Class #20: Carolyn Merchant, “Feminism and the Philosophy of Nature”


The term “ecofemenisme” was created by a French writer Francoise d’Eaubonne in 1974. This new ecological revolution was meant to change the patriarchal social construct that burdened woman, and bring light to the similar oppression non-human life has endured from us humans. Merchant talks about how social feminism has the potential for a more thorough critique of the domination issue women and nonhuman nature. Through feminist history we see how Western culture and its progress has been built on lowering woman in society, and by neglecting nature. Carolyn merchant breaks down our view of nature through the orgninicist model and the machine model. Nature, especially the earth, has always been seen as this “nurturing mother” figure. Organicist model see’s nature as a nurturing mother, uncontrollable, cosmos as an organism, emphasized interdependence, vitality and life, and an order in which each part functions with the larger whole. However this imagery conflicted with the reality and state of earth, and with the actions of human beings. The process of industrialization depended on activities that altered the natural state of the earth. The scientific revolution fueled the change and description of nature, where mechanics gave manpower over nature. Humans rely on a “technological fix” to solve our problems, and even nature’s problems. According to Merchant this view assumes that nature can be divided into parts, and that the parts can be rearranged to create other species of beings. The machine model positions nature as mechanical, purely rational, nature as something to be controlled and dominated, and humans placed in an external position instead of embedded in nature. Merchant says the issue with the machine model is that mechanistic assumptions about nature are pushing us in the direction of artificial environments, mechanized control of human life, and loss of quality of life itself.
I think it’s interesting to see how from an early period nature and woman have been so interconnected. The view of earth as this “nurturing mother” justifies the relationship between feminism and ecology. A point in this article that stood out to me was how our transition as humans from holding nature on a pedestal to lowering it due to the new mechanical world we have constructed, has altered our consciousness towards nature. Human advancement in math, science, and technology has formulated a disconnection between our ethical values towards nature. We have almost become desensitized to the problematic state of our ecosystem. As humans we rely on temporary technological fixes to solve our problems, yet they are still accumulating the damage that we have already contributed. Realistically I think we must accept the mechanicist world we live in today, but attempt to tie that into the values that uphold mother nature as stated in the organicist model.    




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