24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
{{Top}}nature{{Bottom}}
A constant theme running throughout [[Lacan]]'s work is the distinction he draws between [[human]] [[being]]s and other [[animal]]s, or, as [[Lacan]] puts it, between "[[nature|human society]]" and "[[nature|animal society]]."<ref>{{S1}} p.223</ref>
===Languages and Codes===
The basis of this distinction is [[language]]; [[human]]s have [[language]], whereas [[animal]]s merely have [[code]]s.
===Symbolic and Imaginary===
The consequence of this fundamental difference is that [[biology|animal psychology]] is entirely dominated by the [[imaginary]], whereas [[human]] [[psychology]] is complicated by the additional dimension of the [[symbolic]].
===Double Sense of the Term===
Within the context of this bindary opposition between [[human]] [[being]]s and other [[animal]]s, [[Lacan]] uses the term "[[nature]]" in a complex double sense.
In this sense, [[Lacan]] adopts the traditional [[anthropology|anthropological]] opposition between [[nature]] and [[culture]] ([[culture]] being, in [[Lacan]]ian terms, the [[symbolic]] [[order]]).
===Regulation of Kinship by Incest Taboo===Like [[Claude Levi-Strauss]] and other [[anthropology|anthropologists]], [[Lacan]] points to the [[prohibition]] of [[incest]] as the kernel of the [[law|legal]] [[structure]]] which differentiates [[culture]] from [[nature]].
<blockquote>The primordial Law is therefore that which in regulating marriage superimposes the kingdom of culture on that of a nature abandoned to the law of mating.<ref>{{E}} p.66</ref></blockquote>
By inscribing a line of descent from [[male]] to [[male]] and thus ordering a series of generations, the [[Father]] marks the difference between the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]].
===Human and Animal Imaginary for Animals and Human Beings===
In other words, what is unique about [[human]] [[being]]s is not that in [[human]] [[being]]s the [[imaginary]] [[order]] is distorted by the added dimension of the [[symbolic]].
Hence [[Lacan]] repudiates "the doctrine of a discontinuity between animal psychology and human psychology which is far away from our thought."<ref>{{Ec}} p.484</ref>
==Natural Order of Human Existence==
On the other hand, [[Lacan]] also uses the term "[[nature]]" to denote the idea that there is a "[[nature|natural order]]" in [[human]] [[existence]], an idea which [[Lacan]] calls the "great fantasy of ''nautra mater'', the very idea of nature."<ref>{{S1}} p.149</ref>
==Biology =Biological Basis of Human Behavior===
This great [[fantasy]] of [[nature]] underlies modern [[psychology]], which attempts to explain [[human]] [[behavior]] by reference to [[biology|ethological categories]] such as [[instinct]] and [[adaptation]].
===Symbolic Alienates Human Beings Alienation from Natural Order===
[[Lacan]] is highly critical of all such attempts to explain the phenomena in terms of [[nature]].
<blockquote>In the [[human]] world, even "those [[signification]]s that are closest to [[need]], [[signification]]s that are relative to the most purely [[biological]] insertion into a nutrittive and captivating environment, primordial [[signification]]s, are, in their sequence and in their very foundation, subject to the [[law]]s of the [[signifier]].<ref>{{S3}} p.198</ref></blockquote>
===Mythical Pre-Linguistic State of Nature===
[[Lacan]] thus argues that "the [[Freudian]] discovery teaches us that all natural harmony in man is profoundly disconcerted."<ref>{{S3}} p.83</ref>
[[Need]] is never present in a pure [[pre-oedipal phase|pre-linguistic state]] in the [[human]] [[being]]: such a "[[mythical]]" [[linguistic|pre-linguistic]] [[need]] can only be hypothesized after it has been articulated in [[demand]].
===Human Sexuality - , Nature and Culture===
The [[absence]] of a [[natural]] [[order]] in [[human]] [[existence]] can be seen most clearly in [[human]] [[sexuality]].
[[Freud]] and [[Lacan]] both argue that [[human]] [[sexuality]] is entirely caught up in the [[cultural]] [[order]].
====Perversion====
There is no such thing, for the [[human]] being, as a ''[[nature|natural]]'' [[sexual relationship]].
One consequence of this is that [[perversion]] cannot be defined by reference to a supposed [[natural]] or [[biological]] [[norm ]] governing [[sexuality]].
====Instincts and Drives====
Whereas [[animal]] [[instincts]] are relatively invariable, [[human]] [[sexuality]] is governed by [[drive]]s which are extremely variable and do not aim at a [[biology|biological]] function.
==See Also==
{{See}}* [[Adaptation]]* [[Alienation]]* [[Biology]]||* [[lawCode]]* [[prohibitionCulture]]* [[biologyDrive]]||* [[Instinct]]* [[Language]]* [[Law]]||* [[Need]]* [[Perversion]]* [[Sexual relationship]]{{Also}}
== References ==
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Science]]
{{OK}}
