L'is human knowledgeable?

On Thursday 28 April, in the presence of Edgar Morin, sociologist and philosopher, Patrick Viveret, philosopher and economist, and David Wahl, writer and playwright, the second debate was held on the theme: "Is the human being a scholar? "at the Ministry of the Environment, as part of the Citizens for the Planet debates. (1). On this occasion, more than 200 people gathered to exchange with the guests. In introduction, Gilles Boeuf, Adviser in the Minister's office, recalled some elements before launching the debate.

Dn the 1750s, a Swedish naturalist and botanist, Carl von Linné invented (Systema naturae) binomial classification: a genus name with an upper case letter and a species name with a lower case letter to classify all living things, from bacteria to vertebrates. A few examples are: Canis canisthe dog, Canis lupus, the wolfVibrio choleraeAll living species are then described and the "types" are deposited in natural history museums where they are the reference in all countries.

When he died in 1778, Linnaeus and his collaborators, imitated by naturalists and scientists from all over the world, described about 12,000 species of plants and animals. We are at over 2 million today, and continue to deposit about 16 to 18,000 new species each year.

In 1758, Linnaeus called the human Homo sapiens: "the learned man". Species had been, and still are, described today as "horribilis", "horridus", "gulo" (the glutton), "atrox", "ferox" (rattlesnakes)... and we have called ourselves "sapiens". Now, when we look today at our relations with other species, at the attitude of humans towards nature and the biodiversity that surrounds us, we may wonder whether we deserve this term.

These questions have been the subject of debate: how to analyse our relations with the living world in which we find ourselves? How do we look at our responsibilities towards it? We are in fact the species which alone considers itself "worthy" and which denies this dignity to others, and we have put into a "regulated cup" this nature in which we are immersed and which we cannot do without. We only eat and cooperate with "biological" food and yet today, and for several thousand years now, we have been destroying, polluting, overexploiting, spreading everything everywhere and having a very deleterious influence on the climate. So humans, "faber" and not yet "sapiens"?

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(1) The Citizens' Debates for the Planet is a cycle of debates devoted to life sciences and biodiversity, held once a month at the Ministry.

In order to extend the exchanges of the COP21 and thus continue the work of reflection and mobilization until the COP22 which will take place in Marrakech, a cycle of debates with philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, scientists, economists and artists committed to sustainable development has been set up around the major issues related to life science and biodiversity.

These debates, moderated by Gilles Bœuf, Ségolène Royal's scientific advisor, take place once a month at the Hotel de Roquelaure, on Thursdays from 7 to 8.30 pm around 3 to 4 personalities.