Book description of "It's Only Natural"

Why should we care about the “Idea of Nature”? The many ways in which humanity has thought about “Nature” has shaped our lives, but we haven’t been paying much attention to the process. After all, with such a nice, tidy name—“Nature”—how complicated could “it” be? These essays, taken together, are an attempt to explore some of that overlooked complexity. Our use of words, and language more broadly, will be given substantial scrutiny as part of that exploration.

These essays will show you:

One way to catch a tree

A popular place to take a selfie in “nature”

A very frightening campsite not far enough away

How to avoid getting a good deal

Where we are in the zoo

How to win arguments with yourself

But more significantly, this book suggests ways to ask some serious questions. It is an invitation to reconsider whatever ideas of nature we may have absorbed, from whichever sources. It may appear at times a bit quirky, but then, so is reality. We don’t need to see without understanding, or think without agency, once we recognise what is happening. And we certainly don’t need to succumb to waves of extreme relativism by avoiding evidence. Nature is immensely complex, but not unknowable—as long as we learn to think more clearly about what we are thinking and talking about.

You can read the sample chapter in the box below on this page, or if you are on a mobile device click here to download a pdf file.

If you are interested in reading further, an ebook edition is available.