Natural : the seductive myth of nature's goodness /
Levinovitz, Alan
Natural : the seductive myth of nature's goodness / Alan Levinovitz - London Profile Books 2020 - 252 p.
A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Without our realising it, a single, slippery concept has become a secular deity throughout the modern industrial world. We make terrible sacrifices in its name: of our money, our health, and our planet. That deity is nature itself.
From supermarket shoppers to evolutionary biologists, from atheists to pastors, from Alex Jones to Gwyneth Paltrow, we are all prone to the intuitive faith that life should be lived 'naturally'.
But nature can't teach us how to live. If we try to stick to its imagined commands, eschewing human artifice in pursuit of Edenic purity, we jeopardise the environment, our health, and our society. (We also waste a lot of money on pots of weird slime). It is time to accept our profound responsibility to shape the world of which our technology and ourselves are wholly apart.
9781788161992
Philosophy of nature
113 LEV-A
Natural : the seductive myth of nature's goodness / Alan Levinovitz - London Profile Books 2020 - 252 p.
A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
Without our realising it, a single, slippery concept has become a secular deity throughout the modern industrial world. We make terrible sacrifices in its name: of our money, our health, and our planet. That deity is nature itself.
From supermarket shoppers to evolutionary biologists, from atheists to pastors, from Alex Jones to Gwyneth Paltrow, we are all prone to the intuitive faith that life should be lived 'naturally'.
But nature can't teach us how to live. If we try to stick to its imagined commands, eschewing human artifice in pursuit of Edenic purity, we jeopardise the environment, our health, and our society. (We also waste a lot of money on pots of weird slime). It is time to accept our profound responsibility to shape the world of which our technology and ourselves are wholly apart.
9781788161992
Philosophy of nature
113 LEV-A