Nature is becoming a person

The case for “non-people” personhood. Environmental protection is rapidly taking on a degree of existential urgency, raising the question of whether there’s some value in placing the mask of personhood on other entities? From Immanuel Kant to Maori representations of nature to 21st-century rulings, Justin E. H. Smith, a professor of history and philosophy of science, explores ways to make sense of the new global trend that grants legal rights to animals, plants, and rivers.