Nature

For alternative meanings, see nature (disambiguation).

Nature is the natural world, especially in its essential form, untainted by human influence.

Table of contents

1 The natural world

2 Metaphysics

3 The natural and the artificial

4 Related concepts

5 Etymology

6 See also

The natural world

In scale, 'nature' includes everything from the universal to the subatomic. This includes all things animal, plant, and mineral; all natural resources and events (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes). It also includes the behaviour of living animals, and the processes associated with inanimate objects. A fundamental difference of view exists between those who include humans (both their consciousness and their activities) within nature, and those who do not.

Metaphysics

In philosophy, the view that the material world of atoms, animals, gravity, stars, wind, microbes, etc., actually exist independently of our observations of them is termed realism; the opposing view is called idealism.

The natural and the artificial

A distinction is often drawn between the "natural" and the "artificial" (="man-made"). Can such a distinction be justified? One approach is to exclude mind from the realm of the natural; another is to exclude not only mind, but also humans and their influence. In either case, the boundary between the natural and the artificial is a difficult one to draw (see mind-body problem). Some people believe that the problem is best avoided by saying that everything is natural, but that does little to clarify the concept of the "artificial". In any event, ambiguities about the distinction between the natural and the artificial animate much of art, literature and philosophy.

Related concepts

The term natural science is used in a variety of ways, primarily:

to denote the study of natural processes as opposed to human activities, in contrast to the social sciences; and
to denote those sciences which employ the scientific method, in contrast e.g. to mathematics and computer science.

The term natural philosophy formerly named the scientific discipline now known as physics.

Natural theology straddles the disciplines of theology and philosophy of religion.

In education and related areas, the contrast "natural/artificial" can appear as " nature/nurture".

See also: praeternatural, unnatural and supernatural.

Etymology

The word nature comes from the Latin word, natura, meaning birth or character (see nature (innate)). In English, its first recorded use in the sense of the material world was in 1662.