This article is a slightly summarized version of an invited plenary at
the Aegean Seminar, which took place at the Greek island of Samos in
July 1992. The original title was ''An Interpretive Systemological Vie
w of the issue: 'Environmental Fluctuations and Cultural Change in Isl
and Societies.''' It is an hermeneutical inquiry into the interpretive
context that provides full meaning to the issue of Environmental Fluc
tuations and Cultural Change. The roots of the relationship of causali
ty embedded in such a title are traced so that its underlying ontologi
cal assumptions are uncovered. This sort of archaeological inquiry wil
l finally unearth the interpretive context that provides full meaning
to such a relationship of causality, namely, neo-evolutionary organici
sm. This theoretical outcome of Modernity embraces natural and social
sciences under the aegis of a single way of thinking, feeling, and act
ing which buries the Enlightenment conception of liberty and its conse
quent problem of morality and of practical reason.