Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Research Paper

First Advisor

Susanne Weil

Second Advisor

Paul Kjellberg

Third Advisor

Cheryl Swift

Abstract

This senior project is a research paper based on philosophy and social theories and their application to environmental studies. Some references the student uses are well known theorists and thinkers such as John Locke, Michel Foucault, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Henry David Thoreau. They write, Understanding the problem of wilderness and its historicity is more important today than ever. Turning the focus of theory onto wilderness can help us understand and correct, not only ecological issues, but social problems as well. Wilderness has always been a place symbolic of great freedom. Its permanent degradation would be a blow to our culture, not only because we subsist through the usage of natural resources, but moreover because wilderness can harbor great political significance. Mobility within our political society requires a critical stance. No one can resist constraints that they do not recognize or understand, and no one can recognize them as such without some unconstrained place with which to contrast. Wilderness can, to some extent, be understood as this contrast. Negotiations cannot take place in a world that is one-sided, and critics must have a wild site on which they can stand. If wilderness preservation is to be counted useful to humanity in any way, that way is to function as this location. Wilderness provides a place to stand in critical contemplation. Therein lies its danger, and also its power.

Comments

WSP Major: The Development of Critical Theory/Environmental Studies

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