Mechanism’s view of dead passive matter sanctioned nature’s exploitation

Evidence

But the cluster of ecological, commercial, technological, and social changes evolving during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries continued to differentiate among these philosophies, with the result that some of the above assumptions about the organic world were criticized and transformed by the emerging mechanical philosophy of the mid-seventeenth century, while others were rendered implausible and rejected. Mechanism, which superseded the organic framework, was based on the logic that knowledge of the world could be certain and consistent, and that the laws of nature were imposed on creation by God. The primacy of organic process gave way to the stability of mathematical laws and identities. Force was external to matter rather than immanent within it. Matter was corpuscular, passive, and inert; change was simply the rearrangement of particles as motion was transmitted from one part to another in a causal nexus. Because it viewed nature as dead and matter as passive, mechanism could function as a subtle sanction for the exploitation and manipulation of nature and its resources. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 444

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Newtonian passive-matter physics sanctioned nature’s domination for economic development. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 1028; Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 480; Severing the organic bond turned nature from partner into passive object — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 514 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 480
• The Scientific Revolution’s death of nature licensed nature’s manipulation #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 761
• Newtonian passive-matter physics sanctioned nature’s domination for economic development. #corroborates (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 1028
• Severing the organic bond turned nature from partner into passive object #complicates (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 514
• Stripping nature of value licensed its exploitation without moral restraint #expands (0.80)
• Vitalism’s monistic worldview inherently restrains the exploitation of nature #corroborates (0.75) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 933