The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution [Paperback]

Carolyn Merchant (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0062505955 | ISBN-13: 978-0062505958 | Publication Date: January 10, 1990

An examination of the Scientific Revolution that shows how the mechanistic world view of modern science has sanctioned the exploitation of nature, unrestrained commercial expansion, and a new socioeconomic order that subordinates women.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliantly conceived and richly researched." -- -- Susan Griffin

"Offers a deeply perceptive discussion of the perennial debate between the organic and the mechanistic view of Nature and Life." -- -- Walter Pagel

"[Merchant] continually forges strong links between the events of centuries long past ant the dilemmas faced by 20th-century industrialized societies." -- -- Environmental Review

About the Author

Carolyn Merchant, Ph.D., is professor of environmental history, philosophy, and ethics in the Department of Conservation and Resource Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (January 10, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062505955
• ISBN-13: 978-0062505958
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flat treatment of important topic, July 25, 2000

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (Paperback)

This is a book on the important topic of ecofeminism. The author wants to show how the modern destruction of nature and our environment ties in with the subjugation of women during the same period. However, to understand how these assaults occurred, we have to first examine the history of ideas. As Merchant shows, these destructive attitudes toward women and nature reflect changing ideas of how we think about people and our place in the world. What characterizes this new way of thinking which began about 500 years ago is the idea that trees, colors, ideas, people, in short, the entire cosmos, are really just the mechanical actions of matter in motion, no matter how much things may seem otherwise. From this modern perspective, the natural world and everything in it really amounts to a gigantic machine in motion, thereby debasing our ordinary experience of that world. Nonetheless, this reduction of things to numbers greatly helps the rise of modern science, especially technology, by showing how mathematics can be applied concretely and experimentally to just about everything there is. Moreover, during this period, how people think about society also changes. Society too is conceived as a colossal machine, a human one, possessing definite structures, with components conceived as self-contained and independent little atoms, who associate with one another not because of inner need but because of external advantage. Thus, moral philosophy too, follows modern thinking by becoming a credo of "it's okay for the selfish man to get ahead in life", while economic science becomes a means of determining how we can all get ahead without destroying the social fabric. Or, put another way, we're really only interested in ourselves, but cooperate with others as a means of gaining our own ends and avoiding a consuming war of all against all. It's not too hard to see the seeds of destructive assault in such thinking.

Nature thus undergoes a profound change from the traditional conception of nurturing mother to one of dead machine, that is, from an object of affection to an object of subjugation and exploitation. Correspondingly, the traditionally moral way of looking at our natural surroundings changes to a non-moral, strictly neutral, it-is-there-to-be-used point of view. Moreover, these new aggressive attitudes are associated with how men should act, are supposed to act; while women,on the other hand, are thought of (like nature) as passive, there-to-be-used objects of exploitation. Such thinking thus enables industry and technology to historically combine in an ongoing assault upon the environment, on one hand, and women, on the other. What is needed, of course, is a new way of thinking that will end these horrific abuses - What has changed, can be changed. Unfortunately, Merchant treats this fascinating subject in a lifeless manner. She walks through the historical precedents in dry, uninspired, and thoroughly descriptive fashion, leaving the impression of an embroidered postgraduate dissertation. Her thesis cries out for greater color, synthesis and argumentation. As a student of the humanist philosopher Theodore Roszak, she could use more of his chutzpah.

30 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This insightful book unpeels the scientific revolution., June 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (Paperback)

Merchant sets the record straight in this powerful, straightforward book. She illustrates the abuses of political power that drove the scientific revolution, dethrones its "father," Sir Francis Bacon, and unravels the presumption of the scientific, paternal myth. This scholarly book provides the reader with the knowledge to ask the right questions and demand answers: about ecology, nature, the economics of science, and the torture and sexualization of the feminine. And even better, Merchant gifts us with the opportunity to imagine something better.

1.0 out of 5 stars Unsubstantiated Junk, December 9, 2011

By 

MCA "mgoodfleisch" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (Paperback)

Sadly, this book is actually assigned reading in some colleges and universities, which means students will believe as fact its rather thin argument that industrial development in the world stems from a decline in the value placed on womanhood. The author apparently hasn't studied the very real oppression of women during earlier time periods in history. This is junk social science, and, horrifically has been given credibility it does not deserve. Admittedly, the premise is unique. The 'academics' behind the premise, however, are weak at best, and downright dangerous at worst. Connections are drawn with no grounds other than the author's personal claim that various advances in industry or science are related to anti-faminist attitudes and have sexual undertones.

If you like this book, you'll love the equally distorted sexual references in Spinning Straw Into Gold (by Gould).