Natural.
Nature is a word polysemous , which has several basic meanings:
- composition and terms of a thing (what it is, its essence )
- the origin and fate of a thing in its spontaneity and its lethargy in time (from a free end , the human nature ),
- all systems and natural and human phenomena are also recognized as compounds of nature.
This word comes from English Nature itself from the Latin word meaning naturia birth, he evokes what is in his native state, that is to say that has not been amended since its birth. The word actually refers to some natural object or substance that has not been transformed, mixed or tampered with by any artifice. By extension, it also means a spontaneous attitude (as in the phrase "Let us all look natural"). But the most common meaning is far from the etymological sense, since most often the type is a set of phenomena and situations that can be highly scalable but the transformation is not primarily the result of the man.
Common sense Nature includes:
- the biophysical environment , the habitat and natural environments says ( land ), aquatic and marine; preserved (high naturalness ) and degraded;
- the scenery wild and managed landscapes altered
- "strengths" and principles physical , geological , tectonic , meteorological , biological , the changes that constitute the universe and those who run the ecosystems and the biosphere on Earth;
- media ( water , air , soil air , sea , world mineral );
- species groups, individuals and the worlds they inhabit: vegetation ( forests ...), animal , including the human species and the environment, human and other trophic levels including the fungus , the bacterial and microbial.
- episodic phenomena of nature (crises, cycles glaciation / climate , geological cycles , Cycle sylvigntique , fires from non-human, etc.)..
Response to evidence of negative impacts of human activities on the biophysical environment and accelerated loss of naturalness and biodiversity in recent decades, the protection of nature and natural environments, safeguarding habitats and species, setting establishment of a sustainable and reasonable and environmental education have become demands for a large part of the citizens of most industrialized countries. The principles of environmental ethics , new laws and charters of environmental protection based development of human cultural ideology in relation to the biosphere.
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Philosophies of Nature
In common usage, and religious nature has long been presented dichotomously in Europe, like what is around the Man, not him, who is driven by processes or forces beyond his reach. Now, with education and access to knowledge, nobody is surprised that the human species is among many in nature. Nature is, was and will be the environment in which man lives, lived and live. Sciences including ecology show that the nature (co-) evolves in time and space, according to complex dynamics, including those of the evolution of species, natural selection, and the forces moving or diverted by humans or other species have become capable of altering the natural processes large planets.
In interpreting the philosophies animistic or religious nature is simply presented as showing the equivalent of an autonomous will or a determined direction. Thus it is common to hear without thinking that nature will take revenge for what he did wrong, or otherwise make it a hundred times the good that he did, and that certain acts are cons- nature. These expressions suggest that the cultures of contemporary man place a value specific to Nature, ethical, moral or natural order, that includes them or not.
Nature is perceived by the senses and is thinking of ways by varying the species and individuals included In the Judeo-Christianity: Creation In a way, we can say that Christianity , the tradition biblical and Jewish , has desecrated nature, which was then associated with that of a transcendent God, external to man. In Genesis , nature is presented in the story of Creation as the work of a Creator God: The Creation continues throughout "six days". The sixth day, God created the man and woman : Nature is then presented as an access to the Scriptures. Currently, for Catholics, the secular nature is the name of creation. Saint Augustine , taking the Greek philosophical tradition, sees the two creatures in nature: the essence (essentia) and substance (substantia) . Another illustration of these representations of nature found in the series of tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn , which is responsible for any of allegories . The underlying idea is that nature does nothing to chance, but is under a command divine. The transcendentalists , born in the nineteenth century, following the principle that nature is a divine being, learning to human reason and beauty. The Transcendentalists found in nature a source of experience and adventure essential to the intellectual and spiritual development of mankind. This idea prevailed until the advent of the modern conception of science ( Galileo ). New representations With Galileo and Descartes , a new representation of the world appears. Descartes rejects the scholastic philosophy : Rise of modern science
In his philosophy, Descartes introduced radically new relations between man and nature.
With age classic seventeenth century and the birth of modern science, we have seen the invention of a new representation of nature. This representation is the result of the belief of many philosophers of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , according to which nature was governed by a universal law of gravitation. One perceives an extension of the boundaries of world known to other planets. The world then extends to the solar system with known "laws" that evolution can be described in mathematical form.
The experimental method allowed to advance the knowledge of history "natural" (ie natural sciences ). What has been told to Maurice Merleau-Ponty , "the change of the idea of nature has allowed its discovery."
Emancipation of thought
The modern age has also invented the freedom of thought ( cogito ergo sum , "said Descartes ), it becomes possible to speak publicly of atheism.
Divine intervention becomes more abstract, confined to the mystery of faith. Thus, some forms of empiricism does not reject the concept of faith and religion , on the contrary, the experimental method of Irish physicist and chemist Robert Boyle , for example, relies on a faith lived in the experimental scientist.
Descartes and Spinoza rejects the Aristotelian conception of nature, the existence of God is perceived on a purely metaphysical. A new conception of man appeared in the eighteenth century , a man who relies more on reason and the experience to understand the world. In the nineteenth century , the notion of metaphysical fades almost completely submerged by ideologies.
