In her compelling book The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World, Andrea Wulf explores Humboldt as the first person to publish works promoting a holistic view of nature, arguing that nature could only be understood in relation to the subjectivity of experiencing it.įascinated by scientific instruments, measurements and observations, he was driven by a sense of wonder as well. Over 200 years ago, the famous naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859 ) was facing the same challenges.

Sustainability will almost certainly depend upon developing mutually enhancing relations between humans and nonhuman nature. Why? Because much of our unsustainable behavior can be traced to a broken relationship with nature, a perspective that treats the nonhuman world as a realm of mindless, unfeeling objects. Doing so typically requires reducing natural phenomena to their component parts.”īut this approach is ultimately failing us.

We objectify nature so that we can measure it, test it, and study it, with the ultimate goal of unraveling its secrets. Of course, the very practice of science is grounded in objectivity. He argues: “One of the most prevalent ideas in science is that nature consists of objects. By “subjectify”, he essentially means to see ourselves connected with nature, and therefore care about it the same way we do the people with whom we are connected. In his piece in 2014’s Edge collection This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress, dinosaur paleontologist Scott Sampson writes that science needs to “subjectify” nature.

The invention of nature alexander von humboldt