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Nature

Nature is an inherent character or constitution,[1] particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part of nature, human activity or humans as a whole are often described as at times at odds, or outright separate and even superior to nature.[2]

"Natural" redirects here. For other uses, see Natural (disambiguation) and Nature (disambiguation).

During the advent of modern scientific method in the last several centuries, nature became the passive reality, organized and moved by divine laws.[3][4] With the Industrial revolution, nature increasingly became seen as the part of reality deprived from intentional intervention: it was hence considered as sacred by some traditions (Rousseau, American transcendentalism) or a mere decorum for divine providence or human history (Hegel, Marx). However, a vitalist vision of nature, closer to the pre-Socratic one, got reborn at the same time, especially after Charles Darwin.[2]


Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. Nature can refer to the general realm of living plants and animals, and in some cases to the processes associated with inanimate objects—the way that particular types of things exist and change of their own accord, such as the weather and geology of the Earth. It is often taken to mean the "natural environment" or wilderness—wild animals, rocks, forest, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. For example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". This more traditional concept of natural things that can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the artificial, with the artificial being understood as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind. Depending on the particular context, the term "natural" might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural.[2]

Etymology

The word nature is borrowed from the Old French nature and is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, literally meant "birth".[5] In ancient philosophy, natura is mostly used as the Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics of plants, animals, and other features of the world to develop of their own accord.[6][7] The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion;[2] it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers (though this word had a dynamic dimension then, especially for Heraclitus), and has steadily gained currency ever since.

, a publication of the National Wildlife Federation

National Wildlife

, by Pliny the Elder

Natural History

(TV series)

Natural World

, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature

, a prominent scientific journal

Nature

(TV series)

Nature

The World We Live In (Life magazine)

Media:


Organizations:


Philosophy:

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"Exploring the diversity of conceptualizations of nature in East and South-East Asia"

Ducarme, Frédéric; Couvet, Denis (2020). . Palgrave Communications. 6 (14). Springer Nature. doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0390-y.

"What does 'nature' mean?"

Emerson, Ralph W. (1836). Nature. Boston: James Munroe & Co.

Farber, Paul Lawrence (2000), Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E. O. Wilson. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore.

Lynch, Derek (October 17, 2023). . The Conversation. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023.

"Have we reached the end of nature? Our relationship with the environment is in crisis"

Naddaf, Gerard (2006). The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany: SUNY Press.

Piccolo, John J.; Taylor, Bron; Washington, Haydn; Kopnina, Helen; Gray, Joe; Alberro, Heather; Orlikowska, Ewa (2022). . Biological Conservation. 270: 109572. Bibcode:2022BCons.27009572P. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109572. S2CID 248769087.

""Nature's contributions to people" and peoples' moral obligations to nature"

Worster, D. (1994). Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge: .

Cambridge University Press

Archived June 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (iucnredlist.org)

Ducarme, Frédéric (January 3, 2021). . Encyclopedia of the Environment. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021.

"What is nature?"