Comparing Merchant’sThe Death of Nature and Thomas’ Man and the Natural World
The works of Carolyn Merchant and Keith Thomas pertain to the same subject matter and even to the same time period. Nevertheless, in comparing their interpretations of the evidence and the presentation of their arguments concerning the history of mankind’s relationship with nature in Tudor and Stuart England through the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, we find that they are quite different. Merchant presents us with a rather one-sided, retrospective attack on science as the root of all environmental evil, while Thomas offers a relatively neutral, prospective look at how the people of this time reacted to the changing views of nature and what, exactly, caused these views to change.
The theme running through Merchant’s book, The Death of Nature, is one of pessimism toward science. Her main argument is that the root of today’s environmental problems can be found in the early modern period, an era in which, Merchant says, nature was robbed by science of its right to life and spirit and became, effectively, a machine. According to Merchant, in the early 16th century with the rise of modern science and technology, mankind’s view of nature as a living being changed and nature became a machine to be dominated, dismantled and its secrets discovered, no matter what the cost.
Of the many examples Merchant uses to illustrate her point, none seems so warranted as that of Sir Francis Bacon, the father of modern science. We follow Bacon through Merchant’s book as one of the ringleaders of the movement to mechanize and de-spiritualize nature. "The Baconian method," says Merchant, "advocated power over nature through manual manipulation, technology, and...
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...covery, he does imply that, with new theological interpretations raising moral standards and with new scientific discovery, nature was, so to speak, given back some of its rights as a living organism.
While Thomas and Merchant argue different sides of the same coin, the two authors do agree on one thing: that, like the lyrics of a popular rock song, "video killed the radio star," something new seems to have "killed" the organic view of nature in the early modern period. But while Merchant stops there, pessimistically asserting that we have not moved beyond the "death of nature," Thomas believes that science, as opposed to being merely an enemy of nature, actually resuscitated it, saving it from the earlier, anthropocentric view of Tudor and Stuart England.
Works Cited
Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature,
Thomas, Keith. Man and the Natural World.
Throughout the Romanticism period, human’s connection with nature was explored as writers strove to find the benefits that humans receive through such interactions. Without such relationships, these authors found that certain aspects of life were missing or completely different. For example, certain authors found death a very frightening idea, but through the incorporation of man’s relationship with the natural world, readers find the immense utility that nature can potentially provide. Whether it’d be as solace, in the case of death, or as a place where one can find oneself in their own truest form, nature will nevertheless be a place where they themselves were derived from. Nature is where all humans originated,
In 1932, Syphilis, a highly infectious sexually transmitted disease, was widely prevalent in black and white communities in the South. Since Macon County had the highest rate of the infection, Dr. Taliaferro Clark decided that the study of “untreated syphilis in t...
Osgood, Samuel. “Nature.” The Western Messenger. (1837): 385-93. Rpt. in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1981. 275.
10.) Morton et. al., “The Syphilis Enigma”: the riddle solved? Sheffield: BMJ Publishing Group; 2001.
Subramani, R. (2010, February). Insight through Body Language and Non-verbal Communication References In Tirukkural. Language in India , 10 (2), pp. 261-271.
Can a society of learners and explorers coexist with an ecosystem that can barely stay afloat? “The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman both tackle the concept of nature vs. science. While the two agree on many terms, the underlying message of each is drastically different. “Tables” is much more didactic while “Astronomer” is the story of a revelation. With both poems having Romantic themes, the two must agree on the basic notions of Romanticism, in this case, the power of nature. Yet, the two disagree on a major aspect of Romanticism, self discovery. “Tables” and “Astronomer” share the same baseline thoughts, yet still tell their own stories of Romanticism.
Our awareness, our perception within nature, as Thomas states, is the contrast that segregates us from our symbols. It is the quality that separates us from our reflections, from the values and expectations that society has oppressed against itself. However, our illusions and hallucinations of nature are merely artifacts of our anthropocentric idealism. Thomas, in “Natural Man,” criticizes society for its flawed value-thinking, advocating how it “[is merely] a part of a system . . . [and] we are, in this view, neither owners nor operators; at best, [are] motile tissues specialized for receiving information” (56). We “spread like a new growth . . . touching and affecting every other kind of life, incorporating ourselves,” destroying the nature we coexist with, “[eutrophizing] the earth” (57). However, Thomas questions if “we are the invaded ones, the subjugated, [the] used?” (57). Due to our anthropocentric idealism, our illusions and hallucinations of nature, we forget that we, as organisms, are microscopically inexistent. To Thomas, “we are not made up, as we had always supposed, of successively enriched packets of our own parts,” but rather “we are shared, rented, occupied [as] the interior of our cells, driving them, providing the oxidative energy that sends us out for the improvement of each shining day, are the mitochondria” (1).
