GGR100H1 Lecture Notes - Hetch Hetchy, Deep Ecology, Environmental Ethics
Document Summary
Nature is a concept which signifies some kind of natural world, independent of humans. It is a social construct however, as it is the product of social conditions which shape the idea, one which varies in different contexts. Ideas of nature today have been shaped by assumptions which become unquestioned historical narratives. It has been shaped by western european ideas and a colonial legacy which ignored many other ideas and realities regarding what nature and wilderness might signify. Locke s environmental ethic is anthropocentric and utilitarian through the relationship it establishes between an individual and property. An individual s body and their labour constitute their property as well as any nature they transform through their labour. The value of any part of nature is determined solely by its usefulness to humans. Summarize the debate around an explanation of these two terms.
