[Taxacom] when is a common species critically endangered?

[Paul van Rijckevorsel]

Actually, no sentence including the word "nature" can be expected
to stand up to semantic scrutiny, as the word "nature" has an
indefinite number of meanings.

As a rule of thumb, it is safe to assume that the use of "natural"
means "according to my nature" (that is the nature, the character,
of the speaker). The other day the BBC ran an item on how cats
are pests, and a danger to wildlife. This item had the inevitable
"woman in the street" to whom a cat is a pet rather than a pest,
who felt that cats are a part of nature, and that they should be
given a free run to act out their nature, no matter what the
consequences.

Paul

From: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
To: "Mark Wilden" <mark at mwilden.com>; "TAXACOM" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 4:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] when is a common species critically endangered?


That is an incredibly naive question!! :)
Semantically, it makes no sense! The humans vs. nature distinction is just
that, a distinction between humans and nature (artificial vs. natural, etc.)
So it is a semantic nonsense to claim that humans are part of nature! What
you really mean, though, is something different, more like "humans and
nature are together parts of a unified system" (which we don't really have a
good name for, except perhaps "reality"), or something like "humans and
nature are intimately mutually dependent", but I think we all know that
already from natural disasters and the like ...

Stephen


________________________________
From: Mark Wilden <mark at mwilden.com>
To: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, 27 June 2012 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] when is a common species critically endangered?

This is no doubt an incredibly naive question, but how long will it
take before humans and their artifacts are considered part of
"nature"?

///ark

Mark Wilden
Web Applications Developer
California Academy of Sciences

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