Daily machine experience, not logical necessity, steered Europe’s choice of worldview

Evidence

The images and symbols associated with the machines of everyday life helped to mediate the transition between frameworks. … The emerging mechanical world view was based on assumptions about nature consistent with the certainty of physical laws and the symbolic power of machines. Although many alternative philosophies were available (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, gnosticism, Hermeticism, magic, naturalism, and animism), the dominant European ideology came to be governed by the characteristics and experiential power of the machine. Social values and realities subtly guided the choices and paths to truth and certainty taken by European philosophers. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 853

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the polyad’s storytelling thread: root metaphors (not pure reason) guide which truths a culture selects. — connects to: Geographic expansion forced Europeans to reconceive their binary self-other worldview — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 308; Voyages expanded Europe’s physical horizon but not its cultural worldview; Direct Orient experience threatened European rationality of time, space, and identity — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 423 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultures differ over whether the world is a living whole or a machine #corroborates (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 615
• Even firsthand travel experience failed to break Europe’s inherited image of Islam #contradicts (0.80)
• Geographic expansion forced Europeans to reconceive their binary self-other worldview #corroborates (0.75) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 308
• Voyages expanded Europe’s physical horizon but not its cultural worldview #corroborates (0.75)
• Direct Orient experience threatened European rationality of time, space, and identity #qualifies (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 423
• The machine world view removed ethical scruples against destroying nature #qualifies (0.72) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 852