Science and mechanization gave wild things their human value

Evidence

These wild things, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science disclosed the drama of where they come from and how they live. The whole conflict thus boils down to a question of degree. We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress; our opponents do not. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 4

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Informs the observation-as-method thread of the polyad: science discloses the ‘drama’ of wild things, which is exactly what attentive field observation recovers.
• XREF: connects to: Darwinian kinship knowledge has not yet produced an ecological ethic. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 387; Mechanistic reduction extends nature’s instrumentalisation to humans rather than ending dualism — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 458; Separating nature from value stripped humans of intrinsic worth too — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 399 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Separating nature from value stripped humans of intrinsic worth too #expands (0.85) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 399
• Mechanistic reduction extends nature’s instrumentalisation to humans rather than ending dualism #expands (0.82) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 458
• European curiosity required mechanisms that rendered the world into objects #expands (0.75)