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Reinventing Nature? Responses To Postmodern Deconstruction
How much of science is culturally constructed? How much depends on language and metaphor? How do our ideas about nature connect with reality? Can nature be "reinvented" through theme parks and malls, or through restoration.
Reinventing Nature? is an interdisciplinary investigation of how perceptions and conceptions of nature affect both the individual experience and society's management of nature. Leading thinkers from a variety of fields - philosophy, psychology, sociology, public policy, forestry, and others - address the conflict between perception and reality of nature, each from a different perspective. The editors of the volume provide an insightful introductory chapter that places the book in the context of contemporary debates and a concluding chapter that brings together themes and draws conclusions from the dialogue.
In addition to the editors, contributors include Albert Borgmann, David Graber, N. Katherine Hayles, Stephen R. Kellert, Gary P. Nabhan, Paul Shepard, and Donald Worster.
Reinventing Nature? is an interdisciplinary investigation of how perceptions and conceptions of nature affect both the individual experience and society's management of nature. Leading thinkers from a variety of fields - philosophy, psychology, sociology, public policy, forestry, and others - address the conflict between perception and reality of nature, each from a different perspective. The editors of the volume provide an insightful introductory chapter that places the book in the context of contemporary debates and a concluding chapter that brings together themes and draws conclusions from the dialogue.
In addition to the editors, contributors include Albert Borgmann, David Graber, N. Katherine Hayles, Stephen R. Kellert, Gary P. Nabhan, Paul Shepard, and Donald Worster.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 12, 2022
A conservative book on conservation one might say. A critique of relativist anthropocentrism, an attempt to counteract postmodernists and find some kind of objective truth from within "nature." I did not find their arguments particularly compelling, but I do think it's a valuable contribution to ecosemiotic literature. I enjoyed Donald Worster's contribution the most.
Chapter 1: Nature Under Fire by Gary Lease
Overview of the Western philosophic backbones to understandings of nature— particularly, placing humans outside of nature. Locke/Kant - tensions between reason and nature. Spinoza - nature with God. "Older, influential models of the world viewed nature as an inclusive 'creation' (Cicero, Lucretius, Augustine, Aquinas). But the struggle over 'artifact' (ultimately, technological inventions) as a separate human creation led inevitably to the exclusion of humanity from nature" (p. 10).
Chapter 2: Virtually Hunting Reality in the Forests of Simulcra by Paul Shepard
Criticizing postmodernist language of signifiers, spectacle, and simulacra, Shepard writes, "the genuinely innovative direction of our time is not the final surrender to the anomie of meaninglessness or the escape to fantasyland but in the opposite direction—toward affirmation and continuity with something beyond representation" (p. 25). As such, Shepard is drawn to the lack of language in nature and human species, and sees hope to find concrete truth therein.
Chapter 3: The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature by Albert Borgmann
Environmentalism: Nature :: Postmodernism : Authenticity
Perhaps a q more bold in 1995, Borgmann asks what the cultural/moral effects of adopting the hyperreal are.
Chapter 4: Searching for Common Ground by N. Katherine Hayles
Hayles wants to see science bounded by human connection to the world, rather than separation. Critiquing objectivity, proposing "constrained constructivism, Hayles writes, "Constraints delineate ranges of possibility within which representations are viable. Constrained constructivism points to the interplay between representation and constraints. Neither cut free from reality nor existing independent of human perception, constrained constructivism sees it is the result of complex and active engagements between the unmediated flux and human beings" (p. 53).
Hayles envisions a rich chorus in the multiplicity of positioned human perception, believing that even cacaphony (my wc) is of value if it "[enhances' the humility we feel when we realize that the world is a much bigger place than we as situated human beings can imagine" (p. 61).
Chapter 5: Nature and the Disorder of History by Donald Worster
We do not have nature "in some timeless state of perfection, nor revelation, nor authority, to depend upon." So, what nature do we strive towards? Worster mourns how "many environmentalists, for example, are too caught up in current political battles to think deeply about what it is they want to save and about what kind of changes are acceptable in the landscape and what are not" (p. 66).
