马克思自然概念的多维度解读

马克思以前的自然概念以非实践的方式来看待自然,割裂了自然与人、自然与历史、自然科学与人的科学的联系。马克思“感性的自然”突出了自然界与人的相关性;“人化的自然”强调了自然概念的社会历史性;“历史的自然”体现了自然与历史的辩证法;“人本学的自然”是对自然科学与人的科学分离的克服;“价值的自然”是对人与自然和谐的守望。     

儿童与自然的人地关系研究:接触、认知与情感

自然可以对儿童身心、认同和社会关系产生重要的影响。儿童与自然的关系的地理学研究成果在2015年后呈爆发式增长态势。研究主要聚焦于三个话题：有关儿童与自然接触的研究，包括如何让普通的儿童和有特殊照顾需要的儿童更好的接触自然，以及影响儿童与自然接触的社会文化因素；儿童自然认知的研究，包括儿童的自然意象、校园自然和户外自然作为教育空间的相关研究；儿童自然情感的研究，包括儿童的自然体验、儿童与自然及中介的关系，自然对儿童情感的影响相关的研究。本文呼吁学界能更多关注中国情境下儿童人地关系。     

从悖论浅议人地关系中的人性内涵

从哲学意义上说,不先研究人的秘密而想洞察自然的秘密那是根本不可能的。因此,有必要从人的"二律背反"本性内涵的表现出发去探寻人与地的关系。在探讨和分析了人地关系中人性内涵特征的基础上,从文化人与地的关系、人类自身的矛盾性、生存态度所决定的人性特征、忽略人性研究的严重后果等4个方面认知了人地关系中的人性内涵。最后在分析了技术与人性相互作用的前提下,指出了人性的本质内涵是内省式的"自己创造自己",而不是在对"地"的无限度索取中迷失自我,并提出人性内涵重新塑造和回归的设想。     

White natures: Sydney's Royal Agricultural Show in post-humanist perspective

Few events perform so ritualistically the triumphal narrative of human ingenuity and agency over the natural world, as the metropolitan displays of produce and machinery known as agricultural shows. The Royal Agricultural Show held in Sydney (Australia) is a case in point. Since the 1890s those liminal forms, of Herefords, hay, harvesters and the like that spill over the categories we think of as culture and nature, have been annually assembled. In the showground, they were made to stand as testimony to the successful march of 'civilization' to the colony of New South Wales – with civilization conceived, in European and humanist terms, as a spatialized progression out of an animal-baseline in nature, through an agrarian garden, to the evolved space of the City. This was the trajectory that had long since been presumed to mark out the life of humanity from all other life-forms that simply lived . Rather than reinscribe the privilege of that partial perspective, I use the New South Wales agricultural society and its Sydney show's 'white natures' to think across the referential categories of humanity and nature. By critically juxtaposing the Show's hybrid things with its dramatizations of human invention and ingenuity, the article opens cracks in the normativities of civilization that shaped the conviction of 'the human' as the being who transcends the merely natural. In so doing, the article also offers a fresh line of critique of those pernicious hierarchies that have, and continue to assign, premodern people and livelihoods to an anterior developmental space.     

THE PROBABILITY OF THE IMPROBABLE: SOCIETY–NATURE COEVOLUTION

This article aims to show how evolutionary theory, social‐metabolism and sociological systems theory can be utilized to develop a concept of society–nature coevolution. The article begins with a conception of industrialization as a socio‐metabolic transition, that is, a major transformation in the energetic and consequently material basis of society. This transition to industrial metabolism was essential for the emergence and maintenance of industrial societies and is at the same time the main cause of global environmental change. The article proceeds by asking what the notion of society–nature coevolution can potentially contribute to understanding environmental sustainability problems. An elaborated concept of coevolution hinges on (1) a more precise and sociologically more meaningful concept of cultural evolution and (2) understanding how cultural evolution is linked to the environment. Next I briefly outline major lines of thought and controversies surrounding the idea of cultural evolution. The direction proposed here commences with an abstract version of Darwinian evolution, which is then re‐specified for social systems, understood as communication systems, as developed by Luhmann. The re‐specification implies three important changes in the theoretical outline of cultural evolution: first, shifting from the human population to the communication system as the unit of cultural evolution and to single communications as the unit of cultural variation; second, shifting from transmission or inheritance to reproduction as necessary condition for evolution; and third, shifting from purely internal (communicative) forces of selection towards including also environmental selection. Adopting elements from the work of Hägerstrand and Boserup, the primary environmental selective force in cultural evolution is conceptualized as the historically variable constraints in human time–space occupation. In the conclusions I tie the argument back to its beginning, by arguing that the most radical changes in human time–space occupation have been enabled by major socio‐metabolic transitions in the energy system.     

