In comparing and contrasting Civilization Over Nature by Michael Heiman with Nature Over Civilization by Robert Kuhn McGregor I have discovered that their main themes over lap in one or more ways. They both define “Nature” in totally different aspects. Therefore that is way their main themes appear to be so much different.
             Michael Heiman argues that nature was put aside for the capitalistic views of the nineteenth century. This then implies that nature was put aside for the production of civilization. Therefore associating the human race strictly with civilization and not nature. Nature is only made up of the landscape and the animals and plants within it. In Heiman’s example of this he speaks of the exploitation of the Hudson Valley for the transportation of goods across the country. He tells of how the destruction of this area throughout the nineteenth century was overlooked by the artists and tour guides that traveled this route. The viewpoints that Heiman carried throughout his essay had a homocentric orientation towards civilization. As for Heiman’s main theme he proposes that civilization was the ultimate reality.
             As for McGregor he proposed to agree with the biocentric view that humans and plants and animals were all living actors in the play of life therefore making humans a part of nature as well. As for the civilization aspect of it all he goes on to explain that animals have their own civilizations in which some of them change the environment in the same ways as our civilization. In the end of it all he believes that nature is the ultimate reality.
             In order to compare and contrast we have to first see the main part where they clash. Heiman sees nature as the landscape, plants, and animals therefore making humans the synonym for civilization. McGregor on the other hand says that nature has its own civilization just as humans do. So humans are now a
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