Worster proceeds to trace a transition in scientific writing from nature as ecosystems tending towards equilibrium (Eugene Odum) to one "[turning] nature into a mirror of our society, reflecting back the chaotic energies of capital and technology," (p. 77) focused on environmental disturbance. In such a way, we've written the history of nature to match our own.
Unsatisfied with strong relativism, Worster closes with some "objective truths" in nature and humanity:
1) living nature works by the principle of interdependency (p. 78)
2) we can learn from nature and past experience. enduring communities have rules based on intimate local experience (p. 81)
3) change is not innately good nor bad/natural nor unnatural, there are many kinds of change and we may do best trying to conserve a diversity of changes.
Chapter 6: Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats by Gary Paul Nabham
Nabham criticizes literary tendencies to assume that Native Americans lived a perfectly harmonized life with nature. For one, it's silly to lump 200 different language groups into one cultural Native American practice or voice speaking to nature. For two, "It may take time for any culture to become truly 'nature,' if that term is to imply any sensitivity to the ecological constraints of its home ground," Nabham writes (p. 93).
Language shapes land politics. "Wilderness" has violent roots, it was a language choice in ignorance that justified colonization: "So what Muir called wilderness, the Miwok called home; the parallax is apparent again. Is it not odd that after ten to fourteen thousand years of indigenous cultures making their homes in North America, Europeans moved in and hardly noticed that place looked 'lived-in'?" (p. 94).
Chapter 7 - skipped
Chapter 8: Resolute Biocentrism: The Dilemma of Wilderness in National Parks by David M. Graber
With climate change, we cannot segregate and maintain wilderness reserves, while doing as we please in the rest of the world. "Wilderness" or "nature on its own terms" is a performance...but for the optimist that Graber is, one that still offers value.
Chapter 9: The Social Siege of Nature by Michael E. Soulé
This concluding chapter is intense, problematic, and thought-provoking.
Soulé basically says, "Listen, Western and indigenous cultures may have vast differences, but scientific and TEK conclusions are not really that different."
He also basically says, "We're screwing ourselves over by focusing on some kind of pristine, virgin, wilderness nature, because it doesn't and can't exist." BUT this is not because of increasing human intervention. For Soulé, it's because nature is constantly changing (p. 155) + that ignores the role of ecological tolerances and geological history and climate (p. 157).
In conclusion, "Conservationists should wean the public from the sacred grail of Pristine Nature while warning of the opposite extreme: the profane grail of Sustainable Development—the odd delusion of having your cake and eating it too" (p. 159).
Chapter 1: Nature Under Fire by Gary Lease
Overview of the Western philosophic backbones to understandings of nature— particularly, placing humans outside of nature. Locke/Kant - tensions between reason and nature. Spinoza - nature with God. "Older, influential models of the world viewed nature as an inclusive 'creation' (Cicero, Lucretius, Augustine, Aquinas). But the struggle over 'artifact' (ultimately, technological inventions) as a separate human creation led inevitably to the exclusion of humanity from nature" (p. 10).
Chapter 2: Virtually Hunting Reality in the Forests of Simulcra by Paul Shepard
Criticizing postmodernist language of signifiers, spectacle, and simulacra, Shepard writes, "the genuinely innovative direction of our time is not the final surrender to the anomie of meaninglessness or the escape to fantasyland but in the opposite direction—toward affirmation and continuity with something beyond representation" (p. 25). As such, Shepard is drawn to the lack of language in nature and human species, and sees hope to find concrete truth therein.
Chapter 3: The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature by Albert Borgmann
Environmentalism: Nature :: Postmodernism : Authenticity
Perhaps a q more bold in 1995, Borgmann asks what the cultural/moral effects of adopting the hyperreal are.
Chapter 4: Searching for Common Ground by N. Katherine Hayles
Hayles wants to see science bounded by human connection to the world, rather than separation. Critiquing objectivity, proposing "constrained constructivism, Hayles writes, "Constraints delineate ranges of possibility within which representations are viable. Constrained constructivism points to the interplay between representation and constraints. Neither cut free from reality nor existing independent of human perception, constrained constructivism sees it is the result of complex and active engagements between the unmediated flux and human beings" (p. 53).
