Man vs Nature
Man vs "Nature"?
As I have read for class these past two assignments, I have been forced to face an important distinction that I think is often overlooked by many environmental advocates (a group of people which I have been known to associate myself with). The problem I would like to address, or at least bring to our classes attention is the murkiness that surrounds the word "nature". We often find ourselves (I am included in this) using the word nature to mean something along the lines of all that is not human in our world/universe. I would argue that this is not the case, but rather that this limited definition of "nature" is actually only a piece of nature, as nature is indeed what is natural, I would posit that indeed this weak definition of nature is really an inappropriate synonym for the wild, while nature in its entirety would also include humanity.
In today 's reading I was first reminded of this distinction in McKibben 's opening anecdote regarding the forest and chain saw, when he says that going into nature has been changed by humans because we now lose the feeling of being in "another, separate, timeless, wild sphere". I think the term wild first really was brought to my attention here and remained with me through the rest of the reading, as McKibben argues for the end of nature, while using nature and wild interchangeably.
You may be reading this and saying to yourself, "well duh, the two words are in actuality synonyms, of course you can use wild and nature interchangeably", and I think in normal everyday conversation, this is true, however, in this class, as well as in other philosophy classes, definitions are immensely important. Nature, pertaining to this argument (the environment) has many meanings that are applicable; 1.the nature, or essence of a being, i.e. human nature 2. nature being everything other than man, as I have already described (in my opinion more aptly) as the wild (usually confined to the earthly planes) 3. nature as in
As I have read for class these past two assignments, I have been forced to face an important distinction that I think is often overlooked by many environmental advocates (a group of people which I have been known to associate myself with). The problem I would like to address, or at least bring to our classes attention is the murkiness that surrounds the word "nature". We often find ourselves (I am included in this) using the word nature to mean something along the lines of all that is not human in our world/universe. I would argue that this is not the case, but rather that this limited definition of "nature" is actually only a piece of nature, as nature is indeed what is natural, I would posit that indeed this weak definition of nature is really an inappropriate synonym for the wild, while nature in its entirety would also include humanity.
In today 's reading I was first reminded of this distinction in McKibben 's opening anecdote regarding the forest and chain saw, when he says that going into nature has been changed by humans because we now lose the feeling of being in "another, separate, timeless, wild sphere". I think the term wild first really was brought to my attention here and remained with me through the rest of the reading, as McKibben argues for the end of nature, while using nature and wild interchangeably.
You may be reading this and saying to yourself, "well duh, the two words are in actuality synonyms, of course you can use wild and nature interchangeably", and I think in normal everyday conversation, this is true, however, in this class, as well as in other philosophy classes, definitions are immensely important. Nature, pertaining to this argument (the environment) has many meanings that are applicable; 1.the nature, or essence of a being, i.e. human nature 2. nature being everything other than man, as I have already described (in my opinion more aptly) as the wild (usually confined to the earthly planes) 3. nature as in
References: Robert B. Talisse, Democracy and Moral Conflict, Cambridge University Press, 2009, 205pp., $39.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780521183901. Reviewed byTerence Ball, Arizona State University