Star Wars and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) - Kevin Decker [46]
So while the intrinsic value of living individuals militates against their arbitrary destruction or use, the fact that intrinsic value doesn’t imply absolute value means that sometimes our ethical obligations to organisms may be trumped by other obligations. Choices can be made as to the importance of competing values. For Rolston, there’s a hierarchy of value in nature, such that some values can be overridden by others. Respecting “nature” because it has value doesn’t mean respecting “equality” among all living things. A self-conscious animal, say a Wookiee, can be said to have more value than a less conscious animal like a mynock. And yet a mynock, insofar as it has an ability to feel pleasure and pain, will have more value than a non-conscious rock.
But while there’s hierarchy of value in Rolston’s philosophy such that more sophisticated organisms have more value, this doesn’t always mean “humans first.” As he says, “Humans count enough to have the right to flourish here on Earth, but not so much that we have the right to degrade or shut down ecosystems, not at least without a burden of proof that there is an overriding cultural gain.”63 But although human interests will lose sometimes (when it comes to deforestation, for example), what we lose is also a good thing to lose, namely, the exploitative attitude toward nature. And what we stand to gain is a more harmonious relationship with nature.64 Our obligation is to become responsible members of a human and biotic community. Rolston holds that many things need to be taken into account when making moral choices between individual animal, environmental, and human interests. For example, in our efforts to preserve the environment while pursuing human interests, special priority should be given to rare species, to species which play particularly vital roles in ecosystems, to biodiversity in the ecosystem, and to the process (rather than just the products) of nature.
Now when it comes to the Star Wars galaxy, environmental concerns aren’t exactly the first priority. Yet there is evidence of a respect for nature and life evident in the Jedi worldview.
“May The Force Be with You”: Lessons from the Jedi
On the face of it, the Jedi way has much in common with a kind of mind-body dualism, whereby one must overcome his biological nature rather than become unified with it.65 After all, Yoda affirms to Luke that “luminous beings are we . . . not this crude matter.” Yoda further insists that we not judge him by his physical size and proves why in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. After death, a Jedi’s body may disappear, and indeed Obi-Wan Kenobi becomes even more powerful after he dies and loses his physical being. This seems to suggest that the Jedi are more like “minds” who temporarily learn to work within their bodies, as one might learn to move around in a car. At the very least, this means that consciousness, the mental life of the Jedi, is more than just biological matter.
But this isn’t the whole picture. After all, life creates the Force. “It’s an energy field created by all living things,” Obi-Wan tells Luke. The point is echoed by Yoda: “For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us . . . You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you . . . me . . . the tree . . . the rock . . . everywhere!” This isn’t so much the “mind-over-matter” picture as one of mind and matter interacting as two parts of a whole. A Jedi padawan’s task is to become more in touch with the physical world by being more at one with the Force—a task achieved through both physical and mental training. A Jedi must learn to feel the Force, rather than just think about it. This allows him to move physical objects without touching them, influence other minds, and “see” without looking.
There’s an important biological