From 86817b97e7f40d6a7c062c0cd34e343b31098942 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Silvio Rhatto Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019 16:56:53 -0300 Subject: Adds some partial book reviews: death of nature and torture and truth --- books/history/death-of-nature.md | 310 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 310 insertions(+) create mode 100644 books/history/death-of-nature.md (limited to 'books/history/death-of-nature.md') diff --git a/books/history/death-of-nature.md b/books/history/death-of-nature.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..47f94ab --- /dev/null +++ b/books/history/death-of-nature.md @@ -0,0 +1,310 @@ +[[!meta title="The Death of Nature"]] + +## Topics + +* Bohm's process physics. +* Ilya Prigogine new thermodynamics. + +## Excerpts + + Between the sixteenth andseventeenth cerfturies the image of an or- + ganic cosmos with a living female earth at its ceriter gave way to a + mechanistic world view in which nature was reconstructed as dead and + passive, to be dominated and controlled by hufuans. The Death efNature + deals with the economic, cultural, and scientific changes through which + this vast transformation came about. In seeking to understand how people + conceptualized nature in the Scientific Revolution, I am asking not about + unchanging essences, but about connections between social change and + changing constructions of nattlre". Similarly. when women today attempt + to change society's domination of nature, 1:\1~¥.,~e acting to overturn + moder_n constructions of nature and women as culturally passive and + subordinate. + + [...] + + Today's feminist and ecological consciousness can be used to examine the + historical interconnections between women and nature that devel- + oped as the modern scientific and economic world took form in the + sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-a transformation that shaped + and pervades today's mainstream values and perceptions. + Feminist history in the broadest sense requires that we look at + + [...] + + My intent is instead to examine the + values associated with the images of women and nature as they re- + late to the formation of our modern world and their implications for + 'our lives today. + + In investigating the roots of our current environmental dilemma + and its connections to science, technology, and the economy, we + must reexamine the formation of a world view and a science that, + by reconceptualizing reality as a machine rather than a living or- + ganism, sanctioned the domination of both nature and women. The + contributions of such founding "fathers" of modern science as + Francis Bacon, William Harvey, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, + and Isaac Newton must be reevaluated. The fate of other options, + alternative philosophies, and social groups shaped by the organic + world view and resistant to the growing exploitative mentality needs + reappraisal. To understand why one road rather than the other was + taken requires a broad synthesis of both the natural and cultural + environments of Western society at the historical turning point. + This book elaborates an ecological perspective that includes both + +### Terminology + +Nature, art, organic and mechanical: + + A distinction was commonly made + between natura naturans, or nature creating, and natura naturata, + the natural creation. + + Nature was contrasted with art (techne) and with artificially cre- + ated things. It was personified as a female-being, e.g., Dame Na- + ture; she was alternately a prudent lady, an empress, a mother, etc. + The course of nature and the laws of nature were the actualization + of her force. The state of nature was the state of mankind prior to + social organization and prior to the state of grace. Nature spirits, + nature deities, virgin nymphs, and elementals were thought to re- + side in or be associated with natural objects. + + In both Western and non-Western cultures, nature was tradition- + ally feminine. + + [...] + + In the early modern period, the term organic usually referred to + the bodily organs, structures, and organization of living beings, + while organicism was the doctrine that organic structure was the + result of an inherent, adaptive property in matter. The word organi- + cal, however, was also sometimes used to refer to a machine or an + instrument. Thus a clock was sometimes called an "organical + body," while som~ machines were said to operate by organical, + rather than mechanical, action if the touch of a person was in- + volved. + + Mechanical referred to the machine and tool trades; the manual + operations of the handicrafts; inanimate machines that lacked spon- + taneity, volition, and thought; and the mechanical sciences. 