four lessons about Nature and philosophy by CCA etwinning group a.s. 2019/2020

1. etwinning project
CCA Climate change awareness
2019-2020
NATURE IN PHILOSOPHY

2. .
NATURE IN PHILOSOPHY
1

3. Nature in Philosophy p. 3
Nature in the Renaissance p. 18
Nature in modern science p. 26
New ethics for Nature p. 35
Nature during covid -19 pandemic p. 43
bibliography
index

4. What is nature?
It is not a question that is easy to answer ... in Philosophy it is the set of all
existing things considered in its overall form, in the Totality of the
Phenomena and forces that manifest themselves in it.

5. But for what reason does it exist?
is it made to please our eyes with its beauty ?
Or does it exist for our use and consume ?
or, as Covid-19 is showing us, are humans being
just “grains of sand” compared to it?

6. Park Narodowy Bory Tucholskie, Poland

7. Sintra Cascais Regional Park, Portugal

8. Plitvice National Park, Croatia

9. Parco dei monti Sibillini, Italy

10. Sintra Cascais National Park, PortugalIchkeul National Park, Tunisia

11. “The Physics” (from the Greek “ta physikà” = "the natural
things") is Aristotle's main masterpiece about Nature.
In Physics, Aristotle defines Nature as "a source or cause of being
moved and of being at rest, in that to which it belongs primarily".
In other words, Nature is the principle (“Arché”) within
a natural raw material that is the source of all the tendencies to change
or rest in a particular way unless stopped. (Aristotle)
Natural things stand in contrast to artifacts, which are formed by human
artifice, not because of an innate tendency.
NATURE is ALIVE

12. The image of man’s dominion over nature is deeply
rooted in Western thought. It first appears, in different
forms, in the Book of Genesis. It also reappears as one
of the leading images of the emerging ‘new science’ in
the 16th century. Francis Bacon puts particular
emphasis on this image

14. In the Novum Organon, Bacon writes: "Let the
human race recover that right over nature
which belongs to it by divine request."

15. According to the Genesis the order of creation begins with man, followed
by plants, animals, and finally by woman. Adam is put in the Garden of
Eden, in order to look after the garden, to cultivate it and to make it prosper
(Gen. 2:15). In this story, man appears more as a caretaker, a keeper of
nature, or a gardener. Nature is portrayed as a domestic open space: a
garden effortlessly ordered and there to be enjoyed.
Man appears in a rather unique position vis a vis the rest: he dominates
(in different senses of the word ‘dominion’, that will be qualified as we
proceed).

16. Therefore, the idea of a natural dominion appears
to be both a kind of reiteration of man's
superiority over other creatures, and a form
of acknowledgment of the purpose of creation.
FRANCIS
BACON

17. Bacon explicitly placed his conception of knowledge and of a new
science within the Christian tradition. He conceived his project as an
"advancement of learning", aimed at reproducing the original
dominion of man over nature as symbolically represented in
Genesis, when God asks Adam to give names to the animals.
ANTHROPOCENTRISM

18. 2
NATURE IN THE RENAISSANCE
.

19. The investigation on the meaning of Nature begins to appear as an
indispensable tool for the realization of human ends in the world.
Magic has had a very important role in the philosophy of Nature.
Renaissance magic was characterized by two assumptions:
1. The universal animation of nature, which is moved by forces intrinsically
similar to those acting in mankind, are coordinated and harmonized by
universal sympathy
2. The possibility offered to mankind is to be able to dominate forces with
flattery and spells
Renaissance magic

20. According to Telesio, Nature is an indipendent reality,
based on principles a priori, in which God guarantees the
order and autonomy. This includes mankind, who are
able to reveal themselves only through sensibility.
By Raffaello Sanzio
Morghen (1758–1833) -
http://www.telesio.eu/im
ages/biografia/telesio.jp
g, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikim
edia.org/w/index.php?c
urid=9070525

21. The main part of Giordano Bruno’s thought is the infinity of
nature as opposed to Aristotelian and scholastic finiteness.

22. Bruno arrives to this conclusion both for the Copernican theories, both for his
own original intuitions.
He declares that to God, which is the infinite cause, must
correspond an infinite effect (the endless worlds). Bruno thinks that the
universe is infinite because nothing can contain it, nothing can limit it,
neither God himself can. God isn’t outside our world, in fact he is in all the
things that surround us, and that is why he is its creator.

23. But how was this kind of nature interpreted by Bruno?
The Nature that Bruno talks about, is nothing
else than God himself, in his grandiosity and
creativity.
Deus sive natura

24. The knowledge of Nature for Bruno is not configured as a scientific
process but is supported and animated by the use of magic.
Bruno’s universe, deriving from an infinite God, is open, populated by
infinite worlds and infinite creatures, without a center and equal in all its
parts.
Nature is sacred

25. According to Campanella, Nature is an organic totality whose
absence is constituted by the three primality of being (power,
knowledge, love).
God is its ultimate foundation as a perfect entity.
Nature is everything

26. NATURE IN MODERN
SCIENCE
3

27. The Greek philosopher, as Aristotle,and the Renaissance
philosophers (such as Bruno, Campanella, Telesio) talk about
Nature as an alive organisme, a Deus, a “God” full of potentiality
and power and “soul” (“anima mundi” in Latin).
Old tradition ...

28. Modern Science turned Nature into an inanimate
mechanism humankind can even “torture” (Francis Bacon) to use
their secrets and dominate the all world.
Modern tradition ...

29. "Conquering nature"
Stand for Francis Bacon, conquering nature means
understanding scientific processes in the world around us
and using them to humanities advantage.

30. Francis Bacon was advocating for a scientific approach to understanding
how nature works. He talked about how humans should better
understand nature and learn all of it's secrets. His way of thinking was
mostly influenced by the times he lived in.
He lived in the late Renaissance, which was an age of reason and
return to ancient Roman and Greek values.
In the dark ages nature was mostly explained by superstition, religion or
magic. So in opposition to that, Renaissance focused mainly on scientific
evidence to prove or disprove something. Of course Bacon himself was
born many years after the end of the medieval times.

31. But he lived in an age that was focused on ending
the primitive way of thinking of the Middle ages.
That certainly influenced him and led to him valuing science
and reason above all. Also the torturing metaphor mostly
comes from the fact that even in those days torture was the
most effective way of getting criminals to confess their
crimes or to extract the truth out of them.

32. According to Francis Bacon’s philosophy many scientists were
inspired to fight poverty and misery and pain by conquering Nature.
However, using strong metaphors such as “torture nature”, he let
us also understand how much this idea of “conquering”
caused climate change.
Conquering means dominate and dominion means to treat
Nature as an object without any value except serving
humankind.
This ideology, on the one hand, gave us lots of comforts but it is
a very short-sighted focus on what we should be doing: that
is respect Nature, since by respecting Nature we respect life of the
present and the future generations.

33. choose for each meaning of
Nature the right adjectiv
1. Natura sive Deus
2. atomistic structure
3. living organism
4. animate organism
5. causal system
6. materialistic structure
7. subject
8. object
9. Pantheism
10. mathematical order
Double meaning of concept of Nature
Nature as a Mechanism
1. atomistic structure
2. causal system
3. materialistic structure
4. object
5. mathematical order
Nature as an Organism
1. “Natura sive Deus”
2. living organism
3. animate organism
4. subject
5. Pantheism
Old Tradition
Modern Science

34. Nature as a Mechanism
1. Let us to exploit
Nature, which is just a
Cave from which take
resource
2. at the least, we can
think to Conserve
Nature because it means
preserve the Mankind life
Nature as an Organism
Invite us to Respect Nature
because it has a value in
itself.
It’s God itself and it’s alive.
It’s the “home of the Beings”
A Double environmental Ethic approach
ecological or biological ethic

35. NEW ETHICS FOR
NATURE
4

36. Should we preserve Nature because it has RIGHTS
as we do ?
Or, should we just conserve Nature, because it is
basic for humankind life?

