Is nature at its end? We are saturated with talk about climate change, sustainability, organic food and eating local, biotechnology, and so on, all of this fueled by the perceived threat that we are witnessing, sometimes literally, the end of nature. But despite the apocalyptic-like pronouncements announcing the death of nature, many theorists and scientists are responding that the problem is not so much nature’s demise but how we have been made to think about nature. In this paper I entertain some of the arguments for why we need to let go of the idea of nature (what I’m calling the revolt against nature) in order to effect change.

Brett Buchanan was educated at DePaul University (Ph.D.), The University of Western Ontario (M.A.), and University of Alberta (B.A. Hons.). He is currently Assistant Professor of Philosophy and an Associate Member of the Interdisciplinary Humanities M.A. programme at Laurentian University. His teaching and research interests are primarily in 19th and 20th century thought and touch on phenomenology, ontology, contemporary French philosophy, aesthetic theories, and environmental philosophy. At present he also serves as Secretary for the society of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture. He has recently published Onto-Ethologies: The Animal Environments of Uexküll, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze. Albany, NY: SUNY Press (2008)