Political Nature This page intentionally left blank Political Nature Environmentalism and the Interpretation of Western Thought John M. Meyer The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2001MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyany electronicormechanicalmeans(includingphotocopying,recording,orinforma- tionstorageandretrieval)without permissioninwriting fromthepublisher. This book was set in Sabon by Achorn Graphic Services, Inc., on the Miles 33 system. Printed andboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Meyer, JohnM. Political nature : environmentalism and the interpretation of Western thought/JohnM.Meyer. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-262-13390-3(hc.:alk.paper)—ISBN0-262-63224-1(pbk.:alk. paper) 1.Politicalecology.2.Environmentalism.I.Title. JA75.8.M492001 320.5—dc21 2001030459 To Carolyn This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction 1 I Future and Past 19 2 Worldviews and the Evasion of Politics in Environmentalist Thought 21 3 Searching for Roots: Environmentalist Interpretations of the History of Western Thought 35 II Rethinking Nature in Political Theory 55 4 Mechanical Nature and Modern Politics: The System of Thomas Hobbes 57 5 Natural Ends and Political Naturalism? Understanding Aristotle 89 III Political Nature 119 6 Nature, Politics, and the Experience of Place 121 7 New Possibilities for Environmental Politics 143 Notes 157 Bibliography 185 Index 205 This page intentionally left blank Preface I worked as a political organizer for the six years prior to my graduate studies, often addressing environmental issues. Among the necessities of thisactivismaretheobligationtodevelopstrategies,torespondtooppo- sition quickly, to shore up support for proposals, and to maintain one’s own confidence—and the confidence of others—in the face of a daily whirlwindofactivity.Broaderinsightintowherewearegoingandwhere we want to go can be fostered in this atmosphere, but I also found that it can be stifled by the lack of opportunity for reflection. Ireenteredtheacademyinsearchofthisopportunityandwithasense that our human relationship with the natural environment is of funda- mental importance to our social and political values. I immersed myself in the study of both political theory and environmental ideas. As I read historical and contemporary literature in political theory, I searched for insightintohuman-environmentrelations.Inonesense,notsurprisingly, Ifoundlittle.Environmentalconcernsasweunderstandthemtodayhave not played a major role in Western political thought. In another sense, however, it became increasingly apparent that the argumentative strate- giesbywhichvarioustheoristshavesoughttorelateideasabout“nature” totheirpoliticalvision wereofgreatrelevance.Ifoundmyselfprodding theseconnectionstobetterunderstandtherelationship.WhileoftenIdid not embrace these views, I discovered in them the source for reflection that I had sought. Myinitialexaminationofwritingsbycontemporaryenvironmentalist thinkers prompted a different response. Here I often shared sentiments andunderlyingconcerns,yetfoundjournalssuchasEnvironmentalEth- ics and many books in the field to be weighed down with attempts to