n this chapter, Oelschlaeger discusses John Muir and his many theories. The author contends that Muir is the father of the American conservation movement. Muir’s work was heavily based on a biocentrism and nature-as-an-organism. Muir’s animistic concepts in his later works are similar to Paleolithic ideas discussed previously in Oelschlaeger’s The Idea of Wilderness.…
Wilderness; To McCandless and many other people, it has a very special and specific allure. While to most it is a lawless and dangerous place, McCandless sees the wilderness as a pure state where the evils of modern society don’t exist. This is a place where someone like him can live by his own rules and only be dependent on himself. And for McCandles this was what compelled him to live in and of the wilderness. Although McCandless journal entries depict that he does receive some answers for his questions, his reality of day-to-day life in the wilderness is not as romantic as he thought or imagined it to be.…
This week, the reading selections were quite interesting. We have these two authors, Taylor and Epstein, who truly approach the environmental topic in separate ways. On one hand, we have Paul Taylor defending our environment all the way in the article “The Ethics of Respect for Nature”. In this article, Taylor insists that we switch our current perspectives, regarding the environment, to ones that further zoom in on the sake of nature. In fact, Taylor states that “once we reject the claim that humans are superior either in merit or in worth to other living things, we are ready to adopt the attitude of respect” (330).…
The Everglades Foundation is focused on restoring the Everglades and surrounding estuaries to a natural state for clean water access for the people of Florida. Katz and Light would both agree that restoration should be done but they have differing views on restoration. Katz believes that it creates domination over nature and Light believes in non-dominant restoration. In this paper, I will discuss the two views and how it applies to the Everglades Foundation. As I explain these positions I will develop my reasoning and formulate my position on the foundation.…
In the work INTO The Wild by Jon Krakauer Chris Mccandless is willing to go on a daring adventure to hike across the country to go up to alaska and live in the wilderness. I am going to prove that chris was a good person and valued a lot of stuff but he wanted to do a daring adventure and it got him into trouble In the end . By making three main points: chris’ value of nature, his value for what he had and, his caring personality.…
The idea of wilderness has been severely redefined throughout history. It has transformed from a genuine piece of nature that was not thought of to be sacred, to a museum-like section of land that needs to constantly stress the importance of conservation and protection. It is not a casual place anymore, but rather something that is not necessarily guaranteed and cannot be taken for granted. However, throughout all of the change, there is one aspect of wilderness that has remained intact. Wilderness serves as a place for people to escape; It is a getaway that allows humans to avoid reality and all the troubles that come with it.…
Restoration of natural places and respectful stewardship of nature is the only solution to the environmental problems we are…
Therefore, man is to provide protection only and not to have power over it. Even though man may be helping some animals, we still have control over them. We should take Carson’s advise and not try to take over nature.…
Writer Roderick Nash argues that wilderness is the antithesis to the human paradise in satisfying our interests (Nash, xii). Henry David Thoreau advocates that “in wilderness is the preservation of the world” (Cronon, 471). Environmental activist Gary Snyder believes wilderness to be “a person with a clear heart and open mind can experience the wilderness anywhere on earth. It’s a quality of one’s own consciousness” (Cronon, 495). Author Bill McKibben believes there is no wilderness and “we must accept the fact that no area on earth remains pristine or fully free of human influence” (Waller, 545).…
Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into The Wild, presents the question, to what extent is community essential to happiness? Based on the actions illustrated by the main character, Chris Mccandless and humans in general, it’s fair to say that we don’t need people in order to be happy. Community can be defined as, “A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.” As humans, we are so diverse and unique that we sometimes can’t find a community where our goals, interest or attitudes are reciprocated by others. Though society does believe we need relationships with parents, mentors and friends to be happy; Chris showed that we did not need these relationships to be happy.…
In this day and age, it is all too easy to view nature through the megapixels of a photo on an iPhone, or have over one hundred million images of any animal or plant appear in less than a second via Google Images. It is an astonishing accomplishment in technology, and its attributes to human welfare cannot be dismissed, but it does have its faults. Subsequently, these faults reflect concepts that philosophers have conferred for centuries. Many philosophers believe that technology, along with other entities and beliefs in Western culture, is pulling Americans away from having a strong connection with nature. One of the more contemporary philosophers, David Abram, expresses the importance of having a sense of unity with the natural world in his…
Introduction What is nature? On the surface, this might appear to be a very simple question, but it is actually very complex. Indeed, each person has their own concept of nature, and these concepts influence how we interact with the environment. Is nature something that is separate from society?…
“I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which no outlets in our quiet life”(15). This quote emphasizes that nature is essential to one’s existence. Nonetheless, making sacrifices for what you love is a true passion.…
Walker while talking about the Wasichu or a person of western culture who destroys nature and doesn’t care for the environment states “you can see the men who did this were crazy… They just killed and killed because they liked to do that- black elk speaks” (Walker 663). The Wasichu were so wasteful and never killed to survive they killed for pleasure which lead to the needless death of thousands of buffalo. This is just one example of a pointless waste of natural world this thinking started during the middle ages and the renaissance, the opinion man in western culture had towards the great chain of being changed, it changed from man respecting and loving nature to making it subservient with the nuances of the humanism age (345, Manes.) as western culture grew it industrialized doing everything necessary to bring the greatest success to mankind as opposed to nature as a whole and thus started the tyrannical thinking that has destroyed so much of nature with little thought or care for the result.…
After reading Ishmael, my mind was astounded by the depth of which the novel illustrated about humanity and its captivity. It gave me a new prospective of how in some ways I would be considered conformed to the world based of “Mother Culture” ideas. It made me feel guilty that despite everything I have done and learned in relation to the environment my humanistic values may be contradicting it. I had to take a step back couple of times reading the novel to correlate it with my own personal values, the way I saw the world, and the very foundation of the world’s educational systems and beliefs.…