‘We Are Nature’: A new campaign wants to redefine the word ‘nature’ to include humans
The Oxford dictionary defines nature as: 'The phenomena of the physical world collectively; esp. plants, animals, and other features and products of the Earth itself, as opposed to humans and human creations'. How did we arrive at such a definition which sets humans apart from the natural world? Since the 17th century, a rationalist world view emphasized the split between the human mind and physical matter. This disconnect has since been found to lead to animal cruelty and is accelerating the decline of the environment.
TOM OLIVER: What does the word nature mean to you? Does it conjure visions of wild places away from the hustle and bustle of people, or does it include humans too? The meaning of nature has changed since the word was first used back as early as the 15th century. Now a new campaign, We Are Nature, aims to persuade dictionaries to include humans in their definitions of nature…
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines nature as: ‘The phenomena of the physical world collectively; esp. plants, animals, and other features and products of the Earth itself, as opposed to humans and human creations’…
The organisers have collated many historical uses of the word nature from 1850 to the present day, some of which include humans in the meaning, and presented the dictionary with this evidence. In April 2024, as a result, the OED removed the label “obsolete” from a secondary, wider definition of nature comprising “the whole natural world, including human beings”…
But how did we arrive at such a definition, which hinges on us being apart from, rather than a part of, the natural world? Since the 17th century, a rationalist world view prompted by philosophers such as René Descartes increasingly saw things from a mechanical perspective, comparing the workings of the universe to a great machine. Rather than any kind of divine spirit inhabiting the natural world, this perspective emphasised the split between the human mind and physical matter…
Anything non-human fell into the latter category and was likened to clockwork machinery. But that view has since been found to lead to animal cruelty, and many environmental bodies including the European Environment Agency suggest this disconnect is accelerating the decline of nature…
A dictionary definition represents society’s framing of the natural world. This in turn influences our perception of our place within it – and the actions we take to protect nature. So, the words we use have real-world impacts: they frame how we think and determine how we feel and act… Research shows this leads people to make fewer positive environmental changes to their behaviour, such as reducing their carbon footprint, recycling, or doing voluntary conservation work…
With regards to the meaning of nature, if a word is too broad, it may lose its usefulness in communication, just like a blunt knife is a poor tool for carving food. People wanting to articulate the natural world may simply use other words, such as “environment”. This word is derived from the French environs, explicitly describing something surrounding us.
Environment has already been replacing nature in our modern lexicon. This may reflect a subtle cognitive shift towards increasingly seeing human beings as distinct entities, separate from the natural world…
But to change the primary definition of nature from “as opposed to humans” to “including humans” will require more people to use the word in a way that reflects how humans are intertwined with the whole web of life. The great thing is, by doing this, we rekindle the bonds of care towards the living world around us. SOURCE…
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