Experiencing the World with Care

Various disciplines and cultural traditions have characterised the pre-cognitive perception of the world in different ways: an existential angst when confronting the naked world; a wonder-full epiphany induced by disin­terested seeing; listening to the voice of nature; and experiencing things of daily use as friends. Insofar as the mode of perceiving the world determines how we interact with it, perception is an ethical act. Our long-held Western dualism and anthropocentrism have been largely responsible for justifying human dominion over the world, leading to today’s environmental crisis. Experiencing things on their own terms with humility and working with them offers a much-needed paradigm change. This mode of experiencing the world helps cultivate the awareness that humans and more-than-humans are co-dwellers of this world, supporting each other with mutual care.