Princeton University Press Following Natures Lead: Ancient Ways of Living in a Dying World

"What value can the study of ancient literature, history, and philosophy contribute to the modern world's ecological and economic challenges? Are older ways of thinking and living worth our time to consider, or to reconsider? Are they viable modes of engagement with the world today? Ancient peoples, despite all their pillaging and plundering, had an advantage over us: they were pre-industrialized, pre-digital, pre-capitalist, pre-reductionist, pre-postmodern, pre-posthuman. Innocent of our technology-enhanced disconnectedness from Nature, the Greeks and Romans retained an "earthiness" and proximity to the sources of their survival that many people living in developed countries no longer possess today. Classicist, farmer, and sustainability thinker and advocate M. D. Usher argues that we have much to re-learn from the ancients, and not only from their mistakes. All schools of ancient philosophy based their arguments on the premise that human behavior should align with states of affairs found in Nature, a principle epitomized by Latin authors in the phrase secundum naturam-following Nature's lead. In choosing how to live, work, and interact on an imperiled planet, it is imperative we do the same. Since our scientific understanding of Nature is much better now than it was in antiquity, our ethical responses, Usher argues, should be adjusted accordingly. Ancient ways of being in the world just might provide the counterbalance we need to find a productive alternative to unlimited technological, economic, and scientific growth. Drawing on the usual roster of classical writers as well as various other philosophers, poets, and scientists, from Henry David Thoreau and Albert Schweitzer to Walt Whitman and William Blake to more contemporary thinkers like Bruno Latour, David Graeber, and Vaclav Smil, this book shows how living a life that follows Nature's lead is possible in the twenty-first century"-- Autorid: M. D. Usher