Nature - autonomous learning

250 essays and exam questions‘The naturalness of nature is, in one sense, inherently self-evident’ (Adams 1996:82). Is this true?Explain some of the problems of the idea of biological essentialism usingexamples from either the human or the animal world.Is nature or nurture the most important factor in explaining either sexualpreference or obesity?‘Naming something gives it a reality; a name literally gives meaning to an object’(Unwin 1996: 20). Discuss this claim in relation to either race or gender.‘Meanings can mould physical responses but they are constrained by them too’(Eagleton 2000: 87). Explore how far ideas of nature can give rise to the materialrealities they purport merely to describe.Compare and contrast the principal ontologies that physical geographers haveemployed to make sense of the natural environment.‘To dictate definition is to wield . . . power’ (Livingstone 1992: 312). Explain andillustrate this contention in relation to definitions of nature.‘They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented’ (Marx 1852). Explorethe implications of this statement in relation to those things conventionallycalled ‘natural’.‘Nature knows best’. Discuss.‘Concepts can only be understood in the social and intellectual circumstances inwhich they are employed’ (Agnew et al. 1996: 10). Discuss in relation to the ideaof genes.What are the implications of SSK for our understanding of the environmentalknowledge that physical geographers produce?‘The natural world does not organise itself into parables’ (Cronon 1996: 50). Doyou concur?