PHIL224 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Henry David Thoreau, Endangered Species, Stoicism
18 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Wilderness used to be something set aside and parts of it shouldn"t be touched by humans. We know that before the 19th century, you wouldn"t go anywhere considered to be. Wild because they were seen as dangerous and as a place of waste. Rainforests were jungles and weren"t good places to be in. However, staring from the 1800s, the view of nature started to change. Wilderness, a history of an idea: wilderness as a source of terror and a wasteland (up unil 1800) The bible and other literatures portrayed nature as something fearful. Milton"s paradise lost: adam and eve were kicked out of the garden and they were thrown into the wilderness. No one wanted to go there because it was a scary and dangerous place to be. You only go if you absolutely had to. Wilderness wasn"t valuable and is something that should be undone: wilderness as sublime (1800-1850) (wadsworth, thoreau)
