In the last couple of years, Northeast Ohio has provided me with tons of experiences that I never knew I would have. I was born and raised in the area, but my childhood was spent between two sides of town and out of state. I’m constantly surprised by how much is really here and the more I do, the wider my eyes are opened.

February’s Creative Mornings Cleveland was held on a boat. A boat! I don’t know why I am so incredibly stoked by that, but I am. The theme was Ethics and they brought in Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, an Elmer G. Beamer-Hubert H. Schneider Professor of Ethics and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Case Western University. He is involved with several Cleveland-based philosophy groups and many of those focus on the concept of antroponomy.

Antroponomy (n.) is the science dealing with the laws regulating the development of the human organism in relation to other organisms and to environment. (Source) This is a massive topic to try to absorb, but it’s pretty much expressing the fact that we, as humans, need to self-regulate because we have reached a point where we are a malevolent force upon our planet. The Industrial Revolution kicked our destruction into high gear and the effects are now very real. If we continue going at this rate, there will be no habitable world left for future generations. The planet will always regulate itself, but with that comes the chance of it being inhabitable to us. 

I’m not going to dig too deep into this topic, but I will say that I took away some really valuable key thoughts. Because this is such a heavy topic that makes people feel very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, we may not do anything since we think that it does not matter. This kind of thinking is just as damaging as the biggest polluters. We must really begin having a serious dialogue about this issue and change within our world. The more people doing that, the bigger that effect will have on the planet as a whole. It’s hard to apply this topic to our lives because it doesn’t necessarily directly effect us right now. But if we are to leave a planet that will continue to be a safe space for humanity, then we must start somewhere.

You can find out more about this topic on Bendik-Keymer’s tumblr page.

Additional photos from that lecture are below.

The next Creative Mornings Cleveland will be on March 18th. Check out their site for more information.

Thank you for reading,