Virginie Maris (CNRS), “Another ‘Great Divide’ - Rethinking Wild Nature in a Human-Dominated World”
Channel: Radio-CRÉ
Date: 2017-11-02

“Another ‘Great Divide’ – Rethinking Wild Nature in a Human-Dominated World”

In my presentation I will defend the necessity to rehabilitate the “great divide” between nature and culture. A common analysis of the present environmental crisis roots it in the dualist worldview inherited from Modernity. The so-called “Great Divide” between culture and nature is considered as a cogent explanation for the destruction of natural habitats and species and the overexploitation of natural resources. However, rather than the separation itself, these destructive patterns of contemporary societies may lie in the hierarchy between humans and non-humans much more than in the recognition of separate realms between culture and nature.

First, following Frédéric Neyrat (2016), I will question the strength of the supposed modern dualism. The central argument is that modernity is not characterized by a truly naturalistic ontology in the sense given to this concept by Descola (2005). Rather, the modern worldview and ideal represent a form of anaturalism, which denies the proper existence and properties of nature, or at least which tends to annihilate nature much more than dividing it from humans and human artifacts.

Then I will offer a conception of the culture-nature couple that rehabilitated the epistemic and normative strength to the reference of wild nature. This new form of dualism will not be one of contempt and domination but rather one of recognition and respect for nature, considered in its radical otherness.

This will lead to defend in a third section a new sense of the "great divide", not (or not only) as a “great separation” but above all as a “great redistribution” of space, resources and moral concern, admitting that humans are grabbing far more than their fair share.

Caméra et montage : Marc-Antoine Plouffe