The mechanistic worldview licensed exploitation of nature by rejecting the feminine as real.
Evidence
The early reviews focused on the connections between science and the domination of nature and on the relationships between women and nature. Reviewers emphasized the argument that the mechanistic world view laid open a new and brutal exploitation of the environment, animals, and a living, vital nature. The shift was part of a rejection of the feminine as a constitutive part of reality and a concomitant oppression of women. The machine metaphor redefined reality as controlling heretofore unruly events. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 39
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Ecofeminism revalues a women-nature connection the west historically devalued to oppress women — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 60; The mechanistic worldview sanctioned domination of both nature and women — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 64; Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 480 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- The mechanistic worldview sanctioned domination of both nature and women
#corroborates(0.95) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 64 - Nature’s figuration as submissive female gave scientific exploitation normative sanction
#expands(0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 755 - The machine world view removed ethical scruples against destroying nature
#corroborates(0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 852 - Mechanism killed the female world-soul by reducing nature to dead moving corpuscles
#expands(0.88) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 766 - Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation
#expands(0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 480 - The link between feminine metaphors of nature and women’s actual subjugation resisted precise demonstration.
#qualifies(0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 40