But my present point is a much wider one. What we need, in order to feel at home in the world, is certainly not a belief that it was made for us. We are at home in this world because we were made for it. we have developed here, on this planet, and are adapted to live here. Our emotional constitution is part of that adaptation. We are not fit to live anywhere else. (The possibility, such as it is, of surviving briefly, and at ruinous expense in space-craft and the like is just parasitical; it depends on extending the conditions we are used to into a few bizarre corners, not on our being able to live in other conditions.)


Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (1979).

Mary Midgley Quotes

But my present point is a much wider one. What we need, in order to feel at home in the world, is certainly not a belief that it was made for us. We...

But my present point is a much wider one. What we need, in order to feel at home in the world, is certainly not a belief that it was made for us. We...

But my present point is a much wider one. What we need, in order to feel at home in the world, is certainly not a belief that it was made for us. We...

But my present point is a much wider one. What we need, in order to feel at home in the world, is certainly not a belief that it was made for us. We...