Tuesday 13 April 2010

abrogation of the will: It's down to "Nature"

All sorts of ideological implications follow subsequent upon an assumption that all humans need in this life is to allow "Nature" to take its course. For one, mothers and their role in bringing up children are devalued. After all, the mother is just a mediating device through which a larger power takes its course. Also bad behaviour is not remedied, so long as it is male -- for this, too, is down to Nature. Furthermore one need introduce no social remedies whenever society and its elements go off course, for whatever happens in any scheme of things is also... Nature!

I'm pointing out how the abrogation of the human will is built into ideological perspectives that overemphasise "Nature" over nurture.

Note: There is a difference between small "n" nature (which is organic life) and big "N" Nature, which is (as I am using the term here) Nature treated as an authority or principle that commands humanity.

Also note: I have elsewhere used the term "Nature" in none of these senses, but in a way that relates to European Romanticism. As always, the key to good interpretation is context.

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Cultural barriers to objectivity