Each organic nature-image licensed a different politics, from stasis to change

Evidence

Within this larger framework, how ever, a number of variants on the organic theme were possible. The primary view of nature was the idea that a designed hierarchical order existed in the cosmos and society corresponding to the organic integration of the parts of the body—a projection of the human being onto the cosmos. The term nature comprehended both the innate character and disposition of people and animals and the inherent creative power operating within material objects and phenomena. A second image was based on nature as an active unity of opposites in a dialectical tension. A third was the Arcadian image of nature as benevolent, peaceful, and rustic, deriving from Arcadia, the pastoral interior of the Greek Peloponnesus. Each of these interpretations had different social implications: the first image could be used as a justification for maintaining the existing social order, the second for changing society toward a new ideal, the third for escaping from the emerging problems of urban life. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 88

Categorization

• XREF: The image→social-implication mapping echoes the storytelling/interpreting thread running across all four courses. — connects to: Postmodern nature imagery memorializes a nature already systemically eliminated by capitalism — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 396; Depicted nature becomes a coded endorsement of industrial domination
• SEED: Potential essay angle: the three organic images as usable tropes in contemporary environmental rhetoric — conservation (hierarchy), restoration (dialectic), pastoral escape (Arcadia).

Broader Connections

• Postmodern nature imagery memorializes a nature already systemically eliminated by capitalism #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 396
• Depicted nature becomes a coded endorsement of industrial domination #expands (0.75)