Sketching culture,sketching nature: uncovering anchors of everyday nature for urban youth

There has, historically, been considerable uncertainty over the meaning of ‘urban nature’ and, therefore, the extent to which culture and nature are bound in the urban setting. We explore, in this paper, the spatiality of everyday nature as experienced by youth in an urban setting. To do so, we draw on the results of a participatory mapping activity that was designed to elicit information about where youth felt most connected to nature while in the city. Using sketch-map survey instruments, we collected hand-drawn responses from forty-three high school students in the downtown core of Tacoma, Washington. Data were digitized and analyzed in a GIS, and results were revealing of the contingency of the ‘nature’ concept in urban space as well as the centrality of ‘loose’ space to urban experiences that are evocative of being in nature.     

Machiavelli’s Philosophical Anthropology

This article seeks to address a tension in contemporary scholarship regarding Machiavelli’s view of human nature. While it is common for readers to identify Machiavelli’s rejection of any foundational law that determines the structure of the world, it is just as common for them to abstract human nature from this world and thereby to posit a fixed human essence. Machiavelli is thus seen as an anti-essentialist when it comes to external nature and as an essentialist when it comes to internal human nature. I will attempt to demonstrate, however, that for Machiavelli these two interpretations are integrated into an overall ontology of being that rejects all forms of essentialist thinking, including all positive models of human nature. Machiavelli’s rejection of a fixed or positive human essence will be demonstrated by analyzing his account of the openness of human being to change and alteration by socialization, and his account of the multiplicity of forms of human doing and being. I argue that Machiavelli’s rejection of a fixed essence underlies his affirmation of a negative essence—the specifically human desire for value-formation and the perpetual recreation of the world and, by extension, of the self. An appreciation of this affirmation, furthermore, has important consequences for how we think about Machiavelli’s preferred form of republican institutionalization.     

浅论孔子的人性观

历年来,对孔子人性思想的研究,往往从善恶的角度去立论。其实,统观《论语》全书,孔子并未言明人性是善还是恶,而是从人本质属性的角度去理解的,即人的自然欲求性。同时,在自然欲求性的基础上,孔子的人性还兼有引人向善的意义。孔子提倡在自然欲求性的基础上,通过学习和良好习俗的熏染,达到引人向善的目的,从而实现自然之性向道德之性的升华。     

论文明对待自然

人类必须文明地对待自然,应坚持平等对待自然、与自然和谐相处这样两个原则。平等对待的原则是为了保护自然万物的生存权利;和谐相处的原则是为了确立人与自然的和谐关系。坚持这两条原则是人类生存和可持续发展的基本要求,是人类总结经验教训后的必然选择。     

Spatializing the ecological Leviathan: Territorial strategies and the production of regional natures

This paper explores a dual absence — the absence of the state within contemporary geographical analyses of nature; and the absence of nature within contemporary explorations of state power. We argue that the modern state continues to play a crucial role in framing social interactions with nature, while nature is still vital to states within their realization of different forms of material and ideological power. In order to reconnect analyses of the state and nature, this paper combines work on the production of nature and state strategy with Lefebvre's recently translated writings on state space and territory. By focusing on the production of territory (or state space), we explore the interaction of the state and nature in the context of the political management of social and ecological space. We unravel the spatial entanglements of the state and nature through an analysis of the British state's territorial strategies within the West Midlands region. By considering three key historical periods within the history of the West Midlands we reveal how the emergence of the regional space called the West Midlands is a product of the ongoing spatial dialectics of state and nature therein.     

Being(s) in relation at home: socio-natures of patio ‘gardens’ in Managua,Nicaragua

Human–nature relations of home have been gaining more attention in geography, especially in the study of gardens. This article contributes to this growing literature, but in contrast to much research, it examines human–nature relations in the patios (garden) of homes in a marginalized barrio (slum) of Managua, Nicaragua. I suggest that the human–nature relations in these patios need to be understood differently than those in North American and European gardens. Based on research carried out in Managua, I argue that such relations are at the centre of everyday domestic activities and are critical in producing home as a liveable space in the city. The article draws on feminist geographic understandings of home and current work around human–environment relations, and identifies three different sets of socio-ecological relations: corporeal, aesthetic and economic. It argues that these three different relations between humans and the plants and trees in their patios are critical in the imaginaries around home and in the production of habitable spaces in cities, as well as to our understanding of urban natures.     

No Angst and All Play: Postmodernism and the Humanities

Abstract

There is widespread disagreement about Tocqueville's conception of human nature, some going so far as to say that Tocqueville possessed no unified conception of human nature at all. In this paper, I aim to provide the essential principles of Tocqueville's conception of human nature through an examination of the way in which he describes the power of human circumstances, such as physical environment, social state, and religion, to shape human character by extracting the principles underlying these transformations. There is no “natural man” or man “in the state of nature” but instead a set of psychic operations that reveal a picture of human nature in which human freedom, or the ability to initiate action in pursuit of important objects, lies at the heart of human life.     

关于极端干旱地区人地关系历史演变的初步研究——以塔里木盆地为例

纵观极端干旱地区生态环境与人类活动关系的全过程,可以看出:在气候环境自然演化的背景下,人地关系存在着时间与空间上的两种变迁。从历史时期看,从原始社会、农业社会到工业社会,人地关系大致经历了依附自然、干预顺应自然、干预自然、回归自然四个阶段。从空间上看,表现出人类"逐水而徙","依水而居"的相互关系。各个阶段以气候环境变化为背景,以水资源为主线,表现出人地关系演变的时空特征。塔里木水系的瓦解和塔里木盆地的沙漠化以及胡杨林植被面积的缩小,说明近100年来人类活动对人地关系的演化逐步起主导作用     

Theorizing a child–dog encounter in the slums of La Paz using post-humanistic approaches in order to disrupt universalisms in current ‘child in nature’ debates

This paper theorizes children's interspecies relation with dogs in La Paz Bolivia utilizing post-humanism and new materialism as its approach. This approach allows for the deconstructing of human–nature binaries found in discourses central to the children in nature movement. Questioning the universalizing of children's experience in nature the paper considers three propositions. Firstly, what if children were viewed as nature rather than outside of it. Secondly, can the objects or ‘things’ of nature be viewed as animated. And finally, how sensitive is the contemporary imperative to reconnect children to a romanticized more natured life, to children's diverse worldly experiences. I explore these propositions drawing on a study where I have adopted a materialist ontology and theorized using the work of [Barad, Karen. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press] and her concept of intra-action as adopted by Rautio [2013a. “Children Who Carry Stones in Their Pockets: On Autotelic Material Practices in Everyday Life.” Children's Geographies 11 (4): 394–408]. Based on my child–dog interspecies exploration, I will conclude by re-addressing the three propositions.     

‘Nature makes people happy,that’s what it sort of means:’ children’s definitions and perceptions of nature in rural Northwestern Ontario

ABSTRACT

Nature exposure positively impacts children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive health and development. We know less about how children perceive their connection with nature and what nature means to them. This study uses focus groups to understand how rural Canadian children define, experience, and perceive benefits of nature. Using thematic analysis, we identified three primary themes. First, while children associate nature with specific activities, natural elements, and locations, they also conceptualize nature as ‘a whole community.’ Second, children experienced nature through doing, highlighting how activities connected them with nature while recognizing constraints on those engagements. Finally, children demonstrated agency in accessing nature to improve their emotional states. These findings indicate that from children’s views, nature is more than just space with natural elements. Children are also knowledgeable about the health benefits of nature, and capitalize on this knowledge. These findings can inform interventions to increase children’s interactions with outdoor environments.     

