Hello,
An interesting and very open question for which a mere page would be
only a summary of what nature is.
It comes from the word "Natura" meaning "to be born" so i guess thats
as good a place as any to start.
Nature itself is intagible, it is merely a concept or if you will an
invisible guideline to which all living things adhere without fuss or
complaint. It incorporates and binds together the laws of physics,
biology and chemistry and through this allows the world to grow and
evolve.
There are very few words that describe nature as well as its own
derivitive "natural", because thats what nature is....the natural
progression of life whether it be plant, animal, fish or bird, nature
provides from one link to support another. It allows grass to grow so
that animals may feed, as they feed they become food and thus the food
chain is established a veritable foundation of nature.
Without the food chain, nature is isolated cogs whirring independently
never getting anywhere. Put them together and they turn each other -
working together to advance and change, adapt and evolve.
A good starting point for further information would be
http://clearlyexplained.com/nature/
Defining nature onto a single page is no mean feat, as Ron Burton from
United States Florida A & M University Graduate Student in
Architecture discussed in his Essay.
"However, is the definition of Nature really important at all? Must we
all agree on what we decree nature to be or can Nature be a very
personnel relationship? What we deem nature to be is not the critical
question. The important endeavor is to understand that these elements
that make up nature and non-nature are all systems or part of systems;
that there exist relationships between these systems; and that these
relationships determine what influence each system has on the other.
Our goal should not be to determine the contents of nature but it must
be to determine what impact might exist when these relationships are
altered".
His full thesis which you might find of interest is at
http://sustainable.state.fl.us/fdi/fscc/news/class/f99/nature/ron-nat.htm
I think this is what you seemed to be after and i hope that it helps
Take Care
Johnny Phoenix |
