Vitalism’s monistic worldview inherently restrains the exploitation of nature

Evidence

As a philosophy of nature, vitalism in its monistic form was inherently antiexploitative. Its emphasis on the life of all things as gradations of soul, its lack of a separate distinction between matter and spirit, its principle of an immanent activity permeating nature, and its reverence for the nurturing power of the earth endowed it with an ethic of the inherent worth of everything alive. Contained within the conceptual structure of vitalism was a normative constraint. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 933

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Enslaving and impoverishing nature is no more tolerable than enslaving humans — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 72; Metaphysical unity with nature justifies exploitation no less than conservation — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 671; Anthropocentrism frames nature as dead and manipulable, outside ethical responsibility — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 591 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• The vitalists’ lost organic value system lies behind today’s ecological crisis #corroborates (0.80) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 992
• Vitalists collapsed Cartesian mind-matter dualism into a monistic union #expands (0.78) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 932