Benoît de Baere
34
ice. In a sense, these polar regions only prefigure the fate awaiting the
whole of the planet:
[Ces] terres [sont] désolées, désertes, sans verdure, ensevelies sous une neige
éternelle; nous [y] voyons [les pingouins], avec quelques pétrels, habiter ces
plages devenues inaccessibles à toutes les autres espèces d’animaux, et où ces
seuls oiseaux semblent réclamer contre la destruction et l’anéantissement, dans
ces lieux où toute Nature vivante a déjà trouvé son tombeau. Pars mundi
damnata a rerum naturâ; æternâ mersa caligine (Pline).
46
It is here that the activist agenda that characterizes Buffon’s philosophical anthropology finally shows itself for what it really is: a challenge issued to the human race. Whatever the brevity of human life,
whatever the futility of our efforts in absolute terms, when faced with
the ultimate catastrophe (a dead, frozen planet), mankind cannot but
keep fighting to improve its lot on Earth.
Conclusion
These three means of apprehending natural catastrophe – one might
say these three discrete discursive regimes of earth science, aesthetics
and anthropology – co-exist then in the Histoire naturelle. But this coexistence does not in itself make them any more compatible with one
another. We have seen why: catastrophe does not necessarily find its
place in the order that humanity perceives in nature, for it is possible
that events that appear perfectly normal – explicable, predictable, recurrent – on a global scale, appear as unforeseen and extraordinary on
the human scale. How do we then reconcile the astonishment, fear and
terror that a volcanic eruption causes to its victims with the attitude of
the scientist for whom “tout cela n’est cependant que du bruit, du feu
& de la fumée”?
47 As for the delight taken in a natural catastrophe
when it is elevated to the status of a spectacle – that is quite another
story again.
We must therefore conclude that catastrophe shatters the
frame of reference that Buffon is in the habit of using. The “événe___________________________
46 Buffon, “Les pingouins et les manchots ou les oiseaux sans ailes”, in Histoire
naturelle des oiseaux, IX, pp. 377-79.
47 Buffon, “Des volcans & des tremblemens de terre”, Histoire naturelle, I, p. 503.
34
ice. In a sense, these polar regions only prefigure the fate awaiting the
whole of the planet:
[Ces] terres [sont] désolées, désertes, sans verdure, ensevelies sous une neige
éternelle; nous [y] voyons [les pingouins], avec quelques pétrels, habiter ces
plages devenues inaccessibles à toutes les autres espèces d’animaux, et où ces
seuls oiseaux semblent réclamer contre la destruction et l’anéantissement, dans
ces lieux où toute Nature vivante a déjà trouvé son tombeau. Pars mundi
damnata a rerum naturâ; æternâ mersa caligine (Pline).
46
It is here that the activist agenda that characterizes Buffon’s philosophical anthropology finally shows itself for what it really is: a challenge issued to the human race. Whatever the brevity of human life,
whatever the futility of our efforts in absolute terms, when faced with
the ultimate catastrophe (a dead, frozen planet), mankind cannot but
keep fighting to improve its lot on Earth.
Conclusion
These three means of apprehending natural catastrophe – one might
say these three discrete discursive regimes of earth science, aesthetics
and anthropology – co-exist then in the Histoire naturelle. But this coexistence does not in itself make them any more compatible with one
another. We have seen why: catastrophe does not necessarily find its
place in the order that humanity perceives in nature, for it is possible
that events that appear perfectly normal – explicable, predictable, recurrent – on a global scale, appear as unforeseen and extraordinary on
the human scale. How do we then reconcile the astonishment, fear and
terror that a volcanic eruption causes to its victims with the attitude of
the scientist for whom “tout cela n’est cependant que du bruit, du feu
& de la fumée”?
47 As for the delight taken in a natural catastrophe
when it is elevated to the status of a spectacle – that is quite another
story again.
We must therefore conclude that catastrophe shatters the
frame of reference that Buffon is in the habit of using. The “événe___________________________
46 Buffon, “Les pingouins et les manchots ou les oiseaux sans ailes”, in Histoire
naturelle des oiseaux, IX, pp. 377-79.
47 Buffon, “Des volcans & des tremblemens de terre”, Histoire naturelle, I, p. 503.