The Modern View of Nature: Early Modern Europe to Today

Investigation of the genealogy of the modern view of nature from early European modernity (circa 1500 CE) to the present. Today, it is common to think of human culture as an entity separate from nature, with the prevailing belief that nature serves merely as a backdrop to the unfolding drama of human history. In the modern view of nature, rational, superior humans are seen as the masters of an inert, inferior nature. Study traces how the modern view of nature originated and evolved in early modern Europe during the era of European colonialism, an institution which imposed systems of plantation capitalism throughout the world, from Africa to the Caribbean, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Investigation of how the nature/culture divide became a defining part of global capitalism, a totalizing framework that organizes the relationship between those deemed human and the rest of nature. Examination also of how various contemporary artists and writers seek to challenge the widespread assumptions underlying the modern view of nature by offering examples of how communities are embedded in the ecologies they inhabit.

P/NP or letter grading.