A review by gobblebook
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution by Carolyn Merchant

5.0

This book remains a classic after over 40 years in print, and rightfully so. Merchant examines how the Scientific Revolution happened hand-in-hand with the rise of capitalism, the justification of ecological exploitation, and further suppression of women's freedom. Before the Scientific Revolution, nature was seen as an organic whole, and humans were an integral but equal part in this organic system. Science focused on studying the relationships between microcosms and macrocosms and understanding the system as a whole. Nature was portrayed as a goddess who gave bounty in exchange for reverence and harmony. Then the Scientific Revolution began to focus on laws that can be universally applied, and on breaking things down into small components and understanding those components individually. It also focused on how to exploit nature to get the most out of it in the interests of capitalism. In essence, the Scientific Revolution re-imagined the world as a machine rather than a living organism. A machine has predictable behavior, exists to serve man, and has no life or soul. This shift in thinking completely changed the course of history. Merchant examines in detail how this shift happened, in both scientific thinking and in literature. It's clear from reading this that the Scientific Revolution was the beginning of rampant capitalism, the current climate crisis, and our difficulty with understanding nature as a whole system instead of as a bunch of discrete parts. It's fascinating to think about how different the world would be if these changes hadn't happened.