Hayles envisions a rich chorus in the multiplicity of positioned human perception, believing that even cacaphony (my wc) is of value if it "[enhances' the humility we feel when we realize that the world is a much bigger place than we as situated human beings can imagine" (p. 61).
Chapter 5: Nature and the Disorder of History by Donald Worster
We do not have nature "in some timeless state of perfection, nor revelation, nor authority, to depend upon." So, what nature do we strive towards? Worster mourns how "many environmentalists, for example, are too caught up in current political battles to think deeply about what it is they want to save and about what kind of changes are acceptable in the landscape and what are not" (p. 66).
Worster proceeds to trace a transition in scientific writing from nature as ecosystems tending towards equilibrium (Eugene Odum) to one "[turning] nature into a mirror of our society, reflecting back the chaotic energies of capital and technology," (p. 77) focused on environmental disturbance. In such a way, we've written the history of nature to match our own.
Unsatisfied with strong relativism, Worster closes with some "objective truths" in nature and humanity:
1) living nature works by the principle of interdependency (p. 78)
2) we can learn from nature and past experience. enduring communities have rules based on intimate local experience (p. 81)
3) change is not innately good nor bad/natural nor unnatural, there are many kinds of change and we may do best trying to conserve a diversity of changes.
Chapter 6: Cultural Parallax in Viewing North American Habitats by Gary Paul Nabham
Nabham criticizes literary tendencies to assume that Native Americans lived a perfectly harmonized life with nature. For one, it's silly to lump 200 different language groups into one cultural Native American practice or voice speaking to nature. For two, "It may take time for any culture to become truly 'nature,' if that term is to imply any sensitivity to the ecological constraints of its home ground," Nabham writes (p. 93).
Language shapes land politics. "Wilderness" has violent roots, it was a language choice in ignorance that justified colonization: "So what Muir called wilderness, the Miwok called home; the parallax is apparent again. Is it not odd that after ten to fourteen thousand years of indigenous cultures making their homes in North America, Europeans moved in and hardly noticed that place looked 'lived-in'?" (p. 94).
Chapter 7 - skipped
Chapter 8: Resolute Biocentrism: The Dilemma of Wilderness in National Parks by David M. Graber
With climate change, we cannot segregate and maintain wilderness reserves, while doing as we please in the rest of the world. "Wilderness" or "nature on its own terms" is a performance...but for the optimist that Graber is, one that still offers value.
Chapter 9: The Social Siege of Nature by Michael E. Soulé
This concluding chapter is intense, problematic, and thought-provoking.
Soulé basically says, "Listen, Western and indigenous cultures may have vast differences, but scientific and TEK conclusions are not really that different."
He also basically says, "We're screwing ourselves over by focusing on some kind of pristine, virgin, wilderness nature, because it doesn't and can't exist." BUT this is not because of increasing human intervention. For Soulé, it's because nature is constantly changing (p. 155) + that ignores the role of ecological tolerances and geological history and climate (p. 157).
In conclusion, "Conservationists should wean the public from the sacred grail of Pristine Nature while warning of the opposite extreme: the profane grail of Sustainable Development—the odd delusion of having your cake and eating it too" (p. 159).
December 31, 2018
God already invented nature once, and only the arrogance of Man makes us want to "reinvent" it !!
April 27, 2015
Really only one essay of the nine in this book effectively 'responded' to postmodernism (though Hayles did a great job)- the rest either ignored the necessity to deal with the claims countering objectivism or gave a token one-sentence denouncement of deconstruction as a toxic myth. Misleading title, really a lot of well-meaning but dogmatic conservationists not doing much to dispel that notion of themselves.
April 11, 2011
A collection of essays by prominent literary and science scholars on the perception of Nature in contemporary Western thought. Surprisingly as pertinent today as it was way back in the mid-nineties when it was published!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews