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The overwhelming and time sensitive issue of climate change has evoked a variety of responses from nation-states, corporations, non-profit organizations, and concerned individuals. From the establishment of Earth Day in 1970 to the Nobel peace prize winning efforts of Al Gore and his use of the world-wide web to increase student awareness of the environment in 1994, the concept of “Mother Earth” and “Nature” has—for some—permeated the entirety of our lives. Now as an adult, extreme fires, droughts, earthquakes, and novel viruses occupy morning news headlines in a constant normality. These thoughts would travel with me into the start of the 2021 Summer and Dixie Fire here in northern California (which continues to ravage us today). One day in August, I found myself on Ohlone lands with a mediocre hot dog talking to my compas about the Dixie Fire and what seemed like an eternal afternoon. Depressed about the fire and unsatisfied from the hotdog, we walked over to grab some boba and eventually made it to Moe’s Bookstore down the street. Now at Moe’s Bookstore with a full stomach, I walked in not knowing what to expect (as it was my first time there), so I slowly examined the bookshelves under the warm lights and came across the small section on Philosophy on the bottom floor. I was familiar with some of the book titles on Anarchy and Marxism on the shelve, but because it was pHILOSoPHY, I timidly browsed. As my anxiety began to increase as I scanned the unfamiliar titles, my eyes were immediately drawn to a a small purple book by Lorraine Daston who I never heard of. The tittle of the book? Against Nature. My academic-graduate student-seminar-mind began racing with criticisms to the title. My first thought: what in the world is this book? Who would ever argue against nature especially in present time? And wait, can nature be bad? Regardless of these questions, I picked this purple book up and decided to buy it along with a book on Anarchy, another on Stuart Hall, and a used copy of Marian Schlotterbeck’s Beyond the Vanguard. As I lowrided across Ohlone lands back to Patwin lands in my Honda Civic, the books sat next to me, and though I would not admit it at the time, I could not wait to read Against Nature. Mainly because I wanted to think with and against it as a historian [in training] of gold mining corporations and the environment. As difficult as it was to read Against Nature due to the dense Western theory (which I am not used to), the impact this small pocketbook had on me was profound. So profound was the impact that I decide to write this very small review in hopes of persuading you to read it, too. Lorraine Daston’s Against Nature offers a thought-provoking meditation on the romanticization and simplicity of “Nature” and “order” as a derivative philosophy of ideas, institutions, and anthropology. This small pocketbook stands against plenty of common assumptions: that nature has no value as nature simply is; that nature whether used by revolutionaries or fascists is often invoked as the moral emancipator and generator of human equality; and that nature is inherently good, true, and beautiful (pg. 3). Through a strict and exclusive engagement with the canon of Western European intellectual tradition, Daston unearths a vibrant history and discussion on order by extracting the sources of the institutions that propel the search for values and morality in Nature. Focusing on the diversity of perspectives these institutions have expressed themselves under, Daston is able to find commonalities that bind them all together, arguing that all these institutions share the perception of order as being fact and ideal (pg. 6). By engaging with philosophers such as Herodotus, Carlous Linnaeus, René Descartes, Isaac Newton, and Philip Descola, Daston marks three popular institutions that have led to popular perceptions of order in Nature which has impacted all of us today: 1) Specific Natures; 2) Local Natures; 3) Universal Natures. " Why do human beings across different cultures and epochs look towards nature as a source of human conduct? How is it that humans tend to favor nature’s positive qualities rather than its destructive and life taking forces? And is it possible for humans to articulate a universe beyond proper nouns where there is constant morphing and no order? By asking these questions through long histories and philosophies, Daston offers an alternative to Immanuel Kant’s philosophy on universal reason and proposes what she calls human reason to understand why it is we impose the problem of how something “is” rather than “ought” to be on Nature. As universal reason has grounded our understandings of the world and Nature, Daston demonstrates how this Enlightenment era philosophy has continuously influenced the way we exist and interact with the world that we live in. The book is divided into eight small action-packed chapters. After the introduction outlining the research questions and providing a historical background on reason, the following three chapters engage with each of three popular institutions. But wait, what is Nature and how is it used by Daston? Chapter two on Specific Natures gives readers a breakdown