Volume 15, Issue 1, Spring 2018
Environmental Hermeneutics: In Memory of W. S. K. ¡°Scott¡± Cameron
Steven Vogel
Pages 91-100
https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil201831361
Doing without Nature
On Interpretation and Practice
Sorry that he is no longer here to read it, I consider in this paper Scott Cameron¡¯s discussion of my views questioning the value of the concept of ¡°nature¡± for environmental philosophy. Scott had suggested, based on arguments from hermeneutics, that although we never have access to a nature independent of our interpretations of it, still the existence of such a nature is necessarily presupposed by all such interpretations. I claim in response that if we replace the (idealist) notion of interpretation by the (materialist) one of practice, that presupposition is no longer necessary: the independence required is built into the notion of practice itself, and need not be seen as a characteristic of the world ¡°outside¡± of us.