Nature Versus Civilization
In comparing and contrasting Civilization Over Nature by Michael Heiman with Nature Over Civilization by Robert Kuhn McGregor I have discovered that their main themes over lap in one or more ways. They both define “Nature” in totally different aspects. Therefore that is way their main themes appear to be so much different. Michael Heiman argues that nature was put aside for the capitalistic views of the nineteenth century. This then implies that nature was put aside for the production of civilization. Therefore associating the human race strictly with civilization and not nature. Nature is only made up of the landscape and the animals and plants within it. In Heiman’s example of this he speaks of the exploitation of the Hudson Valley for the transportation of goods across the country. He tells of how the destruction of this area throughout the nineteenth century was overlooked by the artists and tour guides that traveled this route. The viewpoints that Heiman carried throughout his essay had a homocentric orientation towards civilization. As for Heiman’s main theme he proposes that civilization was the ultimate reality. As for McGregor he proposed to agree wit
The paintings of the Hudson River school show the beauty of the Hudson River and the Catskill areas of New York State and portray nature as being dark, wild, mysterious, and sublime. Yet they show civilization as being light, calm, and peaceful. I believe that this is relevant in the way that Heiman says that artists tried to cover up the blemishes that civilization has caused to nature. So therefore Heiman would totally disagree with what these artists are trying to portray. As far as McGregor goes he would like these paintings because they imply that nature is getting along with civilization in a great way. h the biocentric view that humans and plants and animals were all living actors in the play of life therefore making humans a part of nature as well. As for the civilization aspect of it all he goes on to explain that animals have their own civilizations in which some of them change the environment in the same ways as our civilization. In the end of it all he believes that nature is the ultimate reality. In Cooper’s essay he talks about the pointless killing of birds as well but with a little different twist being that he heavily criticizes the excessive wastefulness of the pioneers due to the abundance of nature. In respect to the two essays I see a representation of both in similar ways. This document corresponds better with that of McGregor seeing that nature is a larger part of life and everyone is a part of it. Cooper saw that nature was being exploited because there seemed to be an endless supply. According to McGregor that endl
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1058
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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