Conceptualizing Human Admiration for Nature in Human-impacted Environments
Abstract
Western admiration of nature in human-inhabited environments is historically different from admiration of nature in wilderness environments. This paper looks at the history of admiration and argues that the split is now a hindrance rather than help in moving forward to a unified conception of nature’s relationship to humanity. In its place I argue for human-impacted environments as ethical stakeholders using models of communication that suggest nature might have systemic and active abilities to elicit human admiration.