Otherworldly salvation defines the human self as oppositional to nature

Evidence

For both Platonic and Christian systems, the meaning of death is that the meaning of human life is elsewhere, not to be found in the earth or in human life as part of nature, but in a separate realm accessible only to humans (and only to certain chosen of these), the world of the Forms and the world of heaven. The salvation awaiting them beyond and above the world of nature, a fate marked out for humans alone, confirms their difference and separation from the world of nature, and their destiny as one apart from that of other species. The real self is the soul, and continuity for the self is provided by its continuation in the world of the Forms; in fact if the real self is discontinuous from nature continuity can only be provided by the soul’s persistence in a spiritual realm also discontinuous from nature, which furnishes the significance and locus of continuity in human life. This formation of identity ensures that it is not merely discontinuous from and outside nature, but is oppositional to it, and is in conflict with the basic conditions and fact of its physical existence. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 384

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the Eco-Justice/ecofeminist reading of dualistic identity as inherently conflictual with embodied natural existence — marrying ch1 (identity practices, not human nature) with the pair-reading against Merchant. — connects to: The warrior-hero’s choice of honour over life structures Plato’s devaluation of nature — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 377; Modern replacements for otherworldly religion remain hostile to nature — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 388; Protection by exclusion reflects a worldview that sets humans apart from nature — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 572 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Protection by exclusion reflects a worldview that sets humans apart from nature #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 572
• Resolving nature dualism needs reconceiving humans as more natural and nature as more mindlike #qualifies (0.80) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 465