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Welcome to Minding Nature

December 1st, 2008

The Center for Humans and Nature operates under the premise that humans can achieve a sustainable relationship with nature only by aligning their values and consciousness with earthly realities. It sounds simple, even logical, but then again, what are those earthly realities? Th is fundamental question was what sparked our Founding President, Strachan Donnelley, to embark on a journey to explore “the many values and moral obligations pertaining to humans and nature, and to take nature seriously as a moral and civic …concern.”

“Moreover, we are convinced that ideas crucially matter in regional, civic, everyday life – that how we think and feel about ourselves and nature importantly determines human action and what [a] region will become, for better or for worse.”
—Strachan Donnelley, Ph.D.

The Center brings a multidisciplinary perspective to this work. Our board, staff, and collaborators include evolutionary biologists, ecologists, lawyers, economists, historians, philosophers, and theologians. Minding Nature is the Center’s latest reflection of our commitment to bring an “all-things considered” approach to one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we live responsibly and sustainability with the Earth? The title of our new journal is intended to convey some of the complexity of this task. One can “mind” nature in the sense of using our minds to think creatively about nature and our place within it. We can also “mind” nature in the sense of looking after it and taking responsibility for our actions within nature. Finally, one can “mind” nature in the sense that we mind; we object when we observe harm to human and natural communities.

One of our central goals is to share the best thinking that the Center has generated and encountered in our work. It is these ideas—and their relevance to public policy, economic reform, cultural innovation, and ultimately the well-being of our human and natural communities—that we hope to convey in the pages of Minding Nature. We are exploring these ideas in the “marginalist,” non-dogmatic, free spirit of our founder, by which we hope to honor him and carry on his legacy. Please join us.

—Brooke Hecht, Ph.D.

The Center for Humans and Nature operates under the premise that humans can achieve
a sustainable relationship with nature only by aligning their values and consciousness
with earthly realities. It sounds simple, even logical, but then again, what are those
earthly realities? Th is fundamental question was what sparked our Founding President, Strachan
Donnelley, to embark on a journey to explore “the many values and moral obligations pertaining
to humans and nature, and to take nature seriously as a moral and civic … concern.”1
Th e Center brings a multidisciplinary perspective to this work. Our board, staff , and collaborators
include evolutionary biologists, ecologists, lawyers, economists, historians, philosophers,
and theologians. Minding Nature is the Center’s latest refl ection of our commitment to bring
an “all-things considered” approach to one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do
we live responsibly and sustainability with the Earth? Th e title of our new journal is intended
to convey some of the complexity of this task.
One can “mind” nature in the sense of using our
minds to think creatively about nature and our
place within it. We can also “mind” nature in the
sense of looking after it and taking responsibility
for our actions within nature. Finally, one can
“mind” nature in the sense that we mind; we object
when we observe harm to human and natural
communities.
One of our central goals is to share the best
thinking that the Center has generated and encountered
in our work. It is these ideas—and their
relevance to public policy, economic reform, cultural
innovation, and ultimately the well-being of
our human and natural communities—that we
hope to convey in the pages of Minding Nature.
We are exploring these ideas in the “marginalist,”
non-dogmatic, free spirit of our founder,
by which we hope to honor him and carry on his legacy. Please join us.
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