tailieunhanh - LOVING NATURE Towards an ecology of emotion

As I write this Introduction, President George W. Bush is on his first visit to Europe since taking office. A few days ago, speaking to European heads of state in Gothenburg, he explained why he was refusing to ratify the Kyoto agreement on climate change. People gathered on the streets of the city to protest against his policies on the environment, and against capitalism’s relentless drive for economic growth against the wider interests of humanity and the natural world. Meanwhile, | loving iẹ NATURE 1. TOWARDS AN ECOLOGY OF EMOTION KAY MILTON Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details LOVING NATURE As the full effects of human activity on the Earth s life-support systems are revealed by science the question of whether we can change fundamentally our relationship with nature becomes increasingly urgent. Just as important as an understanding of our environment is an understanding of ourselves of the kinds of beings we are and why we act as we do. In Loving Nature Kay Milton considers why some people in western societies grow up to be nature lovers actively concerned about the welfare and future of plants animals ecosystems and nature in general while others seem indifferent or intent on destroying these things. Drawing on findings and ideas from anthropology psychology cognitive science and philosophy the author discusses how we come to understand nature as we do and above all how we develop emotional commitments to it. Anthropologists in recent years have tended to suggest that our understanding of the world is shaped solely by the culture in which we live. Controversially Kay Milton argues that it is shaped by direct experience in which emotion plays an essential role. Emotion is a basic ecological mechanism which connects us to our environment. It enables us to learn by alerting us to our surroundings it helps to shape our knowledge by influencing our memories. Emotional attachments are products of learning as we develop we learn what to feel about particular things and our feelings motivate our actions. What this means the author argues is that the conventional opposition between emotion and rationality in western culture is a myth. The effect of this myth has been to support a market economy which systematically destroys nature and to exclude from public decision making the kinds of emotional attachments that support more environmentally sensitive ways of living. A better understanding of ourselves as fundamentally .