Nature | Meaning & Concept [Explained]

We explain what nature is, what types exist and the elements that make it up. Also, the impact of human beings on it.

nature - environment — Nature is an order prior to the existence of human beings.

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What is nature?

In most cases, when we mention nature, we are referring to the natural world or the material world, that is, the set of physical phenomena of the world and living beings in general, without taking into consideration either the artifacts and objects of human manufacture, or the processes of human intervention in the environment.

In other words, we understand by nature the material and evident world, as it is given, as well as the set of forces and elements that are its own. It is a concept that opposes the “artificial” world of human beings and also to the supposed world of the “supernatural” of the mystical or ghostly.

The origin of this word reveals a lot about its possible meanings. It comes from the Latin term naturederived from the verb I was born“be born”. The natural is what is maintained as it originated without the help of human beings, and therefore nature is the set of natural things. Similarly, the nature of something is its essence its truth, that is, the set of its original and proper properties.

Therefore, when we talk about nature understood as the natural world, we always start from the idea that it is a deep and true order of the world, that is, an order that was born with the world, which is prior to the existence of the world. human order. In many ways it can be opposed, since human beings have only altered the natural order of things since their appearance on Earth.

Types of nature

The world we know is organized based on three fundamental types of nature, that is, three forms of existence of living beings, which are:

Vegetative nature. That which lacks voluntary mobility, so it lives, grows and reproduces in the same place, and groups plants, plant organisms and creatures with a limited or reduced capacity to respond to their environment.
Sensitive nature. One who is able to perceive the environment around her and react to it in various ways, for her own benefit. Fundamentally, it refers to animals, beings provided with voluntary mobility, diverse senses to inspect their surroundings, and rapid metabolisms based on the digestion of organic matter.
Human nature. That which shares traits with the sensitive, but unlike it, is aware of its own existence, of its finitude, and therefore is capable of modifying the environment in which it develops for its benefit, instead of adapting slowly. and evolutionarily to him. Fundamentally, it is about human beings.

Elements of nature

Nature, understood as the natural world, encompasses two large sets of elements, which are:

Physical or inanimate elements. They make up the natural environment and are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, leading a passive and eternal existence. Examples of this are stones, water, the gases that make up the air or sunlight.
Live or animated elements. Those that are the result of the slow but constant evolutionary process that led the first ancestral protocells to generate a true range of creatures gathered in different kingdoms: plant, animal, fungi, protozoa and bacteria. These elements submit to the laws of biology and survival, extracting energy from the surrounding environment (autotrophs) or consuming other living beings (heterotrophs).

Importance of nature

nature importance — Everything we know comes, in one way or another, from nature.

The importance of nature for life is total and absolute, including human beings. Although we normally like to think of the natural world as a world apart from our own, governed by other rules and to which we can turn from time to time, the truth is that our entire civilization depends on the natural world biologically, economically and socially .

Nature is where we obtain the inputs that underpin our economy, and also where the oxygen we breathe, the matter that feeds us, and the physical conditions that support the possibility of life on the planet come from. So, in reality, everything that exists and everything we know is also nature.

Human nature

Although we previously talked about human nature as one of the components of the natural world, this concept actually comes from philosophy, where it is used to indicate the set of characteristics inherent to the human being that is, the foundation for their ways of acting, thinking and feeling.

It is a controversial term . There are those who affirm that it does exist and that it has biological or genetic bases, while others maintain that it is little more than an illusion, the result of the cultural and social considerations that prevail over human beings at a given time.

What is the truth of the human being, its essence, is a question that paradoxically human beings are incapable of answering easily. However, we have not stopped trying since the remote times of Antiquity.

Human impact on nature

The natural world has complex relationships with the human world. In its beginnings, The human being was just one more species among many hominids. Africans who, as a result of environmental pressures, were forced to reinvent themselves and evolve.

But on that path, their talents were very different from those of the other species, since His cognitive ability gave him more and more possibilities to alter the environment. at will, making it more benevolent for itself and its offspring, instead of continuing to adapt slowly and evolutionarily to the environment.

The great changes in the human way of existence, such as the Agricultural Revolution of the Neolithic, or to a much greater extent, the Industrial Revolution of the Modern Age, have consisted of new ways of exploiting nature and transforming it for our benefit.

This usually has negative consequences for the stability of the natural order, whose transformation at our hands is not always considered and careful. So, It is common that our impact on nature translates into:

Pollution of nature and destruction of ecosystems.
Species extinction and impoverishment of global biodiversity.
Permanent alteration of the physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, soils and waters.
Alteration of the climate balance of the planet, accelerating the natural processes of climate change in a disastrous way.
Depletion of natural resources non-renewable, such as oil and natural gas.