Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature: Theory and Practice

Capa
Thomas Heyd
Columbia University Press, 09/11/2005 - 232 páginas

How do the ways in which we think about and describe nature shape the use and protection of the environment? Do our seemingly well-intentioned efforts in environmental conservation reflect a respect for nature or our desire to control nature's wildness? The contributors to this collection address these and other questions as they explore the theoretical and practical implications of a crucial aspect of environmental philosophy and policy-the autonomy of nature. In focusing on the recognition and meaning of nature's autonomy and linking issues of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and policy, the essays provide a variety of new perspectives on human relationships to nature.

The authors begin by exploring what is meant by "nature," in what sense it can be seen as autonomous, and what respect for the autonomy of nature might entail. They examine the conflicts that arise between the satisfaction of human needs (food, shelter, etc.) and the natural world. The contributors also consider whether the activities of human beings contribute to nature's autonomy. In their investigation of these issues, they not only draw on philosophy and ethics; they also discuss how the idea of nature's autonomy affects policy decisions regarding the protection of agricultural, rural, and beach areas.

The essays in the book's final section turn to management and restoration practices. The essays in this section pay close attention to how efforts at environmental protection alter or reinforce the traditional relationship between humans and nature. More specifically, the contributors examine whether management practices, as they are applied in nature conservation, actually promote the autonomy of nature, or whether they turn the environment into a "client" for policymakers.

No interior do livro

Índice

Introduction Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature Theory and Practice
1
Nature and Autonomy of Nature Are They Real?
23
Toward a Progressive Naturalism
25
Is Nature Autonomous?
54
Autonomous Nature and Human Interests Are They Compatible?
75
The Liberation of Humanity and Nature
77
Respecting Natures Autonomy in Relationship with Humanity
86
Autonomy and Agriculture
99
Homo Administrator Managing a Needy Nature?
121
Purple Loosestrife and the Bounding of Nature in North American Wetlands
137
Restoration Autonomy and Domination
154
Ecological Restoration and the Renewal of Wildness and Freedom
170
Autonomy Restoration and the Law of Nature
189
List of Contributors
207
Index
211
Direitos de autor

Management Restoration and the Autonomy of Nature A Paradox?
119

Palavras e frases frequentes

Passagens conhecidas

Página 137 - As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Página 137 - An enemy has done this.' The servants ; said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them?' ^But he said, 'No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ^Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, 'Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Página 190 - What is this Titan that has possession of me? Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks ! the solid earth ! the actual world ! the common sense ! Confab' Contact Who are we? where are we...
Página 7 - Calling a place home inevitably means that we will use the nature we find in it, for there can be no escape from manipulating and working and even killing some parts of nature to make our home. But if we acknowledge the autonomy and otherness of the things and creatures around us — an autonomy our culture has taught us to label with the word "wild...
Página 137 - The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
Página 128 - Today, however, the responsiveness of nature has been strained to the uttermost under the pressures of modern man. Looking at nature in terms of self-regulating systems, therefore, implies either the intention to gauge nature's overload capacity or the aim of adjusting her feedback mechanisms through human intervention. Both strategies amount to completing Bacon's vision of dominating nature, albeit with the added pretension of manipulating her revenge. In this way, ecosystem technology turns finally...
Página 145 - Uncleanness or dirt is that which must not be included if a pattern is to be maintained.

Referências a este livro

Acerca do autor (2005)

Thomas Heyd teaches philosophy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He is the coeditor (with John Clegg) of Aesthetics and Rock Art.

Informação bibliográfica