Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the
natural world,
physical universe, material world or material universe. "Nature" refers to the
phenomena of the physical world, and also to
life in
general. Manufactured objects and
human interaction are, in common usage, not considered part of nature unless qualified in ways such as "
human nature" or "the whole of nature". Nature is generally distinguished from the
supernatural. It ranges in scale from the
subatomic to the
galactic.
The
word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "the course of things, natural character." Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word
physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants,
animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord.< This is shown in the first written use of the word φύσις, in connection with a plant. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical
universe, is one of several expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word φύσις by pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since. This usage was confirmed during the advent of modern
scientific method in the last several centuries.
Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" may refer to the general realm of various types 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, and the
matter and
energy of which all these things are composed. It is often taken to mean the "
natural environment" or
wilderness – wild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. This more traditional concept of natural things which can still be found today implies a distinction between the natural and the
artificial, with the latter being understood as that which has been brought into being by a
human or human-like
consciousness or
mind.
Published: February 23, 2008
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