37. In his book Man's Responsibility for Nature (1974) Passmore argued
that there is urgent need to change our attitude to the environment, and
that humans cannot continue unconstrained exploitation of the
biosphere. However, he rejected the view that we need to abandon the
Western tradition of scientific rationalism, and was unsympathetic
towards attempts to articulate environmental concern through radical
revisions of our ethical framework, as advocated by deep ecologist
which he conceived as misguided mysticism or irrationalism.
Passmore was very skeptical about attempts to attribute intrinsic value
to nature, and his preferred position was of valuing nature in terms of
what it contributes to the flourishing of sentient creatures (including
humans)
J. PASSMORE
credit: Wikipedia

38. Capra advocates that Western culture abandon
conventional linear thought and the mechanistic views of
F. Bacon. Critiquing the reductionistic Baconian view that
everything can be studied in parts to understand the
whole, he encourages a holistic approach. In The Web of
Life, Capra focuses on systemic information
generated by the relationships among all parts as a
significant additional factor in understanding the character
of the whole, emphasizing the web-like structure of all
systems and the interconnectedness of all parts.
Capra is one of the most important scientist who try to
turn the “conquering modern paradigm” in a new “holistic
approach” for understanding the relation between
humankind and Nature.
f. CAPRA
credit: Wikipedia

39. Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living
beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs.
Deep ecology argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex
inter-relationships in which the existence of organisms is dependent on the existence of
others within ecosystems. Human interference with or destruction of the natural world
poses a threat therefore not only to humans but to all organisms constituting the natural
order.
Deep ecology's core principle is the belief that the living environment as a whole
should be respected and regarded as having certain basic moral and legal rights to
live and flourish, independent of its instrumental benefits for human use.
credit: Wikipedia
Deep Ecology

40. Published in 1975, Animal Liberation has been cited as a
formative influence on leaders of the modern animal
liberation movement. The central argument of the book is
an expansion of the utilitarian concept that "the
greatest good of the greatest number" is the only
measure of good or ethical behaviour, and Singer
believes that there is no reason not to apply this
principle to other animals, arguing that the boundary
between human and "animal" is completely arbitrary.
There are far more differences between a great ape and
an oyster, for example, than between a human and a
great ape, and yet the former two are lumped together as
"animals", whereas we are considered "human" in a way
that supposedly differentiates us from all other "animals."
PETER SINGER
credit: Wikipedia

41. Fear and responsibility in the face of reality as
a "whole" are at the center of his best-known work,
“The Principle of Responsibility” (1979).
This work is dedicated to the delicate ethical and
social problems raised by the incessant application of
technology in all aspects of life.
This text, which brings the ecological emergency to
the agenda of European philosophical reflection,
brings together all the author’s previous research:
religion, nature, technique.
The author’s starting point is that "the doing of man
is today able to destroy the being of the world".
Hans Jonas
credit: Wikipedia

42. this is the”“The Principle of Responsibility” golden rule :
«Act so that the consequences of your action are
compatible with the survival of human life on
earth»
credit: Wikipedia

43. 5
NATURE DURING COVID-19
PANDEMIC

44. In Covid-19 time we are all at home.

45. A. ROTOLETTI's picture from "Striking piazzas of Sicily"

46. The world has stopped because of the virus and we have come
down from that whirlwind turn.
It took this sneaky poison (“virus”, from the Latin “poison”) to bring the golden
eagle flying into the Milan sky. It was spotted the 5th of April during
the initiative from the balconies: "Birdwatching km. 0 ".

47. eagle into the Milan sky

48. In Venice, without tourists and traffic, you could
see fish in the canals, a few days earlier in
Cagliari the dolphins had arrived in the port.

50. But hares, swans and squirrels were also
photographed in the city.
… Bees and butterflies are back that bodes well, but
also the herds, wolves and wild boars in the
countryside…

53. Have our cities suddenly become
wilder than we thought until recently?
This appears surprising to me ….

54. bibliography
Textbook Abbagnano-Fornero, La
filosofia
wikipedia sources:
deep ecology
j passmore
f. capra
h jonas
pictures :
https://www.keblog.it/animali-strade-citta-quarantena-c
oronavirus/

55. authors
in order
alice, marta,
sofia,
simão, lena, nina,
christopher
vinka lea hiba ines
andrea c sofia f
altea
made by
CCA
Philosophy
group