This conception of man is so late in the West but also unprecedented in the history of the world. The humanities do not inherit a vacant field because "man did not exist."
But the partial emancipation of humanity does not mean deleted any form of belief. During the Enlightenment , while the practical religious are often seen as superstition by the philosophers, the popular conception of a sacred nature took a special emphasis. Thus, belief in a Creator God is very present throughout the deism : Voltaire did not believe there not a creator god, who would have dropped out of humanity to its sad fate? This belief in the extreme begat the cult of Reason and the Supreme Being. It is significant that in this context of de-Christianization among the civic holiday is a celebration of nature that will actually succeed.
Semantic and aesthetic developments
This change in representation was made in favor of changing language major: the emergence of classical French .
Thus, the word natural , which etymologically in Greek , means the nature as a whole (phusika), changed direction to make sense almost exclusively scientific.
Another consequence was a shift in sensitivity aesthetics. The hierarchy of genres from classical painting, for example, gave little importance to the landscape. It occupied from the nineteenth century a much more important.
Sense Multiple nature of the word
The design Cartesian nature does not mean deleted the meaning given by the naturalists of the word. The history of natural sciences shows that the interaction of living beings among themselves and with their environment has been a constant concern of many scientists , which has become increasingly important until the advent of an ecology more holistic , including the rise may lie to the eighteenth century. It illustrates the diversity of topics studied in ecology, and more generally in the natural sciences.
The word nature has taken or held different meanings in different contexts:
- "Nature" becomes the whole real ignoring changes made by the man , they themselves described as artificial. "Nature" is then what does not undergo the formatting of a human purpose technique. It is in this context there exist some products described as "natural" (or biological), their production did not require products "invented" by humans (eg, a fruit is "natural" when has been produced without the help of insecticide or genetic transformation). This distinction implies a separation between man and nature on the criterion of intention (moral).
- The word "nature" as used in the phrase "human nature" for example, retains a more traditional sense is that all the fundamental characteristics that define the physical personality or morality of a being. It can be used also in the phrase "nature of communication."
The notion of nature is therefore in her philosophical questions through the reports that the man and the natural environment and the environment , its conceptions of social life, and the multiple meanings that can be attributed to word nature in the social representations.
The word nature has kept multiple meanings ( polysemy ). Concerns environmental current show the importance of identifying these senses and their purpose in each context specific.
Components of nature
Nature includes the following facts:
Earth
Show:
Life
Origins of Life and Evolution
Microbes
Plants
Animals
Ecosystems
Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis is the theory originally advanced by James Lovelock in 1969 , but also mentioned by Johannes Kepler as early as the seventeenth century , by which all living things on Earth (or any planet where life has evolved ) would like a larger organization (called Gaia , named after the Greek goddess (see also Gaia Theory )), achieving self-regulation of its various elements (for example, the chemical composition of the atmosphere) for conditions of life.
The concept of biosphere stated by Vernadsky in 1924 was already going in that direction.
Man and Nature: Environment
An ambiguous relationship
The vagueness of the definition of Nature maintains an ambiguity in the relationship between Man and Nature.
The biosphere land is increasingly marked by the imprint of man, it becomes increasingly difficult to find spaces purely natural. Nature in the strictest sense is barred from a party down in the basement and the distant ocean depths, and also up in outer space. Climatic phenomena themselves are no longer considered independent of human activity.
On the other hand, the concept is often used in a derivative sense to designate spaces reserved for humans but in which a large part is reserved by plant and animal: thus we can speak of nature about a forest, even if it is cultivated and exploited for centuries, and which describes itself parks territories where intensive agricultural activities are carried equipped modern chemical and mechanical means. In this case, the term refers to certain natural landscape features (varying by location and no universal definition) and does not imply the absence of human artifice. It refers to a mode of land management by humans, rather than an absence of human intervention.
The word natural has also been used in colonial times in a manner equivalent to that of native English word, that is to say, in the etymological sense, to designate the native inhabitants of colonized countries. This appellation, which was not meant offensive, however, had a racist connotation in that it suggested that these men were living in "closer to nature" than others. In the same vein, the popular imagination is often men of prehistory as more natural than people today, suggesting that nature is a primitive state whose progress leads inevitably to depart.
The idea of nature has been altered by urban culture through the mythical notion of savagery generally designating that which is external to civilization. The fact that the same word is used in a wild part as a synonym for natural and secondly to describe acts of particularly violent or cruel (even if committed in urban societies with sophisticated technical means) is well show some ideological tradition that places more or less consciously on the side of nature that is alien to the dominant culture and / or bad. Paradoxically, it also happens in other contexts, the word natural is used in popular parlance as a synonym for normal, legitimate or logical nature, rather than savagery, is also the common sense and fundamental , consequently, it is the source of most legitimate principles of civilized man.
