Mechanism removed the moral barrier that had made controlling nature seem impious
Evidence
It is no coincidence that this view of nature took hold most strongly with the rise of capitalism, which needed to turn nature into a market commodity and resource without significant moral or social constraint on availability. The mechanical philosopher Robert Boyle notes that ‘the veneration with which men are imbued for what they call nature has been a discouraging impediment to the empire of man over the inferior creatures of God: for many have not only looked upon [control], as an impossible thing to compass, but as an impious thing to attempt’ (Boyle 1744:363). As Boyle indicates, power over nature, considered as a powerful other, was often previously seen as neither desirable nor possible. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 419
Categorization
- XREF: Strongest single textual tie to Merchant’s The Death of Nature thesis that organicism previously constrained exploitation of nature as a living being. — connects to: Nature-domination’s roots precede the Enlightenment in earlier rationalism and Christianity. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 287; Reductive mechanism’s emotional distance normalises modern warfare and machine-economy harms — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 448; Mechanism’s dead nature results from stripping intentional description, not from lack of spirit — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 505 (+6 more)
- SEED: Boyle’s quote is essay material: how one conceptual shift (nature as machine) converts a moral prohibition into a mandate — a pattern reusable for analyzing technology ethics today.
Broader Connections
- Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation
#corroborates(0.95) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 480 - The machine world view removed ethical scruples against destroying nature
#corroborates(0.95) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 852 - Animist vitalism functioned as an ethic restraining exploitation of nature
#corroborates(0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 158