Humankind’s interactions with nature changed during the Middle Ages due to many factors, but the most important of these factors were agricultural technology and the commercializing of its economy. Arguments over the factors that caused this change in the interaction between man and nature can be seen in the works of Lynn White, Lisa Kiser, and Elspeth Whitney. Lynn White argues that agricultural technology did change how man interacted with nature, but he believes that the Christian religion of the Middle Ages was what allowed the technology to change how man interacted with nature. Lisa Kiser argues through St. Francis’s teachings that the commercializing of the economy and ownership of private land changed man’s interaction with nature,
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Francis’s teachings the newly commercialized economy and urbanization of the Middle Ages can be seen to have caused men to interact with nature differently (Kiser 229). St. Francis argued that the urbanization and commercialized economy in Italy during the middle caused the people to treat the lands differently. He believed that the urbanization and the commercialized economy gave rise to the idea of public property, which would be bad for nature because it let man dictate what occurred on that plot of land. Urbanization also caused the lands around cities to be changed due to the productivity that the city required of them in this newly commercialized economy (Kiser 239). If people in Italy during the Middle Ages had only followed St. Francis’s teachings of no private property and not changing the land to allow its inhabitants and nature to do as it would without human interference, which would affect humankind’s interaction with nature because they would not be allowed to control it. (Kiser 236). Therefore, if we followed St. Francis’s teachings humanity would not change nature for its benefit and would let it run its course naturally, which would have affected how people of the Middle Ages and today interact with …show more content…
Using the ideas of Whitney we can understand how the way we interact nature is due to the economy, and the social and political ideas of the time, and, of course, the technology that we use. Knowing this we can save our environment from problems they face today by changing the economy, social and political ideas, and, of course, making sure that we use agricultural technology that does not exploit the environment. Although White may not have been wrong about the change in Man’s interaction with nature during the middle ages, we learn a different lesson which is that when we overlook something when looking for an answer our understanding will be skewed and can lead to a lot of
Francis’s teachings the newly commercialized economy and urbanization of the Middle Ages can be seen to have caused men to interact with nature differently (Kiser 229). St. Francis argued that the urbanization and commercialized economy in Italy during the middle caused the people to treat the lands differently. He believed that the urbanization and the commercialized economy gave rise to the idea of public property, which would be bad for nature because it let man dictate what occurred on that plot of land. Urbanization also caused the lands around cities to be changed due to the productivity that the city required of them in this newly commercialized economy (Kiser 239). If people in Italy during the Middle Ages had only followed St. Francis’s teachings of no private property and not changing the land to allow its inhabitants and nature to do as it would without human interference, which would affect humankind’s interaction with nature because they would not be allowed to control it. (Kiser 236). Therefore, if we followed St. Francis’s teachings humanity would not change nature for its benefit and would let it run its course naturally, which would have affected how people of the Middle Ages and today interact with …show more content…
Using the ideas of Whitney we can understand how the way we interact nature is due to the economy, and the social and political ideas of the time, and, of course, the technology that we use. Knowing this we can save our environment from problems they face today by changing the economy, social and political ideas, and, of course, making sure that we use agricultural technology that does not exploit the environment. Although White may not have been wrong about the change in Man’s interaction with nature during the middle ages, we learn a different lesson which is that when we overlook something when looking for an answer our understanding will be skewed and can lead to a lot of