1 + +### Nature that nurtures and thats also uncontrollable, replaced by "the machine" + + NATURE AS NURTURE: CONTROLLING IMAGERY. Central to + the organic theory was the identification of nature, especially the + earth, with a nurturing mother: a kindly beneficent female who pro- + vided for the needs of mankind in an ordered, planned universe. But + another opposing image of nature as female was also prevalent: + wild and uncontrollable nature that could render violence, storms, + droughts, and general chaos. Both were identified with the female + sex and were projections of human perceptions onto the external + world. The metaphor of the earth as a nurturing mother was gradu- + ally to vanish as a dominant image as the Scientific Revolution pro- + ceeded to mechanize and to rationalize the world view. The second + image, nature as disorder, called forth an important modern idea, + that of power over nature. Two new ideas, those of mechanism and + of the domination and mastery of nature, became core concepts of + the modern world. An organically oriented mentality in which fe- + male principles played an important role was undermined and re- + placed by a mechanically oriented mentality that either eliminated + or used female principles in an exploitative manner. As Western + culture became increasingly mechanized in the 1600s, the female + earth and virgin earth spirit were subdued by the machine. 1 + +### Mining and the female body + + The image of the earth as a living organism and nurturing + mother had served as a cultural constraint restricting the actions of + human beings. One does not readily slay a mother, dig into her en- + trails for gold or mutilate her body, although commercial mining + would soon require that. As long as the earth was considered to be + alive and sensitive, it could be considered a breach of human ethical + behavior to carry out destructive acts against it. For most tradition- + al cultures, minerals and metals ripened in the uterus of the Earth + Mother, mines were compared to her vagina, and metallurgy was + the human hastening of the birth of the living metal in the artificial + womb of the furnace-an abortion of the metal's natural growth + cycle before its time. Miners offered propitiation to the deities of + the soil and subterranean world, performed ceremonial sacrifices, + · and observed strict cleanliness, sexual abstinence, and fasting be- + fore violating the sacredness of the living earth by sinking a mine. + Smiths assumed an awesome responsibility in precipitating the met- + al's birth through smeltin,.g, fusing, and beating it with hammer and + anvil; they were often accorded the status of shaman in tribal rit- + uals and their tools were thought to hold special powers. + +Is there a relation between torture (basanos), extraction of "truth" and +mining gold out of a mine? See discussions both on "The Counterrevolution" +and "Torture and Truth". + +### Hidden norms: controlling images + + Controlling images operate as ethical restraints or as ethical sanc- + tions-as subtle "oughts" or "ought-nots." Thus as the descriptive + metaphors and images of nature change, a behavioral restraint can + be changed into a sanction. Such a change in the image and de'- + scription of nature was occurring during the course of the Scientific + Revolution. + + It is important to recognize the normative import of descriptive + statements about nature. Contemporary philosophers of language + have critically reassessed the earlier positivist distinction between + the "is" of science and the "ought" of society, arguing that descrip- + tions and norms are not opposed to one another by linguistic sepa- + ration into separate "is" and "ought" statements, but are contained + within each other. Descriptive statements about the world can pre- + suppose the normative; they are then ethic-laden. + + [...] + + The writer + or culture may not be conscious of the ethical import yet may act in + accordance with its dictates. The hidden norms may become con- + scious or explicit when an alternative or contradiction presents it- + self. Because language contains a culture within itself, when lan- + guage changes, a culture is also changing in important way~~ By + examining changes in descriptions of nature, we can then perceive + something of the changes in cultural values. To be aware of the in-. + +### Renaissance: hierarchical order + + The Renaissance view of nature and society was based on the or- + ganic analogy between the human body, or microcosm, and the + larger world, or macrocosm. + + [...] + + But while the pastoral tradition symbolized nature as a benevo- + lent female, it contained the implication that nature when plowed + and cultivated could be used as a commodity and manipulated as a + resource. Nature, tamed and subdued, could be transformed into a + garden to provide both material and spiritual food to enhance the + comfort and soothe the anxieties of men distraught by the demands + of the urban world and the stresses of the marketplace. It depended + on a masculine perception of nature as a mother and bride whose + primary function was to comfort; nurture, and provide for the well- + being of the male. In pastoral imagery, both nature and women are + subordinate and essentially passive. They nurture but do not control + or exhibit disruptive passion. The pastoral mode, although it viewed + nature as benevolent, was a model created as an antidote to the + pressures of urbanization and mechanization. It represented a ful- + fillment of human needs for nurture, but by conceiving of nature as + passive, it nevertheless allowed for the possibility of its use and ma- + nipulation. Unlike the dialectical image of nature as the active uni- + ty of opposites in tension, the Arcadian image rendered