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Human Nature |
Nature |
Amerindian |
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17th
century
Blaise
Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees. 1660 |
Human nature
was a cluster of fixed, rather negative ingredients: Mankind was restless,
self-deceiving, wretched |
Francis Bacon:
a mixture of mystery and threatening force; natural philosophers like
Bacon sought to control and dominate nature. |
part of nature,
therefore brutish and uncivilized. |
| Thomas
Hobbes (1588-1679), Leviathan 1651 |
Human beings were were by nature aggressive, selfish,
greedy, war-like, etc. |
Human ability to discover the laws of physical
nature implied the ability to discover the laws of society.
Life in the state of nature (pre-political) was
anarchic and "a war of all against all" . . . . "solitary, nasty,
brutish, and short." |
Amerindians lived in a state of nature without
laws and were thus brutes. |
Christian conceptions of the Counter Reformation era
Attitudes toward children |
Humans were tainted by the original sin of Adam and Eve, therefore they were inclined toward evil.
"The new borne babe is full of the stains and pollutions of sin which it inherits from our first parents through our loins." Richard Allestree, 1658
Add from Roberts, too. |
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Compare the Spanish characterizations of the 16th century and those by Jean de Brebeuf and Marie de l'Incarnation in the 1630-1650s.
But note the differences between the Spanish Sepulvèda and Las Casas |
| Transition
to 18th century |
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John Locke
(1632-1704),
Second Treatise on Government (ca. 1685)
Essay Concerning
Human Understanding,
1690;
Some
Thoughts Concerning Education, 1693 |
Human nature not fixed but malleable and plastic; shaped by environment. Mankind good or evil because of “education” broadly defined.
At birth, the human mind was a blank slate (tabula rasa) and it was formed by experience and education
Man in the state of nature was reasonable
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Amerindians
were in an early phase of human and cultural development; they exhibited
reasonableness and cooperation; they were not brutes. |
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18th
century
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778), Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and
Sciences, 1749; Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality,
1755; Social Contract 1762; Emile 1762 |
Human nature
endowed with an innate sense of natural compassion prior to reason; hence mankind
naturally good. Social life and society corrupts this nature. |
Nature seen as
a living system of which humans are a part and not apart; Nature deemed
“good” as opposed to artifice and superficial appearances. To be in harmony
with Nature is considered a moral good. |
part of nature,
therefore uncorrupted, natural, and noble. |
| Cornelius de Pauw, Philosophical Inquiry into the Americas (1768-68) |
Human nature was shaped by physical and cultural environment |
Physical nature/environment varied across the world |
The impoverished environment of the New World produced an "impoverished" society and culture |
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Key elements of the 18th century Enlightenment: |
- Lockean "environmentalism,"
the view that human beings were
largely the result of their experience and socialization in their culture of institutions, beliefs, physical environment, climate, etc.
- "Nature" was "good," a source of moral guidance; things that were "natural" and in keeping with nature and natural law stood in sharp contrast to "unnatural" social arrangements, institutions, practices.
- What, then, was "natural?" And how can we bring our institutions and beliefs to accord with nature and natural law?
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| Example of Gardens |
The imitation of "Nature." |
| "Natural Man" |
"The Noble Savage" |
| "The Natural Family" |
Natural affection and breast feeding
Pictures of Children from the late Middle Ages to the 18th century |
| Civilization |
Reassessment of European Colonialism |
Changing Views of Nature as embodied in Landscape Architecture
- The French formal garden of the 17th century and it's geometric
spirit
- The "Little Hamlet" (le petit hameau) at Versailles, c. 1780
- The English "naturalistic" garden of the 18th century and it's
imitation of nature.
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Chateau of Vaux le Vicomte, designed by André Le Notre, ca. 1650
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Chateau of Versailles, plan of the gardens designed by Le Notre, ca.
1680
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Versailles: Gardens and Palace from the Grand Canal
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Versailles at the end of the Eighteenth Century:
The Hamlet created for the Queen, Marie-Antoinette shows the strong
influence of the naturalistic English garden and the fascination
with natural landscapes |
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The Rise of the English "naturalistic" garden in the 18th century
- Lancelot Brown (1716-83), known as "Capability Brown" and
his redesign of Longleat Estate in the 1730s.
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The Plan before Brown
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Longleat After redesign by Brown
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Arthur Repton (1752-1818) Before and After designs from his
Observations on
the theory and practice of landscape gardening. London, 1803.
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Before: Nature outside the wall
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After: Expansion of a natural park
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Designed by Joseph Paxton, Birkenhead Park opened
in 1847.
It was the first publically funded park in the world and
the model for Central Park in New York. |
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Plan of Birkenhead Park near Manchester, England, ca. 1846
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Birkenhead Park today
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Lake and Bridge in Birkenhead Park
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Playing Fields in Berkenhead Park
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| Mount Holyoke College Campus: The Influence of Birkenhead through Frederick
Law Olmstead and Sons. |
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Lower Lake and bridge
MHC Historical Atlas
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Plan of Mount Holyoke College
Campus in 1900 by the Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Agents of Brookline Massachusetts,
sons
of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City
and some 300 college campuses, as well as the
Fens in Boston.
[Note in all the plans the meandering paths, placement of trees, open perspectives
such as what is now known
Skinner Green
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Detail of Central Campus
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Detail of Prospect Hill, Goodnow Park, and Lower Lake
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Recent Plan of Mount Holyoke College Campus: Note the central campus
and the meandering paths
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Path to the Boathouse on Lower Lake,
design of Frederick Law Olmstead, ca. 1880s (no longer in existence)
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