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Reason, nature and the human being in the West

Module documents

How to do it

Different people will use the materials provided or pointed to in different ways.

Keep your mind I would suggest on the object of the exercise, which I set out in this way:

The first aim is to provide you with a framework for thinking about the different ways people (in Western culture) in the past have conceptualised animals, plants, nature and their interrelationships.

The framework consists of a division of the past into periods, and an account of what is characteristic of each.

There is of course no uncontested version of such a framework, and it is the first equal aim of the module to help you take further the skills you need to evaluate the claims on truth (or some such) of rival frameworks, and to perfect the account of the matter that seems most defensible to you.

The secondary aim is to help you develop your ability to convey your thinking about these matters effectively.

You get the way in which the framework I am offering you divides the past up by looking at the 5-fold division of the material presented in the web site:

In each of these periods I try and identify the foundational ideas or concepts of the period (ideas that were foundtional, I mean, to how animals, plants, nature etc, were thought of ). So the way to see what these are is to refer to the web presentations. Here is a list. As I see it, the main point is to get hold of the ideas and see a bit of how they help make up a series of different ways of thinking.

It is interesting, and sometimes illuminates the ideas that were in play, to know what happened in whatever period is in question. Some of this history of events is presented in the module web pages - but only a small part, and some of it chosen for illustrative purposes and not because in itself it was of the greatest importance (eg the gardening revolution in Enlightenment England).

You can scan much of this material, see whether you want to take it further, and then either read it more closely or pursue it in the literature, to which I try to give at least a pointer - or both.

You will be bearing in mind as you scan what you might want to write about, and that will help you decide what to pursue.

You should make your way through the readings, from which you will get some expansion of what you find in the web pages, and some differences of emphasis and view.

 

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Revised 07:04:04
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Reason, Nature and the Human Being in the West
Part of a module of the MA in Values and the Environment Lancaster University
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