Week 3: Art, nature and baselines

Introduction

In the final week of this course, you will read the last two sections of Elliot’s paper. This will provide you the opportunity to reflect on the difference between the appreciation of art and the appreciation of nature, and whether it makes sense to say that it is possible to ‘fake nature’. This will lead you to two more issues with the restoration thesis. The first concerns the value of nature: what exactly is it that is valued in untouched nature? The second concerns a problem with restoring either nature or buildings: what is it restored to?