of the root and etymologies of Nature and how it has been applied at large in European languages. To ground readers in the use of Nature, Daston explains that although Nature could be anything in the universe, it is usually referred to as something that is inborn rather than cultivated, raw in oppose to processed, and wild rather than civilized. Taking on these mille-feuille of meanings, Daston points Nature to being the essence of a thing, that which makes it what it is and not something else. "Specific Natures guarantee an order of things. Aristotle brandishes them as his weapons whenever he "fights off philosophical opponents who claim the universe is the resuled of mere chance.." An introductory example of Nature used in this book is that of the organic species. This organic species is used to introduce the third chapter on the institution of the “Specific Nature.” For Daston, Specific Nature operates as something being implemented at creation by a divine decree which either exists for all of eternity or comes to be and eventually passes away. This chapter will be useful to understand how Darwinists have weaponized Nature and may also be useful to understand how ideas of Specific Nature have been used today to demonize and make genders and sexualities outside of cis heteronormativity a monstrosity and a capital sin (i.e., queer folks being not “natural” or “normal”). Arguing that Specific Nature guarantees an order of things, Daston adds the nuance (buzzword alert J) that Specific Nature may not always be ground zero for everything, but it is deployed and used in its own distinctive manner through philosophers such as Aristotle and debates on bestiality and boundaries between human and animals. The following chapters interrogate and historicize the remaining two institutions (Local Natures, and Universal Natural Laws) and explore debates on order (pg. 57). The debates on order lead to Daston’s argument that order exists in multiplicity and this multiplicity is so vast that it has become unimaginable to human beings (beyond the matriarchy of bees and patriarchy of baboons). By highlighting how orders in Nature have outsmarted human inventiveness, Daston notes that part of this rests in humans only being able to grasp things-in-themselves as a phenomenon of appearances. And although this meditation is operating strictly under the Western intellectual tradition, Daston pokes at the unusualness of Western societies and the categorical distinction between the human and nonhuman universe. That is, non-Western cultures (i.e., Mesoamerican cultures) who weave in elements of the natural and moral orders together and are described as “anthropomorphic” by “naturalist” Western cultures are more common amongst humans. Although this was my first introduction to anthropological philosophy, I can assume some issues readers (perhaps you) may have with Against Nature and immediately frown upon. Aside from the provocative title, this book is strictly Western European philosophy and does not engage with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color cosmologies and modes of existence Daston only mentions Indigenous communities in passing to express how medicine and the order of Nature was used as a tool of racism and dehumanization. For example, Greek physician and founder of early medicine Hippocrates argued that Asian people (no specifics given) and the Mangbetu people lacked courage, spirit, and incentive because of their mild climate. My immediate response and proposal to those who may have this critique is to nonetheless read this book. The criticisms and refusal to read European philosophy vary (i.e., I refused to engage with European philosophy for the longest since it was imposed onto me by a terrible public-school education), but I nonetheless find this book useful and important for all Xicanx, Latinx, and People of Color to read and include in their bookshelves. I am a firm believer in being critical and making sure that marginalized communities and their scholarship gets their deserved recognition. However, I am also a firm believer that our critiques should rest in as much specificity and complexity as possible to be sharp and palpable. The recent trip by the seven Zapatistas of the 421st representing the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in Europe have taught us to sail against the grains of history and not only engage Europe but also engage a Europe from below. Inspired by the EZLN, I believe that our tools to build futurities and multiple worlds necessitates an analysis of Western philosophy and the order of Nature. And I believe that Against Nature is a fantastic start to those who wish to contextualize why it is that decolonization in the face of a scourging change in climate impacting and killing marginalized people in the world first is of the upmost importance. Well, I think the battery on my computer is running out, so this may be Nature’s sign (or not) to get back to staring at the turkeys outside my window as the ashes continue to fall from the Dixie Fire. Talk soon, maybe? - Lil Violenc3 Patwin lands Davis, Califaz.
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November 2022
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