nature

Knowledge

2022

We explain what nature is, what types exist and the elements that compose it. In addition, the impact of the human being on it.

Nature is an order prior to the existence of the human being.

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 neither human-made artifacts and objects, nor processes intervention of human being at 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 world of the "artificial" of human beings, and also the supposed world of the "supernatural" of the mystical or phantasmagorical.

The origin of this word reveals a lot about its possible meanings. It comes from the Latin term nature, derived from the verb nasci, "born". The natural is what remains 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, to the set of its original and proper properties.

For this reason, when we speak of 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 human order. In many ways it can oppose it, since human beings have only altered the natural order of things since their appearance on the surface. Earth.

Nature types

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 the 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, various senses to inspect their surroundings, and metabolisms based on the digestion of organic material.
  • Human nature. That which shares traits with the sensitive one, but unlike her, is aware of her own existence, of its finiteness, and therefore is capable of modifying the environment in which she develops for her benefit, instead of slowly adapting. and evolutionarily to him. Fundamentally, it is about human beings.

Nature elements

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

  • Physical or inanimate elements. That make up the natural environment and are governed by the laws of physical and the chemistry, leading a passive and eternal existence. Examples of this are the stones, the Water, the gases that make up the air wave sunlight.
  • Live or animated elements. Those that are the fruit of the slow but constant process evolutionary that led the first ancestral protocells to engender a veritable range of creatures gathered in different kingdoms: vegetable, animal, mushrooms, protozoa Y bacteria. These elements are subject to the laws of the biology and survival, extracting Energy of the surrounding environment (autotrophs) or consuming other living beings (heterotrophs).

Importance of nature

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

The importance of nature for life it 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 base our economy, and also where the oxygen we breathe comes from, the matter that feeds us and the physical conditions that sustain the possibility of life on the planet.So, in reality, everything that exists and everything that we know is also nature.

Human nature

Although we previously spoke of human nature as one of the components of the natural world, this concept actually comes from the 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 the human being at a given time.

What is the truth of the human being, its essence, is a question that paradoxically human beings are unable to answer easily. However, we have not stopped trying since ancient times.

Human impact on nature

The natural world has complex relationships with the human world. In its beginnings, the human being was only a species more among many African hominids that, as a result of environmental pressures, was forced to reinvent and evolve.

But on that path, their talents were very different from those of the other species, since their Cognitive ability It was offering him more and more possibilities to alter the environment at will, making it more benevolent for himself and his offspring, instead of continuing to adapt slowly and evolutionarily to the environment.

Great changes in the human mode of existence, such as the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, 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. Thus, it is common for our impact on nature to translate into:

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