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 duality, between society and nature. Our daily experience, and habit of thinking, tend to support this duality. In this class we tend to think of humans affecting nature, and nature affecting humans. But 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:

Some discussion questions: Does either posture suggest a particular human responsibility to preserving non-human nature? If asteroids can cause global extinctions, does that acquit humans form doing the same thing?