Man and the Natural World [chap 1] Keith Thomas
Chapter 1 – Human Ascendancy (Keith Thomas)
Central Idea:
From 1500–1800, English society believed that nature existed for human use, a belief rooted in Christianity, classical philosophy, and emerging science. This worldview justified the exploitation of animals, plants, and land.
1. The world was believed to be created for human use
Early modern people widely assumed that everything in nature existed to serve humans. This was not controversial—it was common sense.
Thomas opens the chapter by quoting G. H. Toulmin:
“Every thing was created for our practical use and accommodation… the whole magnificent scene of things is… intended for the peculiar convenience of mankind” (Toulmin, quoted in Thomas, p. 33).
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Christian theology reinforced this. Tudor and Stuart preachers taught that God created the world for man’s sake:
“The world had been created for man’s sake and… other species were meant to be subordinate to his wishes and needs” (Thomas, ch. 1).
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2. The Bible was used to justify human rule over animals
Genesis was read as a legal charter for human domination.
Before the Fall, Adam ruled peacefully over animals. After sin entered the world, violence and labor appeared—but human authority remained:
“Adam had God-given dominion over all living things (Genesis, i. 28)… But with the Fall the relationship changed… Many animals cast off the yoke… Even domestic animals had now to be coerced into submission.”
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After the Flood, God explicitly re-granted humans the right to kill animals:
“The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast… Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you (Genesis ix. 2–3).”
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Thomas calls this:
“the Old Testament charter upon which human rule over nature was founded.”
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3. Animals were believed to exist only to serve humans
Theologians argued that animals had no independent purpose:
“The creatures were not made for themselves, but for the use and service of man… Whatsoever change for the worse is come upon them is not their punishment, but a part of ours.” (Jacobean bishop, quoted by Thomas).
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Preachers described animals as naturally obedient to humans:
“There still remained ‘a natural instinct of obedience’ in those creatures which are for man’s use, as the ox, ass, horse.” (Andrew Willet, 1605).
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Even fish were said to exist for people:
“The instinct which brought fish in shoals to the sea-shore… seems an intimation that they are intended for human use.”
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4. Humans were seen as fundamentally superior to animals
What separated humans from animals was not just intelligence, but free will, morality, religion, and an immortal soul.
Thomas explains:
“Man could choose, whereas animals were prisoners of their instinct, guided only by appetite and incapable of free will.”
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Most importantly:
“Man had a conscience and a religious instinct… He also had an immortal soul, whereas beasts perished and were incapable of an afterlife.”
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A preacher bluntly said:
“The life of a beast… was quite ‘long enough for a beast-like life’.”
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Believing animals were mortal protected human superiority:
“Belief in the posthumous extinction of beasts… preserved the dignity of human nature.”
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5. Descartes turned animals into machines, making cruelty easier
In the 1600s, René Descartes claimed animals were automata—machines without souls or real feelings.
Thomas summarizes:
“Animals were mere machines or automata… wholly incapable of speech, reasoning, or… sensation.”
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Cartesians even argued:
“The cry of a beaten dog was no more evidence of the brute’s suffering than… an organ [making sound].”
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This theory made exploitation morally safe:
“It… justified the ascendancy of men, by freeing them… from ‘any suspicion of crime, however often they may eat or kill animals’.”
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Descartes’s goal was explicit:
“to make men ‘lords and possessors of nature’.”
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6. Science and agriculture aimed at mastering nature
Early science did not try to protect nature—it tried to control and improve it.
Animals were bred and reshaped for human benefit:
“Animals… were of the deepest interest… but above all, their pre-eminent utility to mankind.”
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Plants were also treated as manipulable:
“Man now had the power ‘to govern the vegetable world to a much greater improvement, satisfaction and pleasure than ever was known’.”
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Nature was seen as plastic—something to be reshaped for human goals.
Why this chapter matters
Chapter 1 shows that human domination of nature was not accidental—it was morally, religiously, and scientifically justified. People believed:
God created nature for humans
Animals had no souls or rights
Humans were uniquely sacred
Using and killing animals was morally innocent
As Francis Bacon put it:
“It never harmed any man… never burdened a conscience with remorse.”
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This worldview sets up the rest of the book, where Thomas shows how, over time, these ideas began to break down.