The instrumentalizing self cannot hold alikeness and difference together at once

Evidence

The dualised self which can only view nature instrumentally cannot recognise in nature another who is both different from self and non-alien, and misses the essential ‘tension of recognising the outside other as both different and alike’ (Benjamin 1988:195). It is caught in a dilemma, being unable to experience alikeness and continuity, or else unable to experience sameness without obliterating difference (Benjamin 1988:48). — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 590

Categorization

• XREF: This causal account of why mastery cannot relate to nature extends Merchant’s historical story with a psychological mechanism of domination. — connects to: Self forms through recognizing an other both alike and different — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 582; Columbus’s renaming of land exemplified incorporating difference into the empire of same — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 592; Expanding the self to include others still denies their distinctness — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 681 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Expanding the self to include others still denies their distinctness #expands (0.75) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 681
• The self forms only through engagement with that which denies its unity #qualifies (0.70)