nature pas- + sive and manageable. + +### Undressing + + An allegory (1160) by Alain of Lille, of the School of Chartres, + portrays Natura, God's powerful but humble servant, as stricken + with grief at the failure of man (in contrast to other species) to + obey her laws. Owing to faulty supervision by Venus, human beings + engage in adulterous sensual love. In aggressively penetrating the + secrets of heaven, they tear Natura's undergarments, exposing her + to the view of the vulgar. She complains that "by the unlawful as- + saults of man alone the garments of my modesty suffer disgrace + and division." + + [...] + + Such basic attitudes + toward ·male-female roles in biological generation where the female + and the earth are both passive receptors could easily become sanc- + tions for exploitation as the organic context was transformed by the + rise of commercial capitalism. + + [...] + + The macrocosm theory, as we have seen, likened the cosmos to + the human body, soul, and spirit with male and female reproductive + components. Similarly, the geocosm theory compared the earth to + the living human body, with breath, blood, sweat, and elimination + systems. + + [...] + + The earth's springs were akin to the human blood system; its oth- + er various fluids were likened to the mucus, saliva, sweat, and other + forins of lubrication in the human body, the earth being organized + "'. .. much after the plan of our bodies, in which there are both + veins and arteries, the former blood vessels, the latter air vessels .... + So exactly alike is the resemblance to our bodies in nature's forma- + tion of the earth, that our ancestors have spoken of veins [springs] + of water." Just as the human body contained blood, marrow, mu- + cus, saliva, tears, and lubricating fluids, so in the earth there were + various fluids. Liquids that turned hard became metals, such as + gold and silver; other fluids turned into stones, bitumens, and veins + of sulfur. Like the human body, the earth gave forth sweat: "There + is often a gathering of thin, scattered moisture like dew, which from + many points flows into one spot. The dowsers call it sweat, because + a kind of drop is either squeezed out by the pressure of the ground + or raised by the heat." + + Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) enlarged the Greek analogy be- + tween the waters of the earth and the ebb and flow of human blood + through the veins and heart + + [...] + + A widely held alchemical belief was the growth of the baser met- + als into gold in womblike matrices in the earth. The appearance of + silver in lead ores or gold in silvery assays was evidence that this + transformation was under way. Just as the child grew in the + warmth of the female womb, so the growth of metals was fostered + +### Matrix + + The earth in the Paracelsian philosophy was the mother or matrix + giving birth to plants, animals, and men. + +### Renaissance was diverse + + In general, the Renaissance view was that all things were permeat- + ed by life, there being no adequate method by which to designate + the inanimate from the animate. + [...] but criteria by which to differentiate the living from + the nonliving could not successfully be formulated. This was due + not only to the vitalistic framework of the period but to striking + similarities between them. + + [...] + + Popular Renaissance literature was filled with hundreds of im- + ages associating nature, matter, and the earth with the female sex. + + [...] + + In the 1960s, the Native-American became a symbol in the ecol- + ogy movement's search for alternatives to Western exploitative atti- + tudes. The Indian animistic belief-system and reverence for the + earth as a · mother were contrasted with the Judeo-Christian heri- + tage of dominion over nature and with capitalist practices resulting + in the "tragedy of the commons" (exploitation of resources avail- + able for any person's or nation's use). But as will be seen, European + culture was more complex and varied than this judgment allows. It + ignores the Renaissance philosophy of the nurturing earth as well + as those philosophies and social movements resistant to mainstream + economic change. + +### Mining as revealing the hidden secrets + + In his defense, the miner argued that the earth was not a real moth- + er, but a wicked stepmother who hides and conceals the metals in + her inner parts instead of making them available for human use. + + [...] + + In the old hermit's tale, we have a fascina,ting example·of the re:· + lationship between images and values. The older view of nature as a + kindly mother is challenged by the growing interests of the mining + industry in Saxony, Bohemia, and the Harz Mountains, regions of + newly found prosperity (Fig. 6). The miner, representing these + newer commercial activities, transforms the irnage of the nurturing + mother into that of a stepmother who wickedly conceals her bounty + from the deserving and needy children. In the seventeenth century, + the image will be seen to undergo yet another transformation, as + natural philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) sets forth the need + for prying into nature's nooks and crannies in searching out her se- + crets for human improvement. + + -- 33 -- cgit v1.2.3