Man and Nature

-J. Bronowski

Summary:

The identity of a man is crucial in between either Self or Machine. It is the beginning of the essay as well as the basic condition of the writer. However, he believes that man is a part of nature.

His condition or question is innocent or neutral. All the persons like the Bible readers, agnostics, Sunday strollers, haunters of museums accept this fact. In the latter half of the 20^th century, men consider that they are also a part of nature like stone, cactus and camel. These things represent three categories of human being world like Animal, Vegetable or Mineral. This common condition has got explosive charge because it challenges the self-assurance of Western man.

Man would deny the fact of the writer thinking himself as unique. It can be a hidden fact, so they remain silent, because they have returned before 1600. In the same way, Giordano Bruno was asked to abandon his ideas that the earth was not only the planet in the universe. It was thought as wild belief at that time. The man should also realize that s/he isn’t only the creature in this multitude of the worlds.

It was Renaissance extravagance that human considered themselves neither slave nor master of fate. They were happy that they could enjoy with the nature of being free from boundaries. Neither was it true, nor it can be. The jealous man also wants to be immortal. They also want to get supernatural power which larger than life and nature. After all, it is impossible because they have boundaries. Man can’t be greater than nature. 

1.   Put the following five sentences in the right order to make them read like a paragraph.

a.       Bronowski says that man is a part of nature.

b.      He lost his self-assurance because this statement means that man is not unique.

c.       This is the statement which has made Western man lose his self-assurance.

d.      He also wants to feel that he has been, from the beginning, larger than nature.

e.       But man wants to feel unique and immortal.

2.   Drawing your information from the passage given above, answer in your own words the following questions in complete sentences. Your answer to every question should not exceed 35 words.

a.       What is the thrust of Bronowski’s argument throughout the paragraphs?

Answer: He argued that man is a part of nature. Man wants to be superior to nature but he can’t be. The Renaissance man believed that they would challenge the nature which wasn’t possible at all. They are also like other creatures of the world like stone, cactus and camel.

b.      What seems self-evident in the latter half of the twentieth century regarding man’s relationship with nature?

Answer: It was proved that man is a part of the nature. They are also like other things of the world. Man gets equal share like animal, vegetable and mineral.

c.       Why was Giordano Bruno burnt at the stake?

Answer: He challenged the ideas of the traditional man that the earth wasn’t only the planet in the universe. So he was burnt alive.

-By Prem Prasad Sigdel