Lecture 21: Ecological
Restoration: Nature vs. Artifact
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Friday, December 6, 2013
Elliot’s argument: Restorations as “counterfeits”
Katz’s argument: Restorations as “artifacts”
Critique of Katz
Topics
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Friday, December 6, 2013
Elliot’s argument: Restorations as “counterfeits”
Katz’s argument: Restorations as “artifacts”
Critique of Katz
Nature vs. Artifact
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Elliot, Robert. 1982. ‘Faking Nature’. Inquiry 25: 81-93
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Both Elliot and Katz believe that a “restored” ecosystem will
never possess the value of the original, and, in some cases, it
may simply denigrate it further
Friday, December 6, 2013
Katz, Eric. 1992. ‘The Big Lie: Human Restoration of
Nature’. Research in Philosophy and Technology 12:
231-241
Critics of Restoration
• Elliot, Robert. 1982. ‘Faking Nature’. Inquiry
25: 81-93
• Analogy between restored ecosystem and
art forgery
Friday, December 6, 2013
Starry Night
Van Gogh
1889
Friday, December 6, 2013
Starry Night
Van Gogh
1889
Friday, December 6, 2013
Perfect
Replica
Starry Night
Van Gogh
1889
Friday, December 6, 2013
Perfect
Replica
Disney Wilderness Lodge
Friday, December 6, 2013
Critics of Restoration
• Elliot, Robert. 1982. ‘Faking Nature’. Inquiry
25: 81-93
• The value of a natural landscape is not only in
the features that are immediately visible to
us, but rather, in its continuity with the past
and its freedom from human manipulation
• No matter how ‘perfect’ a restoration, the
value of the original nature can’t be
recovered
Friday, December 6, 2013
Topics
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Friday, December 6, 2013
Elliot’s argument: Restorations as “counterfeits”
Katz’s argument: Restorations as “artifacts”
Critique of Katz
Critics of Restoration
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Katz, Eric. 1992. ‘The Big Lie: Human Restoration of
Nature’. Research in Philosophy and Technology
12: 231-241
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“Nature restoration” is a contradiction in terms
Natural System
Friday, December 6, 2013
Human
Manipulation
Artifact
Conservation and
Restoration
Environmental
Management
Friday, December 6, 2013
Conservation
Biology
Restoration
Ecology
Merely protecting habitats
Artificially changing habitats
Katz on Restoration
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“Natural individuals
were not designed for a
purpose. They lack
intrinsic functions,
making them different
from human-created
artifacts.”
Katz, E. 1992. “The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature”. Research in Philosophy and
Technology 12:231-241, p. 235.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Katz on Restoration
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“As Andrew Brennan has
argued, natural entities
have no ‘intrinsic
functions,’ as he calls
them, for they were not
the result of design. They
were not created for a
particular purpose; they
have no set manner of
use.”
Katz, E. 1992. “The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature”. Research in Philosophy and
Technology 12:231-241, p. 235.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Katz on Restoration
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“Although we often speak as if
natural individuals (for
example, predators) have roles
to play [functions to perform]
in ecosystemic well-being (the
maintenance of optimum
population levels), this kind of
talk is either metaphorical or
fallacious. No one created or
designed the mountain lion as
a regulator of the deer
population.”
Katz, E. 1992. “The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature”. Research in Philosophy and
Technology 12:231-241, p. 235.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Concept of Function in
Katz
• The concept of function plays a dual role:
• Tells us what is philosophically distinctive
about artifacts
• Explains how the realms of artifact and
nature are mutually exclusive
Friday, December 6, 2013
Katz on Restoration
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“But once we begin to redesign
natural systems and processes,
once we begin to create
restored natural environments,
we impose our anthropocentric
purposes on areas that exist
outside human
society...Depending on the
adequacy of our technology,
these restored and redesigned
natural areas will appear more or
less natural, but they will never
be natural - they will be
anthropocentrically designed
human artifacts. ”
Katz, E. 1992. “The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature”. Research in Philosophy and
Technology 12:231-241, p. 235.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Topics
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Friday, December 6, 2013
Elliot’s argument: Restorations as “counterfeits”
Katz’s argument: Restorations as “artifacts”
Critique of Katz
Two problems
1. Just because something is the product of
intention, that doesn’t mean it’s merely an
‘artifact’.
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Friday, December 6, 2013
Babies
Friendships
Show poodles and fighting dogs
Two problems
2. Even if a restored ecosystem is just an ‘artifact’,
does that mean its worthless, or that it has less
value than the natural ecosystem?
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Friday, December 6, 2013
My wedding ring
A thriving ecosystem that can harbor diversity
seems better than a destroyed one that can’t.
Conservation and
Restoration
Environmental
Management
Friday, December 6, 2013
Conservation
Biology
Restoration
Ecology
Merely protecting habitats
Artificially changing habitats
Conservation and
Restoration
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This view is theoretically
problematic as well as
counterproductive.
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Theoretically, it relies on a
questionable ‘dualism’ between
human action and the natural
processes (or ‘nature’ and
‘artifact’).
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Practically, it would rob
environmental planners of
crucial tools for meeting
challenges.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Mid-October 2010; Bay Jimmy, Louisiana