Send to a Friend

josie's avatar

Why do people imagine that Mankind operates apart from the "Natural" world? Who proposed that strange notion?

Asked by josie (30934points) August 25th, 2011

It is a fallacy of course.
We are no less a product of nature than are the stars, the Earth and birds and the bees. Our existence, our consciousness, even our reason and volition are products of the arrangement of the materials of the universe.
And yet, to hear people talk, humanity acts apart from nature. Humanity is a blight upon nature. There is Man’s world, and then there is the “Natural” world. Etc.
If it wasn’t such a weird notion, it would be funny.
Even if humanity could engineer the disappearance of everything real, it would still be according to the laws of nature, no different than black holes, the speed of light, comets smashing planets, super novas, the extinction of species etc.
But the “man is divorced from nature” idea started in someone’s imagination, sometime, someplace.
Who first proposed the curious notion that Man was not an extension of Nature?

Using Fluther

or

Using Email

Separate multiple emails with commas.
We’ll only use these emails for this message.