What is nature?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I finished reading Spinoza, and he states Nature is God, a necessity of causes.
Necessity is not evil nor it is God, but only the natural outcome or causes or chances, not supersitution.

When someone hears there is a earthquake people say God is angry, it is a mistake to believe God is nature, because if so, God does it blindly.

Locke states God is not nature, but God is a supreme being who is intelligent. Even we do not understand his operations we cannot deny his existence.

Democritus said about nature, " When the individual’s knowledge changes, the nature of the individual changes"

Or is nature is just another word for forrest?

2

I don’t personally believe nature has any hidden meaning, I see nature simply as animals, plants and trees. Or another word for forrest, as you say.

3

nature is everything :slight_smile:
for me, it’s all phenomena that exist and occur within the universe

4

i share that belief.

its a crucial part of Spinoza’s philosophy that i appreciate and find very interesting.

it is also Spinoza’s contention as part of his metaphysics as i understand them that there is one infinite substance which is the foundation, the complete essence for all things that are percieved finite.

God is nature; therefore the over-riding reason and logic associated with all things. The universal reason.

all things happen for a reason. This reason is nature; or God.

all things therefore are God, because all things are part of nature.

5

But God cannot be nature if we assume that he is an all powerful and all knowing being, which has thoughts. Nature does not have thoughts.
Per say, there is an earthquake, we will then say God is angry.
IF nature is God, then God do things blindly.

If we say nature was created by God, then nature cannot be God.

The definition of nature I am seeking is nature itself. What is man’s nature? A moral and good person as Rouseauu says, or brutish and evil as Hobbes say.

6

here’s a piss-you-off “what if” question, sorry…:::
'What if God weresome sort of being that exists and evolves/changes as we do? What if God did not create nature, but either became it, or that nature is a part of God. My leg will not move on it’s own, nor think on it’s own(nature), but it will work as a part of the entire body, in unicin(God)…
Perhaps God is indeed a supernatural being, and can manipulate that which surrounds it…
Meh, had fun, post more.Hehehe… =D> : D

7

When Spinoza states that God is Nature he is sticking with the usual definition of nature.

he is changing the definition of God.

as i understand it; nature being God is the idea that God is not a supernatural being, nor does God possess thought of His own or powers in any sense.

he is not a secular being.

Nature is reason, cause and effect, what makes everything happen as it does. The harmony within the actions and reactions of our world.

Therefore one could also say God is everything or God is reason.

the harmony within things due to their scientific make-up.

the earth-quake is part of that harmony; not God’s creation, nor, really, God’s doing but merely part of the reason for all things. it is God.

8

I suppose that one could misinterpret that statement of God being the reason, the reason being God and what it is. Some could then say that God is not reason itself, as reason without a form could not exist. Reason itself does not exist without action, which requires a being, matter, life or etc.If you were referring the reason to nature being the form which carries the action, how is the action then provoked?
If you mean that the reason is a part of God or part of God’s scheme, then perhaps this could be true, as long as God- the form exists, which is highly debatable…

9

i meant scientific reason; in the sense of God being the harmony in which all things and act react in association with one another.

God the form does not exist; the contention is that the idea of God merely encompasses the science of all things.

10

ah, I see…the action/reaction method…but how can one percieve this as having a reason, which requires the action, which requires the purpose.O!
So do you then think that purpose is only created by actions and reactions? Can a purpose or reason be generated by the chaos theory?..

11

“Nature” is a messed up word, much like the word “normal” or “usual”/“average” is messed up.

“Nature” primarily applies to the average majority behavior of anything “alive”.

12

would you say everything in nature(universe) has a nature of its own?

13

Then nature is just a natural outcome, as Spinoza says. Nature is not God, for if it is, God is a non-existent living thing or substance. IF there was no living thing in the beginning which is an intelligent living being, what would have created motion?

good question.

good answer.

14

“Nature” primarily applies to the average majority behavior of anything “alive”.

can something have a ‘nature’ if its inanimate? i think so
a baseball has a nature similar to a tennis ball(rebound, shape,use in games)