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How The Aristotelian Idea Of Nature Changed During The Scientific Revolution

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1. The ecofeminist counter-narrative of the Scientific Revolution was a change of shift in the ideology of treating nature with respect and care to an aggressive one and justifying it by merely calling it studying (Merchant, 2006, 518). As discussed in class, according to Carolyn Merchant nature was starting to be perceived as a wild woman who should be governed and taken in charge of; an indication that the experiments that were conducted after the Revolution were extracting the truth out of nature by means of torment rather than studying it respectfully. Francis Bacon portrayed the image of that to the torment on accused witches in the 15th century by James VI (Merchant, 2006, 522). Since nature was considered feminine it was not only the nature that suffered but also the women in the society as they were devalued by the use of metaphors such as “torture” and “vex” for nature in …show more content…

The conception of nature changed during the Scientific Revolution in a way that the nature was viewed to act according to a set of rules that did not change; everything could be explained mechanically and using science (Outram, 2008, 800). As discussed in class lecture, the Aristotelian idea of women being defective versions of men was slowly being refuted and the idea that both men and women are mechanically and systematically perfect in their nature was slowly emerging. The ideas which emerged from the Biblical texts about the First Woman Eve making mistakes was being challenged by writers like Henricus Cornelius who said that women should be respected more as she was made in Heaven unlike man(Outram, 2008, 803). The gender qualities of women lacking in their ability to analyze the status-quo situations was refuted by writers such as Samuel Sorbiere who said that women were excelling more than men (Outram, 2008, 808). These ideas that were influenced by the Scientific Revolution were diminishing the perception of woman in the Aristotelian era and uplifting their value in

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