Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, 2019. # Progressive Summary There are three variations of the "nature as female" metaphor. - the cosmos is ordered in the same way as the body is organically ordered. There is a creative power inherent in people and in nature. - Nature is an active unity of opposites in dialectical tension. - nature is an Arcadian paradise, benevolent, peaceful and rustic, but also passive The first variant was a justification for maintaining the existing social order. The second variant justified changing society toward a new ideal. The third justified escaping from the emerging problems of urban life. # Key Points # Resonances I love this quote attributed to James Hillman, which appears in Buhner's Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal World: > “It was only when science convinced us that nature was dead that it could begin its autopsy in earnest.” # Oppositions # Questions / Comments # Quotes