Book review: introduction and reply to - the dappled world: a study of the boundaries of science

Nature’s Capacities and their Measurement

COLLINGWOOD'S illness and early death prevented him from saying fully or as effectively as possible all that he had to say. Prof. Knox, the editor, points out that the work now published was written in 1933–34, after the "Essay on Philosophical Method", and was intended as an application of that method. Since the author did not publish anything at the time, we may infer that he was not satisfied with it. In spite of some later revision it must be taken as no more than a substantial fragment. It suffers more than most of Collingwood's work from a tendency to rash statements and occasional labouring of small points. Nevertheless, the book is a valuable contribution to philosophy, and supplements what we have already of Collingwood's highly original and distinctive way of thought. The Idea of Nature By R. G. Collingwood. Pp. viii + 184. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1945.) 15s. net.

The Idea of Nature

Part 1 Rural wildlife conservation: game management a new field for science helping ourselves the Wisconsin river marshes Coon Valley farm game management in Silesia be your own emperor. Part 2 A landowner's conservation almanac winter spring summer fall. Part 3 The outlook: the farmer as a conservationist history of the Riley Game Co-operative, 1931-39 planning for wildlife what is a weed? the outlook for farm wildlife the land-health concept and conservation.

For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays and Other Writings

The Science of the Struggle for Existence: On the Foundations of Ecology

This paper puts forward a concept of naturalness as an alternative to the wilderness concept, which has been criticized for problematically situating human beings outside the natural world and thus conceptually foreclosing the possibility of humans living in harmony with nature. After examining and finding inadequate two concepts of naturalness dominant in the work of environmental ethicists, namely the natural as opposed to the supernatural and the natural as opposed to the anthropogenic, the paper delineates a concept of ecological naturalness, which links naturalness to ecological normality and ecosystem health. Tracing the historical roots of this concept back to classical Aristotelian philosophy, the paper shows that a contemporary ecological version of it actually underpins the intuitive views of many current-day environmentalists and ecologists. The paper concludes that the concept of ecological naturalness is better suited than the wilderness concept to support efforts at enabling humans to inhabit the earth’s ecosystems in ecologically sustainable ways.

Antoine C. Dussault

Papers

Ecological Nature: A Non-Dualistic Concept for Rethinking Humankind's Place in the World