Plato’s devaluation targeted internal nature for discipline, not external nature for control

Evidence

As we have seen, he is mainly concerned with the primacy of reason over internal nature, with dominating and disciplining the body, the emotions and the senses. The prime human task, the route to the higher type of life, is to move beyond nature, to rise above ties to the lower realm and to ascend to the heights of reason and contemplation of the Form of the Good. Plato does not seem to think of the natural world itself, external nature, as a field for control, something humans have power over or have to struggle with. He regards it rather as an inferior sphere of little interest. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 411

Categorization

• XREF: Narrows the earlier chapter claim that Plato’s earth-mother myth promoted militarism — here the distinction between internal and external nature is drawn analytically. — connects to: Platonic self-harmony is achieved through internal colonization of nature by reason — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 348; A single reason-over-nature dualism structures every domain of Plato’s philosophy — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 312; Plato’s subordination targets the feminine as a category, not actual women — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 297 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Descartes relocated the Platonic devaluation of nature from virtue into consciousness #expands (0.88) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 423