Conquering Nature Essay -- Nature Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Conquering Nature "What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument." (The Abolition of Man, 420) Imagine, if you will, a basketball game in which two teams are in the midst of an intense game. Just because your team knows what it is the other team is doing and the workings of all their plays does not mean you know how to stop them, let alone that you are winning. It is the same with Nature. Just because we know how things work and are able to manipulate certain parts of it for our advantage does not even begin to imply that we have the capability of possessing it, of 'conquering' it. I don't even think we even want to pretend to have conquered it. You see, there is a stark difference between progress and possession. For if Nature is truly at our beckon call, then the latest hurricane or tornado that stole thousands of human lives and destroyed acres upon acres of natural reserves was actually within our control to stop--those disasters were then humanity's own fault. Unless we are r...