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by spiral-shaped bacterium, Treponema pallidum.(PBS.Org). The sexually transmitted form of syphilis is caused by a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Treponema pallidum, which is one of a closely-related group of bacteria called the treponomes. Other treponomes are responsible for the three non-venereal forms of syphilis, which primarily affect the skin and are most common in early childhood. Venereal syphilis probably mutated out of one of those other forms most likely, researchers say, from the bacterium that causes yaws (PBS,Secrete of the dead). When that happened, however, is the big mystery.
In summary Syphilis is one of the oldest Treponemal diseases dating back to its early recording in the 15th century. Today there is still an ongoing debate on the origins of the disease. Some scholars speculating on the Columbus theory of bringing the disease to Europe versus the Pre-Columbus Theory stating the disease was indeed present in Europe before the voyage to the New World. There are three different stages of the syphilis disease and the third is where the manifestation of the disease on the human skeletal systems occurs. This disease, though less harsh than in medieval times is still prevalent today, found mostly in poorer underdeveloped countries. The continuing study of this disease can help with the prevalence of this disease in other countries and also help with the study of other diseases that have had an effect on humankind and/ or still do today.
Gersdorf, Catrin and Mayer, Sylvia. Nature in Literary and Cultural Studies: Transatlantic Conversations on Ecocriticism. Rodopi, 2006. Print
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a time of great change in America. In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans began to experience a shift in focus from the once stringent religious outlook to a more scientific view of the world and its natural wonders. Americans, however, did look at these new scientific discoveries with much hesitation, questioning their long-term effects on society as a whole. Hawthorne’ s work, “The Birth Mark echoes these sentiments and combine natural faith with a confidence in science to make a very interesting tale. This tale and its morality convey a message to the reader that there is a price for tampering with the natural order of things.
As cities got bigger and bigger, people needed the nature to get away from the busy, noisy, and populated areas. Industrialism really brought forth the Arcadian ecology. People needed to get away, and nature was their outlet. White’s work didn’t get popular till people started to miss nature. Primary desire for the naturalist was to reestablish an inner sense of harmony between man and nature through an outer physical reconciliation. Much of the eighteenth century England was too busy consolidating and adjusting to the processes of modernization. But around 1830, something called “the cult of Gilber White and Selborne” began to appear. White was discovered by a new generation that looked back at the peaceful life of the parson-naturalist.
Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, radical and controversial ideas were created in what would become a time period of great advances. The Scientific Revolution began with a spark of inspiration that spread a wild fire of ideas through Europe and America. The new radical ideas affected everything that had been established and proven through religious views. "The scientific revolution was more radical and innovative than any of the political revolutions of the seventeenth century."1 All of the advances that were made during this revolutionary time can be attributed to the founders of the Scientific Revolution.
Throughout history, many individuals wish to discover and explain the relationship between nature and society, however, there are many complexities relating to this relationship. The struggle to understand how nature and society are viewed and connected derives from the idea that there are many definitions of what nature is. The Oxford dictionary of Human Geography (2003), explains how nature is difficult to define because it can be used in various contexts as well as throughout different time and spaces. As a result of this, the different understandings of what nature is contributes to how the nature society relationship is shaped by different processes. In order to better understand this relation there are many theorists and philosophers
The Scientific Revolution, perhaps one of the most significant examples of human beingsí relationship with the natural world, changed the way seventeenth and eighteenth century society operated. The power of human knowledge has enabled intellectual, economical, and social advances seen in the modern world. The Scientific Revolution which included the development of scientific attitudes and skepticism of old views on nature and humanity was a slow process that spanned over a two century period. During the Scientific Revolution, scientific knowledge enabled humans to control nature in order to improve society. With leaders such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and Rene Descartes, the Scientific Revolution proves to be a crucial piece to the puzzle of understanding the effects of humansí interactions with the natural world.