Clarifying Nature Protection: The role of Attitudes Toeard Nature in Shaping Its Forms

Abstract

This dissertation offers a philosophical clarification of nature protection and the ongoing debate about its future under the current realities of the Anthropocene. It begins from the observation that established conservation approaches are failing to protect increasingly rapidly changing nature, and that the debate over the appropriate direction of nature protection is both confused and stuck. In order to clarify this debate and the character of nature protection itself, the thesis systematically develops the Wittgensteinian idea of attitude into a new philosophical method, designed to clarify basal practical orientations that shape the space within which a given attitudinal object takes on a particular form—thereby delineating the scope of possible perception, understanding, and action in relation to the object grasped in this particular way. The first part analyzes the confusions surrounding the central concept of ‘nature’ and distinguishes two dominant understandings: nature as non-human and nature as natural capital. The second part elaborates an extended conception of attitudes and the method of attitude analysis. The final part applies this method to clarify the character of the two dominant attitudes toward nature—as wilderness and as a reservoir of resources—and traces the possible gradual emergence of a new attitude toward nature as homes. By clarifying the practical orientations from which nature protection springs, this dissertation reveals what is truly at stake and why the debate remains confused and stuck—thus opening space for a clearer and transparent discussion about what kind of nature we actually want to protect.