Forest as hazard,forest as victim: Community perspectives and disaster mitigation in the aftermath of Kelowna's 2003 wildfires

Situated within the political ecology of hazard, this article is an extended case study of the devastating 2003 wildfires in and around Kelowna, British Columbia (also known as the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire). This article reveals how compliance (or lack thereof) with fire mitigation strategies recommended by provincial, regional, and municipal agencies is complicated by differing social constructions of what constitutes ecologically sustainable forest management and community safety. Three perspectives emerge regarding the urban forests: “nature as hazard”—a volatile force to be controlled; “nature as instrumentally valuable”—a contribution to the character of one's surroundings and subsequent sense of place; and “nature as intrinsically valuable”—a distinct entity to be preserved and protected for its own sake. The article also examines how experiences of disaster influence community perceptions and result in a greater willingness to engage in fire mitigation strategies due to perceptions of heightened vulnerability. Forestry and fire mitigation agencies need to determine multiple courses of action among the varied and valid range of residents’ nature perspectives. The role of human agency in disaster mitigation must be examined, particularly as the risk of fire at the wildland‐urban interface continues to be exacerbated by encroaching human settlements and climate change.     

董仲舒人性论再认识

董仲舒将“人性”范畴界定为人的自然性,但这种自然性不同于庄子的“自然性”,董仲舒把儒家伦理价值观念也论证为人的自然本性。善恶等人伦观念作为一种莱布尼茨意义上的“预定和谐”先在性地包容于人性范畴中,而后又展现于每个人的本性之中。因此,将董仲舒的人性论概括为“天赋善恶论”,似乎更符合其原意。重视人的自我创造性与自我超越性,是中国古代人性理论一大特点,而这一点又恰恰正是中西人性学说的会通之处。     

孟子“性善”思想的现代诠释

孟子认为人区别于禽兽的只是“人性善”,它源于人类共有的同情之心。因为人特有理性精神——反思能力,人人可以发现自己的“本心”,人人也可以成为“尧舜”。“人性善”是孟子“仁政”学说的基石。然而把“人性善”作为“平天下”功业的起点,也使其诞生之日起就有了巨大的消极意义。可是,现代人视人性为物质生活,社会生活等等所决定,也使人类为了从精神家园逃离,失去了生存的终极意义。把“人性善”作为终极的价值理性或许可以拯救这一现代病。     

Dominating nature and colonialism. Francis Bacon’s view of Europe and the New World

Francis Bacon’s works are pervaded by the firm belief that he was living in a new epoch. He thought of this epoch as based on knowledge and mechanical arts, which would permit dominion over nature. This dominion arises from mankind’s taking concrete action to improve the living conditions of humanity. Defining the nature of this action leads to individuate a plural historical subjectivity in Bacon’s thought. The different kinds of agency, and different kinds of technologies, define peoples in ethnological and spatial terms. Imperiality, that is human dominion over nature, implies the necessity of improving the conditions of the whole mankind, in a manner that opens the way of thinking in which ‘backward’ peoples are subject to this action of improvement. Colonialism is strictly related to imperiality. The idea of colonialism, in the New World in particular, rests on the assumption that human race can improve its living conditions, exercising power over nature. Therefore, imperiality and colonialism are not simply a tool of a British dominion, but elements of the new epoch that Bacon is theorising. In this sense, imperiality and colonialism are part of the philosophical structure of Bacon’s modernity.     

Undoing Nature: The John Muir Trust's “Journey for the Wild”, the UK,Summer 2006

Abstract: I take as a point of departure for a discussion of the idea of nature the John Muir Trust's much publicised Journey for the Wild which took place in the UK during the summer of 2006. My objective is to explore how, at the same time that the “wild” was performed as a political category through the Journey, replicating the binary nature/society, prevalent norms of nature that depend on that binary, including, ironically, those of John Muir himself, were “undone”. I work with Judith Butler's (2004, Undoing Gender) ideas of “doing” and “undoing” gender and what counts as human, and her link between the articulation of gender and the human on the one hand and, on the other, a politics of new possibilities. Taking her argument “elsewhere”—unravelling what is performed as “wild” and what counts as “nature”—and using as evidence the art of Eoin Cox, the actions of journeyers, extracts from their diaries and from Messages for the Wild delivered to the Scottish Parliament, I suggest that the idea of a working wild points towards more socially just political possibilities than a politics of nature defined through a binary.