Nature - autonomous learning

strange natures 41ACTIVITY 1.4Can you list some of nature’s collateral concepts? These concepts areones that involve some or all of the meanings and referents of the idea ofnature.How many collateral concepts did you manage to identify? I’ve alreadymentioned one of nature’s main sibling ideas (the environment – a conceptwhich is also examined in this book series [see Endfield forthcoming]).Others include ‘race’, sex, biology, wilderness, countryside and rural to theextent that each of these is sometimes seen to have a ‘natural’ component(wholly or in part). For instance, the idea that humanity can be divided intodiscrete ‘racial groups’ frequently draws upon the idea of biological (i.e.natural in the second and possibly third senses of the term) difference. Oncewe appreciate that nature is a ghostly trace in several such collateral conceptswe can expand the range of our analysis beyond those instances wherenature is the stated object of discussion (Figure 1.5).A second way we can justify expanding the range of our analysis isto recognise that it’s just as important to examine what is claimed not tobe natural as that which is.This may sound a little odd, so let me explain.Consider obesity. In recent years, newspapers have reported research thatsuggests a genetic cause for excessive weight gain. This can lead obesepeople and members of the general public to believe that obesity requiresa medical cure (pills, injections, surgery or what have you). If, however, oneargues that obesity is not natural – if one takes it out of this category – thenFigure 1.5 Nature and its collateral concepts