An Analysis Of The Idea Of Nature

Nature is an intricate word that cannot be easily explained, whether in English or in Chinese. How we see nature and how we treat nature are central to the relationship between we human beings and the nature. How we treat nature is premised on how we see nature, and the idea of nature is the summary and condensation of theories about nature in the process of our learning about nature. Generations of human beings assess nature in their own distinctive ways, and that is why the idea of nature evolve constantly. In our contemporary society, the perspective from nature has been influenced by the constant interaction and permeation among technology, nature and society, which adds to the complexity of the idea of nature itself. There have been scholars conducting researches and analyses on the evolution of the idea of nature from the perspective of natural philosophy. Results abounds in the area and a great many books and papers have been published. This paper is not from natural philosophy. Rather, it analyzes the idea of nature with linguistic philosophical methods on the basis of natural philosophy.The paper analyzes the idea of nature in three parts. The first part analyze the word nature from the perspective of etymology, centering on the original meaning of the word nature in common sense Chinese and English, and exploring the natural evolution of the idea of nature in the context of common sense. The second part unfolds discussion revolving around the five ideas--The idea of evolutionary nature, The idea of emergent nature, The idea of malleable nature, The idea of nature as sacred, and The idea of nature as culture--in the unnatural evolution of the idea of nature under scientific context, conducting semantic and pragmatic analysis to the five ideas. On the bases of analyzing the idea of nature in common sense context and scientific context, The third part explores the idea of nature under the influence of contemporary society and technology, in the hope of achieving a better understanding of the contemporary significance of the idea of nature and more comprehensive and authentic knowledge of the nature.