Passmore, John Arthur (1914 – ) Australian Philosopher and Writer

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John Arthur Passmore (1914 – )
Australian philosopher and writer

As a philosopher, John Passmore has defended Western civilization against the charge that such societies "can solve their ecological problems only if they abandon the analytical, critical approach which has been their peculiar glory and go in search of a new ethics, a new metaphysics, a new religion." We do indeed face daunting ecological crises, Passmore states, but the best hope for solving them lies in "a more general adherence to a perfectly familiar ethic."

Born in Manly, New South Wales, Australia , on September 9, 1914, Passmore earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Sydney, where he taught philosophy from 1935 to 1949. He then served on the faculties of Otago University in New Zealand and the Australian National University, holding the chair of philosophy at the latter from 1959 to 1979. The best known of his many publications are Hume's Intentions (1952), A Hundred Years of Philosophy (1957), The Perfectibility of Man (1970), and Man's Responsibility for Nature (1974).

Part of Passmore's argument in Man's Responsibility for Nature is that people in the West, like people everywhere, cannot simply adopt a new and unfamiliar way of thinking: one must begin where one is at. He also insists that Western civilization encompasses more than one way of thinking. He argues that "central Stoic-Christian traditions are not favourable to the solution of [the West's] ecological problems..." but that these "are not the only Western traditions and their influence is steadily declining." More favorable are traditions such as Jewish thought and, especially, modern science. These are hospitable to two attitudes—a sense of stewardship and a sense of cooperation with nature—that are incompatible with the Stoic-Christian traditions, "which deny that man's relationships with nature are governed by any moral principles and assign to nature the very minimum of independent life."

As a champion of stewardship and cooperation with nature, Passmore sharply disagrees with those who see civilization as an enemy of nature or a blight upon it. On the contrary, Passmore sees in civilization "man's great memorials—his science, his philosophy, his technology, his architecture, his countryside...all of them founded upon his attempt to understand and subdue nature." He considers the transformation of the natural environment necessary and, when done with care, desirable. For there is "no good ground...for objecting to transforming as such; it can make the world more fruitful, more diversified, and more beautiful."

Passmore's case for a more responsible attitude toward nature rests, finally, on a rejection of mysticism that includes a rejection of religion and the concept of the sacred: "To take our ecological crises seriously...is to recognize, first, man's utter dependence on nature, but secondly, nature's vulnerability to human depredations—the fragility, that is, of both man and nature, for all their notable powers of recuperation. And this means that neither man nor nature is sacred or quasi-divine."

[Richard K. Dagger ]