Carolyn Merchant

Carolyn Merchant (born July 12, 1936) is a prominent American ecofeminist philosopher and historian of science. She is most renowned for her seminal work, *The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution*, first published in 1980. In this book, Merchant argues that the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century marked a pivotal shift in Western thought, transforming the perception of nature from a nurturing, organic entity into a mechanistic and objectified system ripe for exploitation. She links this transformation to gendered metaphors, suggesting that the "domination of nature" model coincided with the marginalization of women and the feminization of nature itself. Merchant's scholarship emphasizes the importance of gender in the historiography of science and advocates for incorporating environmental, social, and literary historical contexts into the study of science. Her influential theories have significantly shaped the fields of environmental history and ecofeminism. She holds the title of Distinguished Professor Emerita of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics at the University of California, Berkeley.