outline

I. Dualistic Conception of Human Identity
a. Human/nature divide; primary dualism –a symptom Western rationalism
b. Ideal rational self vs. embodied embedded self
c. Dualistic thinking: human identity as separate from nature; outside of nature
d. Oppositional qualities associated with nature seen as less than human
i. Interconnected qualities/associations of women and nature
ii. Nature, emotion, the body, the female, senses, care (other cultures)
II. Plumwood’s Relational Account of the Self; reconceptualized human/self
a. Alternative to rights-based liberal morality
b. Denial of identification with inferorized Others based on human/nature divide
c. Recover human nature divide: relational self as embedded in nature
d. Egoistic extension of rights vs. nondualistic relations between self and others
III. Alternative Rationalities
a. Ecologoical rationality
i. Ecological crisis is in reality a crisis of reason (and culture)
ii. Hegemonic reason
1. Disembedded ecological relationships
2. Oppositional inferiorization of nature; Others; the Others of Reason
3. Oppositional understanding of human
4. Denial of value orientations
iii. Highlights ecological embeddedness, self-critical reason, nonoppositional, contextual, compatibility with biological systems, non-remote, redistributive, inclusive, alternative socio-cultural knowledge systems (thwart environmental risk),
IV. Victor Seidler: Masculinity, Reason, Science
a. Historical forces of modern science contribution to systems of rationality
i. Ideology through administrative state, market liberalism
ii. Environmental crisis a series of interlinked rationalities
1. science, technology, economics, and government administration under backdrop of the mastery of nature
2. Value orientation of Enlightenment science subsumed in scientific/technological rationality systems
3. Denial of contending value orientations part of crisis
4. Reconceptualization of the human as ecologically embedded changes rationality – reason/emotion dualism