creatures do this spontaneously through natural inclination, human nature must take up that obligation
consciously and deliberately. To elect to ‘cleave to all that is in harmony with nature’ (Cicero, ibid) is
a rational act of aligning thought and action to the greater whole. It is at once a moral and a rational
act. Cicero considers holding to action of this kind to be the human duty, and only then can a true
understanding of the good begin to be realised.
THE NATURAL VIRTUES
To live with this kind of resolution is to live virtuously. The virtues are the ancient ground of ethics,
as distinct from modern deontological ethics. The virtues 10 bring order to the inner being and enable
right action. According to Zeno, they establish at once individual autonomy and the capacity to act
in harmony with nature:
The goal of all these virtues is to live consistently with nature. Each one enables a human being to
achieve this [goal] in his own way; for [a human] has from nature inclinations to discover what is appropriate and to stabilize his impulses and to stand frm and to distribute [fairly]. And each of the virtues
does what is consonant [with these inclinations] and does its own job, thus enabling a human being to
live consistently with nature.
Inwood and Gerson (2008: 26)
Just as the mind has an inclination to reach out to knowledge and understanding, as Aristotle says
in the opening of his Metaphysics, so likewise it inclines to the good and to knowledge of the good.
These are the ‘inclinations to discover what is appropriate’, as Zeno puts it. And again, as Aristotle
says, the human being desires not only to live, but to live well (Aristotle, 2002. 1095a: 15–22).
NATURAL LAW
Gathering together our observations on the primordial sense of the whole, the narrative sense, the
teleological order of nature, and the ethical sense and intuition of the good, we can trace how this
integrated way of considering reality gave birth to the great tradition of Natural Law. This tradition
shaped the thought and way of life in the Middle Ages until it fnally succumbed to the mechanistic
vision of the world in the seventeenth century. The break with the Natural Law tradition severed the
relationship of the true and the good, the rational and the ethical, in both the sciences and politics.
10 Primarily, the four cardinal virtues of prudence, courage, justice and temperance.
Subtle Agroecologies
Cicero, taking up this question from a Stoic perspective, conceives of this responsibility in a number
of steps:
In order to have value, a thing must either be itself in harmony with nature or else be the means of
procuring something which is so. All objects, then, that are in accordance with nature are relatively
choiceworthy on their own account, while their opposites have negative value and call for rejection. The
primary duty is that the creature should maintain itself in its natural constitution; next, that it should
cleave to all that is in harmony with nature and spurn all that is not; and when once this principle of
choice and rejection has been arrived at, the next stage is choice, conditioned by inchoate duty; next
such a choice is exercised continuously; fnally, it is rendered unwavering and in thorough agreement
with nature; and at that stage the conception of what good really is begins to dawn within us and be
understood.
Cicero, De Finibus, III, 20–21, in Hicks (2018: 80)
Contrary to the Enlightenment notion that ‘fact’ and ‘value’ cannot be related, Cicero here shows
how the value of anything is to be judged by its integrity or coherence within itself or its harmony
with nature as a whole. Every creature has a duty to maintain its integrity, and while the other creatures do this spontaneously through natural inclination, human nature must take up that obligation
consciously and deliberately. To elect to ‘cleave to all that is in harmony with nature’ (Cicero, ibid) is
a rational act of aligning thought and action to the greater whole. It is at once a moral and a rational
act. Cicero considers holding to action of this kind to be the human duty, and only then can a true
understanding of the good begin to be realised.
THE NATURAL VIRTUES
To live with this kind of resolution is to live virtuously. The virtues are the ancient ground of ethics,
as distinct from modern deontological ethics. The virtues 10 bring order to the inner being and enable
right action. According to Zeno, they establish at once individual autonomy and the capacity to act
in harmony with nature:
The goal of all these virtues is to live consistently with nature. Each one enables a human being to
achieve this [goal] in his own way; for [a human] has from nature inclinations to discover what is appropriate and to stabilize his impulses and to stand frm and to distribute [fairly]. And each of the virtues
does what is consonant [with these inclinations] and does its own job, thus enabling a human being to
live consistently with nature.
Inwood and Gerson (2008: 26)
Just as the mind has an inclination to reach out to knowledge and understanding, as Aristotle says
in the opening of his Metaphysics, so likewise it inclines to the good and to knowledge of the good.
These are the ‘inclinations to discover what is appropriate’, as Zeno puts it. And again, as Aristotle
says, the human being desires not only to live, but to live well (Aristotle, 2002. 1095a: 15–22).
NATURAL LAW
Gathering together our observations on the primordial sense of the whole, the narrative sense, the
teleological order of nature, and the ethical sense and intuition of the good, we can trace how this
integrated way of considering reality gave birth to the great tradition of Natural Law. This tradition
shaped the thought and way of life in the Middle Ages until it fnally succumbed to the mechanistic
vision of the world in the seventeenth century. The break with the Natural Law tradition severed the
relationship of the true and the good, the rational and the ethical, in both the sciences and politics.
10 Primarily, the four cardinal virtues of prudence, courage, justice and temperance.