Nature and Human Liberty

Abstract

The relationship of human liberty to both external nature and human inner nature entails a complex knot of questions that have long been the subject of intense philosophical discussion. In the modern era, a strong dichotomy developed between these concepts in which human freedom was counterposed to an apparently determinate nature that existed as a valueless res extensa. In this article, however, the author argues for the presence and vitality of an alternative concept of human liberty, one that relies not on the ownership of property but on nature as a point outside the system of human instrumental control and as the hall of mirrors represented by collective solipsism. The author arrives at this point through careful study of the underresearched naturalistic scenes and elements in George Orwell’s highly influential 1984, drawing out the complex interconnections of nature, liberty, and fulfillment found within them. This study illustrates the usefulness of the dystopian imagination to theorizing relationships between nature and humanity.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amis, K. (1960). New maps of hell. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.

Barrett, W. (1978). The illusion of technique. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Berman, M. (1981). The reenchantment of the world. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Bloch, E. (1986). The principle of hope. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

Burnham, J. (1941). The managerial revolution. New York: John Day.

Burnham, J. (1943). The Machiavellians. London: Putnam.

Callicott, J. B. (1999). Beyond the land ethic: More essays in environmental philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Callicott, J. B., & da Rocha, F. J. R. (Eds.). (1996). Earth summit ethics: Toward a reconstructive postmodern philosophy of environmental education. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Capra, F. (1985). The turning point. London: Flamingo.

10.

Clark, S. R. L. (1992). Orwell and the anti-realists. Philosophy, 67, 141-154.

11.

de Geus, M. (2002). Ecotopia, sustainability and vision. Organization & Environment, 15(2), 187-201.

12.

Goodin, R. E. (1992). Green political theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

13.

Hargrove, E. C. (1989). Foundations of environmental ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

14.

Hay, P. (2002). Main currents in western environmental thought. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.

15.

Herring, H. (2002). The quest for Arcadia: British utopian communities. Organization & Environment, 15(2), 202-208.

16.

Hill, C. (1973). The world turned upside down. London: Temple Smith.

17.

Hitchens, C. (2002). Orwell’s victory. New York: Penguin.

18.

James, W. (1929). Selected papers in philosophy. London: Everyman.

19.

James, W. (1978). Pragmatism and the meaning of truth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

20.

Jermier, J. (1998). Critical perspectives on organizational control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, 235-256.

21.

Kumar, K. (2000). Utopia and anti-utopia in the twentieth century. In R. Schaer, G. Claeys, & L. T. Sargent (Eds.), Utopia: The search for the ideal society in the western world (pp. 251-267). New York: Oxford University Press.

22.

Leopold, A. (1987). A sand county almanac and sketches here and there. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

23.

McKibben, B. (1990). The end of nature. New York: Penguin.

24.

Meyer, J. M. (2002). Political nature: Environmentalism and the interpretation of western thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

25.

Meyers, J. (2000). Orwell: Wintry conscience of a generation. New York: Norton.

26.

Monbiot, G. (2001, February 22). Wearing a T-shirt makes you a terrorist. The Guardian.

27.

Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state and utopia. New York: Basic Books.

28.

Orwell, G. (1968). Inside the whale and other essays. New York: Penguin.

29.

Orwell, G. (1975a). The road to Wigan pier. New York: Penguin.

30.

Orwell, G. (1975b). 1984. New York: Penguin.

31.

Orwell, G. (1982). The lion and the unicorn: Socialism and the English genius. New York: Penguin.

32.

Orwell, G. (1998a). I have tried to tell the truth: The complete works of George Orwell (Vol.16). London: Secker & Warburg.

33.

Orwell, G. (1998b). I belong to the left: The complete works of George Orwell (Vol. 17). London: Secker & Warburg.

34.

Orwell, G. (1998c). Smothered under journalism: The complete works of George Orwell (Vol. 18). London: Secker & Warburg.

35.

Orwell, G. (1998d). It is what I think: The complete works of George Orwell (Vol. 19). London: Secker & Warburg.

36.

Orwell, G. (2001). Orwell and politics. New York: Penguin.

37.

Pynchon, T. (2003, May 3). The road to 1984. The Guardian, pp. 4-6.

38.

Sargent, L. T. (2000). Utopian traditions: Themes and variations. In R. Schaer, G. Claeys & L. T. Sargent (Eds.), Utopia: The search for the ideal society in the western world (pp. 8-17). New York: Oxford University Press.

39.

Shelden, M. (1991). Orwell: The authorised biography. New York: HarperCollins.

40.

Stephens, P. H. G. (1999). Picking at the Locke of economic reductionism. In N. B. Fairweather, S. Elworthy, M. Stroh & P. H. G. Stephens (Eds.), Environmental futures (pp. 3-23). New York: Macmillan.

41.

Stephens, P. H. G. (2000). Nature, purity, ontology. Environmental Values, 9(3), 267-294.

42.

Taylor, D. J. (2003). Orwell: The life. London: Chatto & Windus.

43.

Weston, A. (1992). Between means and ends. The Monist, 75(2), 236-249.

44.

Weston, A. (1994). Back to Earth: Tomorrow’s environmentalism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

45.

Zamyatin, Y. (1993). We (C. Brown, Trans.). New York: Penguin. (Original work published 1924)