Nature is a political category defined by exclusion from reason

Evidence

In this landscape, nature must be seen as a political rather than a descriptive category, a sphere formed from the multiple exclusions of the protagonist-superhero of the western psyche, reason, whose adventures and encounters form the stuff of western intellectual history. The concept of reason provides the unifying and defining contrast for the concept of nature, much as the concept of husband does for that of wife, as master for slave. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 40

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definitional claim: nature defined relationally as reason’s excluded other.
• XREF: The reason-nature as husband-wife, master-slave pairing connects directly to Merchant’s historical argument and to the linguistics of colonial power in the companion readings. — connects to: Being defined as nature means being passive, non-agent, and claimable land — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 44; The concept of nature is a dumping-ground defined purely as reason’s excluded opposite. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 97; Nature is backgrounded through systematic moral exclusion, denial, and not-seeing. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 269 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The concept of nature is a dumping-ground defined purely as reason’s excluded opposite. #corroborates (0.95) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 97
• Nature is backgrounded through systematic moral exclusion, denial, and not-seeing. #exemplifies (0.80) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 269
• Race is a political category disguised as a biological one #expands (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1179