Nature, Concepts of

Historical Background

Concepts of nature coevolved with European traditions of philosophy and theology and have historically been applied to describe phenomena understood to preexist or exist independently of human activities, lie beyond human control, or define innate qualities of humanity itself. Strongly [Page 1227]embedded in Enlightenment thinking as the object of study across diverse fields of scientific and humanistic inquiry, the term nature has acquired multiple, fluid, contested meanings.

In Western thought, there is evidence of a long and complex preoccupation with nature, broadly understood as the set of essential, already given preconditions of human existence, experience, and morality. Platonic natural theology, Aristotelian metaphysics, and Roman natural law defined classical concepts of nature to which European philosophers later referred; the English word nature is derived from Latin roots related to the verb participle natus, “born.” Concepts of nature became deeply embedded in European theological traditions. They are immanent to Judeo-Christian understandings of God's creation, and inherently at stake in the discussions of human nature that unfolded, for example, in the work of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). Although an adequate historical account falls beyond the scope of this entry, conceptual developments and debates related to the writings of Thomas Hobbes (15881679), Francis Bacon (1561–1626), John Locke (1632–1704), David Hume (1711–1776), JeanJacques Rousseau (1712–1778), and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) are worthy of note. By the 19th century, concepts of nature were basic to Enlightenment science, European Romanticism, and the birth of the nation-state. While different orientations toward nature were associated with various scientific, romantic, political, and religious viewpoints, common epistemological roots embedded in these orientations mutually affirmed the self-evident existence of nature apart from the sphere of human influence and artifice. Evidence suggests that this is a distinctively Western cultural theme.

Projects of scientific investigation launched during the Enlightenment were concerned to describe, study, and classify aspects of nature and natural history. Romantic approaches to the sensual beauty, majesty, and mystery of nature evident in European art and literature during the 18th to 19th centuries manifested a parallel preoccupation, and it only partially contradicted the larger cultural movement of the Enlightenment. The transformation of European academic institutions and the establishment of scholarly societies, museums, and journals supported efforts to objectify nature and systematize knowledge about it. The positivist urge toward ever-expanding human knowledge of nature, including knowledge of human nature itself, was consistent with understandings of unilinear progress toward modernity.

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