Definition of nature: Everything but humans, their creations and human actions, is this true? ?

Question

Definition of nature: Everything but humans, their creations and human actions, is this true? ?

Answer 1

this is politically true. but in reality all is natural. the computer is as natural as the beaver dam.

in grammar there is a distinction between the natural and the synthetic (man-made), but this is an artificial distinction.

Answer 2

I don't know why you excluded humans.  We are a part of nature.  The things we have created and those that we are doing to the environment are artificial (man-made).  These could, by extension, be considered part of nature since they are made by natural creatures, and other creatures build things.  However, anything man-made has always been considered artificial rather than natural, and we damage our environment so much more efficiently with our creations than any other creatures do.

Answer 3

No, it is not true.  In fact, it is kind of stupid.

Humans are part of nature, like it or not (intentionally ambiguous).

The idea that humans are above nature, or a least not part of nature, is a silly expression of vanity, of a piece with the idea that the earth is the center of the solar system.

Humans have been extremely successful as a species and are currently getting out of balance but somewhere along the way a balance will be reestablished, with or without the humans.  Other animals do this too, more often predators than prey.  It is an illusion that there is a perfect balance in nature,  it is constantly changing, shifting one way or another.



A surplus of wolves one year means their own starvation the next and an excess of rabbits is self limiting by feeding wolves  into large reproduction.  There is no balance point in nature.  But humans have been too successful for too long and the counter-balancing swing may be equally disproportional.

This does not mean that man is not damaging the environment. He is.

But humans, their creations and actions are still part of nature.