Nature (and Politics)

Andrew Dobson

Environmental Values, 2008, vol. 17, issue 2, pages 285-301

Abstract: This paper addresses the leitmotif of Alan Holland's work, which is argued here to be a defence of the existence and worth of nonhuman nature. Definitions of politics have always depended on the idea of nature as a contrasting non-political realm, usually turning on the centrality of speech. Referencing the work of Aristotle, Kant and Bentham, I suggest that the instability of the distinction between the human and the nonhuman means that politics, as 'thing and activity', must itself be unstable. The question of whether there can be a politics without nature is explored through an analysis of the work of Latour, and the conclusion is reached that listening may well be just as important as speaking.

Keywords: Nature; democracy; communication; Aristotle; Bentham; Kant; Latour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D46 P16 Q01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:env:journl:ev17:ev1715

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