Paracelsian cosmology placed humans within nature, not above it

Evidence

Since all the four Paracelsian elemental worlds contained both rational and irrational creatures, mankind, in the Philosophia ad Athenienses, was only one among the other beings of the natural world. This text presented a view that people existed within nature, in harmony with the whole rather than above it: “That philosophy then is foolish and vain which leads us to assign all happiness and eternity to our element alone, that is, the earth, and that is a fool’s maxim which boasts that we are the noblest of creatures. There are many worlds and we are not the only beings in our world.” — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 511

Categorization

• XREF: Directly contradicts the Baconian/Cartesian human-above-nature stance the course’s mechanistic-worldview thread critiques; links to deep ecology and ecofeminist critiques of human exceptionalism. — connects to: Organic cosmology was embodied in circular city plans replicating the macrocosm — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 382; Humans unite vegetative and sensitive natures, not merely append one to the other
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether pre-Scientific-Revolution texts like this undermine the common claim that human-nature hierarchy is purely a modern or Judeo-Christian invention.

Broader Connections

• Humans unite vegetative and sensitive natures, not merely append one to the other #expands (0.78)
• Organic cosmology was embodied in circular city plans replicating the macrocosm #exemplifies (0.75) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 382