Recitation 1: Are People Part of or Apart from Nature

Recitation Exercise 1:

Are People Part of or Apart from Nature?

Student name:___________________________

Student #:___________________________

TA name:___________________________

This is a brainstorming exercise. The title of this course alludes to a difference, a distance, between society and nature; our daily experience, and way of thinking, tend to support this duality. In the early lectures we explore the interactions of nature and society conceptually. Phrasing the issue this way implies that nature and society are separate. But are they?

1. List four human/social characteristics that make us APART FROM nature, and give a brief explanation why each has that effect:

2. List four human/social characteristics that make us PART OF nature, and briefly explain why:

Recitation Discussion topics: If asteroids can cause global extinctions, do that acquit humans form doing the same thing? Does either posture suggest a particular human responsibility to preserving non-human nature?