87
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_9
Chapter 9
The Obsolescence of Presuppositions
9.1 The Ineffable Landscape
Etymologically, paradox—from the Greek para = distinct from, doxa = opinion—
comports with every layer and component of the landscape that we infinitely perceive, but also with the fact, as historian John Stilgoe nicely elucidates that
“Dictionaries travel badly” and that “Minor constituents recall fragments”;
1
“…
what is natural, how do we know that…” asks Sean Ryan in a most uncannily effective essay, “Theorizing Outdoor Recreation and Ecology.
2
” With equally ineffable
and incongruent affinities, cultural leanings over millennia inform our most sovereign intuitions. How “only in the desert, they declared, could a man find freedom,”
wrote the equally hard-driving explorer Wilfred Thesiger of the rarified but steadfast
Bedu peoples he’d encountered
3
(Fig. 9.1).
Trying to comprehend another’s seemingly impossible but unequivocal lifestyle
has equally baffling comparisons with the attempt to measure the value of rare species when any imputed benefit to another, to its biome, to the world at large, defies
normal market categories, as we would think of them in economic terms. What,
generally speaking, are the ethical contributions to the planet of a hippopotamus? A
cycad? Contingent needs bear scrutiny under widely varying categories: values
deriving from “unpriced commodities” as well as fundamental behavior and the
norms, “social benefits,” and essential “existence value” inherent to both “direct
measurement” as well as any kind of use, passive or otherwise.
4
Concluding upon
1 See John R. Stilgoe, What Is Landscape? The MIT Press, 2015, pp. x1, and 125.
2 pp 99–124|, The Nature of Paradoxes/the Natural Paradox, Sean Ryan, https://link.springer.com/
chapter/10.1057/9781137385086_5, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137385086_1
#citeas, Accessed February 1, 2019.
3 See Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands, Longmans, London, 1959, p. 308.
4 See Conservation of Rare or Little-Known Species – Biological, Social, and Economic
Considerations, Edited by Martin G. Raphael and Randy Molina, in Chapter 10, “Economic
Considerations,” by Richard L. Johnson, Cindy S. Swanson, and Aaron J. Douglas, Island Press,
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. C. Tobias, J. G. Morrison, On the Nature of Ecological Paradox,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64526-7_9
Chapter 9
The Obsolescence of Presuppositions
9.1 The Ineffable Landscape
Etymologically, paradox—from the Greek para = distinct from, doxa = opinion—
comports with every layer and component of the landscape that we infinitely perceive, but also with the fact, as historian John Stilgoe nicely elucidates that
“Dictionaries travel badly” and that “Minor constituents recall fragments”;
1
“…
what is natural, how do we know that…” asks Sean Ryan in a most uncannily effective essay, “Theorizing Outdoor Recreation and Ecology.
2
” With equally ineffable
and incongruent affinities, cultural leanings over millennia inform our most sovereign intuitions. How “only in the desert, they declared, could a man find freedom,”
wrote the equally hard-driving explorer Wilfred Thesiger of the rarified but steadfast
Bedu peoples he’d encountered
3
(Fig. 9.1).
Trying to comprehend another’s seemingly impossible but unequivocal lifestyle
has equally baffling comparisons with the attempt to measure the value of rare species when any imputed benefit to another, to its biome, to the world at large, defies
normal market categories, as we would think of them in economic terms. What,
generally speaking, are the ethical contributions to the planet of a hippopotamus? A
cycad? Contingent needs bear scrutiny under widely varying categories: values
deriving from “unpriced commodities” as well as fundamental behavior and the
norms, “social benefits,” and essential “existence value” inherent to both “direct
measurement” as well as any kind of use, passive or otherwise.
4
Concluding upon
1 See John R. Stilgoe, What Is Landscape? The MIT Press, 2015, pp. x1, and 125.
2 pp 99–124|, The Nature of Paradoxes/the Natural Paradox, Sean Ryan, https://link.springer.com/
chapter/10.1057/9781137385086_5, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137385086_1
#citeas, Accessed February 1, 2019.
3 See Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands, Longmans, London, 1959, p. 308.
4 See Conservation of Rare or Little-Known Species – Biological, Social, and Economic
Considerations, Edited by Martin G. Raphael and Randy Molina, in Chapter 10, “Economic
Considerations,” by Richard L. Johnson, Cindy S. Swanson, and Aaron J. Douglas, Island Press,