CONSIDER: S.P.E.C.I.E.S. — PART I. . .

SPECIES = for example, the human race.

There are any number of questions that might emerge as one considers the concept of the SPECIES that is the human race. Here is one that I have been holding for some time: What are the specific capabilities that are needed to enhance health and to ensure that there is a universal respect for human dignity – for more nurturance and less depletion of the SPECIES?

In response to this question, the Care Ethics Philosopher, Martha Nussbaum suggests a list of attainable human capabilities that we should see as normative (note the words ‘attainable’ and ‘normative’). They are:
1. Being able to live a normal length of lifespan
2. Having good health
3. Maintain bodily integrity
4. Being able to use senses, imagination and think
5. Having emotions and emotional attachments
6. Possess practical reason to form a conception of the good
7. Have social affiliations that are meaningful and respectful
8. Express concern for other species
9. Be able to play
10. Have control over one’s material and political environment

‘Normative’ – This is Martha Nussbaum’s list that she considers to be the ‘standard,’ the ‘norm.’ In addition, some of these might not be ‘attainable’ – given how terms are defined – and some might not be ‘attainable’ given a particular society, but the list does remind us that human life has a whole set of dimensions – all of which are components of what we should see as nurturing health and human dignity in a broad sense. We might not be able to save all the folks in the life boat but we can certainly build better and larger life boats so they would have the capacity to carry more people and more supplies.

Today, gentle reader, I am considering SPECIES in a different way; I am considering S.P.E.C.I.E.S. I am considering that the health of the human SPECIES contains seven dimensions that can be discerned in the acronym: S.P.E.C.I.E.S. I invite you to consider along with me.

CONSIDER: S.P.E.C.I.E.S. This concept contains seven dimensions that help determine the health or dis-ease of the human species as these dimensions help frame the species known as ‘human beings.’

The first ‘S’ is the Spiritual dimension; for some it is ‘Spirit’ – the ‘life breath’ which sustains us.

The ‘P’ is the Physical dimension.

The first ‘E’ is the Emotional dimension.

The ‘C’ is the Cultural dimension.

The ‘I’ is the Intellectual dimension.

The second ‘E’ is the Environmental dimension.

And, the second ‘S’ is the Social dimension.

As a species we humans are charged with – entrusted with, if you will – the challenge and obligation to nurture each of these dimensions more than deplete them. Of course, as human beings we are, by nature, imperfect, and so we will choose depletion at times even when we know we are doing so (part of the reason we make this choice, it seems to me, is that we are full of hubris which leads us to believe that we can fix it after we deplete it).

The health of these species dimensions requires that we cooperate with one another; we are truly ‘in this together’ and we are truly ‘interdependent’ (no one part of the whole species can ensure the health of the species – however, one part can ensure the depletion of all).