Abstract
Ecofeminists have identified human/nature dualisms that work to reduce more-than-human beings to passive, material, objects. Theories constructed using these dualisms introduce a tension between modern human closeness experiences and explanatory theories where true reciprocal closeness is defined as improbable. Human/nature dualisms such as instrumentalism, individualism, materialism, and passive objectification all operate to reinforce this tension, with anthropocentrism as both human/nature dualism and by-product of the others. Monist materialism is also dualist in this sense because, no matter how broadly one construes it (even the new materialism of posthumanism) it relies wholly for its position on the negation of more-than-material possibilities such as spiritual experience. More-than-material ontological elements are initially designated as those that don’t comport easily and obviously with material explanations, and include things like feelings, consciousness, agency, love, telos, the spiritual and many others.
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Kessler, N.H. (2019). Ecofeminist Dualisms. In: Ontology and Closeness in Human-Nature Relationships. AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99274-7_2
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