When Did the Earth Stop Being Alive?
Before the scientific revolution, the earth was often imagined as a living mother. Then it became a machine to be mastered. Trace that shift with Merchant and Shiva — and ask why the same dualisms that subordinated women licensed the exploitation of nature.
Steps
- 1
- Reading· ~10 min
Ecofeminism's Challenge to Environmentalism
Why Merchant's diagnosis demands more than green technology, and what a post-mechanistic ethics might look like.
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- Text Explore· ~8 min
Bacon's Language of Domination
Explore Merchant's reading of Bacon as the pivot between organic and mechanistic worldviews.
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- Argument Map· ~10 min
How the Earth Became a Machine
Map Merchant's argument from the organic worldview to the ecological crisis.
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- Dialogue· ~10 min
Dialogue with Merchant
Challenge whether rejecting mechanism is philosophically and politically coherent.
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- Reflection· ~8 min
Reflection: Nature and Domination
Reflect on the worldview you inherit when you think about nature.
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