What is nature? How would you explain it?

[silvergirl]

I'm sitting here trying to put together the introduction to my dissertation and I am stuck at how to explain what 'nature' is.
It seems so daft as you say 'nature' and assume people know what you mean but when you (or at least I) try to write out a couple of hundred word explaination it all goes to pot.

Now for my dissertation I need to reference and justify what I think nature is but I wondered...
if you were confronted with an extra terrestrial (or someone who had never been outside?) how would you explain 'nature' to them?

 

[Chambers]

For me, nature is a force. If you left the world for 25 years, the result would be down to nature

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[Chambers]

Should probably elated rate, Italy something I don't think you can stop it just get redirected. It's the plantations desire to grow, a humans desire to eat, an animals instinct to hunt and the clouds persistence to rain

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[durulz]

Hmm...what about thinking of the different ways we use the word 'nature' and seeing if there is a link between them?
We use 'nature' to mean the natural environment, to mean someone's innate disposition, to refer to a kind of Eden (e.g. 'get back to nature'), to describe the kind or variety of different attributes (e.g. 'of what nature is...'), and we also use the word to describe our moods. Is there a linking theme between all these?

 

[Shewie]

Tough one but I'd go for something like, nature is all that is occures in the world without any human or outside influences.

 

[treadlightly]

I would sit him or her down on a style at the edge of a wood and say: "Nature is the process whereby our young planet developed from a lump of hot rock to a cooler one which supports millions of types of carbon based organisms which collectively we refer to as life. We are at once observing this ongoing process with a limited understanding of its workings, and part of the process."

Of course if this ET had the capability of travelling through space it would have an understanding of nature on its own planet and an idea of the nature of the universe.

 

[durulz]

Why are so many excluding humans?
We are just as 'natural' as any other organism on this Earth. You could argue that the things we make are not 'natural' (presumably because they've been 'created' and do not just occur), but on that account a bird's nest is just as unnatural (it's a created artifact) - so do we exclude bird's as well?
Defining 'nature' is an absolute nightmare. I'd say that everyone's definition is going to miss a substantial component. But I also wonder if such definitions really matter?
Best of luck, Silvergirl.

If an alien asked me what 'nature' was I'd tell him/her/it to look to poets, artists and philosophers for the answer. And then if he/she/it found an answer I'd ask them to kindly let me know what it was too.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Tough one but I'd go for something like, nature is all that is occures in the world without any human or outside influences.

Yup, that and more,
What would be left if every last human dissolved into space, no right or wrong, no good or evil, just life at its raw and cruel best. Sometimes devastating, often beautiful, life being created and life being taken away. Nature without influence.

Edit to add in response top Durulz,
It has to be without humans, because as soon as we're asked to describe it, we feel compelled to compare and contrast it against our human values.

 

[Bushwhacker]

It's our very nature to ask, "What is nature?".
We're certainly part of it.

 

[Shewie]

Why are so many excluding humans?
We are just as 'natural' as any other organism on this Earth. You could argue that the things we make are not 'natural' (presumably because they've been 'created' and do not just occur), but on that account a bird's nest is just as unnatural (it's a created artifact) - so do we exclude bird's as well?
Defining 'nature' is an absolute nightmare. I'd say that everyone's definition is going to miss a substantial component. But I also wonder if such definitions really matter?
Best of luck, Silvergirl.

If an alien asked me what 'nature' was I'd tell him/her/it to look to poets, artists and philosophers for the answer. And then if he/she/it found an answer I'd ask them to kindly let me know what it was too.

Agent Smith (The Matrix) : -

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

Not sure why I quoted that but it has something to do with the fact we probably act like no other species on the planet.

 

[durulz]

Edit to add in response top Durulz,
It has to be without humans, because as soon as we're asked to describe it, we feel compelled to compare and contrast it against our human values.

But then won't that make ANY response to 'nature' meaningless, since it only exists as a concept within human hearts and minds?

 

[Andy BB]

Nature is a viscious, cruel place to be without civilisation. Every animal subjected to it dies from either starvation or being ripped apart by another animal. It has no mercy, no morals, and survival of the fittest is the only "rule". Tthe Universe is slowly dying, and our Sun will go out, killing everything on the planet in a few million years.

Cheerful enough?!

 

[durulz]

Agent Smith (The Matrix) : -

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

Not sure why I quoted that but it has something to do with the fact we probably act like no other species on the planet.

A fun quote, but like so much else in The Matrix, a load of rubbish.
Our next door neighbour has an ivy plant in their garden. The bugger has spread so much that it's now climbing over our wall. The vast MAJORITY of species on this planet (animal, mineral and vegetable) will spread if left unchecked and will dominate other species if they can. Are these all viruses as well?

 

[durulz]

It has no mercy, no morals

That's about the closest we've got yet to what 'nature' is.

 

[Jimny]

It's what's left after you remove all presence of mankind. We don't ( as a species ) work with nature, we have to change everything to suit the way we want to live. Back in the days of early man that probably wasn't the case but I think it is now. I disagree with durulz about the birds nest, that is natural in the same way that rabbits dig burrows and polar bears hibernate in snow caves. Animals adapt to the environment, Man doesn't, he changes it.

atb Dave

 

[Wayland]

Nature is what happens while we are making other plans.

 

[Bushwhacker]

At what point in evolution did man stop becoming part of nature?

 

[shaggystu]

nature's everything, absolutely everything. even the most synthetic of man-made materials are made from natural resources. all we can ever do as a species, even with all our amazingly advanced science, is to modify and alter what's already there. the whole idea of un-natural is just that, it's an idea, if something is un-natural then it simply doesn't exist, at least not in any tangible way.

stuart

 

[Andy BB]

Off at a bit of a tangent here. But was looking at my wedding ring recently, and suddenly realised that that little chunk of metal had to have been forged in the inside of a star. How awesome is that? And that everything around us - even us! - are made up of bits of stuff that are 14 billion years old.

Now THAT's nature!

 

[durulz]

I agree 100% with posts #18 and #19.
Trying to disentangle one thing from nature, whilst excluding another, just seems wrong. It either all is or all isn't.
For me.