The development of science and technology over the last two centuries has been, in turn, largely accompanied by an ideology of opposition between man and nature, knowledge is generally perceived as an instrument of domination of nature rather as a means to live in harmony with it. This period has also seen the development philosophy of natural law , which arise include human rights and that rights would be granted by the unalterable nature of prerogatives, but here the paradox is only apparent because In this context the notion of nature is used in the sense of human nature , and does not imply any kind of "reconciliation" with nature (the promotion of human rights is, moreover, so far, independent any environmental concerns).
In fact, the distinction between the human and natural is essentially based on historical notions ical and subjective, even contradictory. The question of its universal validity remains open. The distinction (sometimes seen as an opposition) was inspired and justified by the need of religious origin or from certain forms of humanism , to represent the man as a being outside or above Nature itself so also man is inseparable from its natural environment with which it interacts with permanent and can not dispense more than any other living species.
Destruction of Nature
See the following topics:
- irradiation
- Pollution , emissions of greenhouse gases
- Exploiting natural resources , deforestation , fishing , agriculture
- Ignorance of the biophysical environment , the ecology
Nature Protection
The study associations and conservation are major players in the field of nature protection. Nearly 3,000 local associations are grouped within the National Federation of France Nature Environnement ( Nature in the art and culture The notion of a priori nature refers to the idea of a field with its own development principles, to be out of action for the man. But we now realize that climate change has an original man. The idea of nature is not sufficient. There is a complementarity and interaction between nature and human communities. The outline of this mutual complementarity can light up with the concept of cultural ecology. There is such that the concepts of natural heritage and cultural heritage are inextricably linked, observing the World Heritage of UNESCO which shall prepare a list of natural and cultural sites. The 2007 Convention of UNESCO stresses the interaction of human communities with nature, in the definition that was given the Intangible Cultural Heritage: See also: Culture and Nature The concept of culture encompasses two meanings: The first is the idea of civilization. This idea is as old as the history of humanity, but found a new meaning with the philosophy of the Enlightenment. In this sense, culture is the hallmark of the species human, combined with his knowledge and expertise. The French concept of culture is individualistic (think of a Solitary Walker Reveries of Rousseau ). The second is the German sense, emerging under the influence of romanticism. Culture is the particular configuration of customary beliefs, material traits, social organizations ... it is a singular whole, an autonomous sphere incommensurable with other wholes. This expanded group is opposed to the French conception. In Words and Things, Michel Foucault defines anthropology as the study of the relationship between nature and culture. Overall we can approach this question by distinguishing between materialistic anthropology and anthropology symbolists. Anthropologies materialists interested in structural features of material life. The underlying idea is that nature is a basic determinant: it is defined in terms ethnocentric, as the engine of social life. There are Marxist anthropology in the 1970s in France, where nature is a gross figure which may be appropriate or transformed, and the natural environment is a precondition of the economic environment. There are also the cultural ecology and sociobiology, between which highlights a parallel since both, the ultimate cause of behavior back to the field of nature. In all cases, the materialist anthropology, culture is a particular form of adaptation to a nature that would be everywhere and conditioning a key element. The anthropology Symbolist interest in character symbolic of social life. They focus on the abilities of men to create a world of meaning and intentionality dependent determinations of raw nature. In Structural Anthropology 2, Levi-Strauss said that anthropology is the discipline that thinks the relationship between nature and culture. The dichotomy between nature and culture raised, the opposition nature / culture suggests two possibilities. Let the culture is what gives meaning to nature (culture imposes its meaning to nature). Determines the nature of social relationships (nature shapes the culture). The dichotomy nature / culture used as an analytical tool is partly derived from Claude Levi-Strauss. He particularly used as the central operator to decode the myths. It has been known to be relevant by ethnologists of Amerindian societies. The mythology traces the construction of nature on an initial background of cultural differentiation. (Thus in the Amerindian myths, early animals and men had the same appearance). In Levi-Strauss, the opposition, where it is relevant, that is to say in the myths, is one way to put a label on contrasts. The cultural ecology provides unlimited credit to nature. The structural anthropology, in this context does not oppose some form of idealism but also a naturalist, but a principle of naturalism. Levi-Strauss never wavered in the belief that nature determines the intellectual operations, thus becoming a kind of empirical construction. The naturalistic study is to understand the structure of cultural groups. What interests Levi-Strauss is accountable for how the mind operates in different geographical and cultural contexts (eg the mythology). Mythology revealed in a purified form operations of a mind that is no longer condemned to put in order, but who can "play" with the operating rules of thought. The dichotomy nature / culture is a recent Western cultural specificity, which is not universally shared. This paradigm is not simply an analytical tool among others, it is also the keystone of modern epistemology. Descola and identifies four "modes of identification" which totemism, animism, analogy and naturalism. Only the naturalist society (Western) produces the boundary between self and others through the idea of "nature". Nature would be what is not culture, which is not distinctive features of the human species, and knowledge and human skills. Its use as an analytical tool in anthropology has sometimes been fruitful. However, and Philippe Descola showed in Beyond Nature and Culture (2005), the idea of nature is foreign to many companies. Interaction of human communities with nature
The two meanings of culture in French
The opposition between nature and culture as an analytical tool
Questioning the dichotomy
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