"Nature" has long been a subject of philosophical inquiry and reflection, with its relationship to science playing a central role in human understanding. It starts with questions like: how do we define nature? The short essays included in this section provide some starting points. 

In the broadest sense, "nature" refers to the phenomena, processes, and entities that comprise the physical world. However, defining the essence of nature is a complex task that has been approached from various perspectives by philosophers throughout history.

The ancient Greeks, for example, considered nature to be the intrinsic qualities and characteristics of things that determined their behavior and form. Aristotle, in his work "Physics," posited that nature was characterized by change and motion, driven by inherent principles of growth and decay.

In the modern era, philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and John Locke have suggested different ideas for the natural world and its intelligibility. Kant, in his "Critique of Judgment," proposed that nature could be understood both as a realm of necessity, governed by deterministic laws, and as a realm of freedom, where human creativity and spontaneity could find expression. Locke, on the other hand, viewed nature as a vast machine, with its intricate workings waiting to be discovered by human reason.

The philosophical discourse about nature and science is closely connected to the development of scientific thought, beginning with early Modernity. Nature, as the subject of scientific inquiry, provides a framework within which science seeks to understand and explain the underlying principles and mechanisms that govern the world.

The Enlightenment philosopher David Hume, in his work "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding," argued that our knowledge of nature was fundamentally based on observation and experience. Hume's empiricist approach emphasized the importance of the scientific method in acquiring knowledge about the natural world.

Contemporary philosophers, such as Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper, have also engaged in the debate surrounding the nature of the natural world and its relationship with science. Kuhn, in his seminal work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," posited that our understanding of nature was shaped by the prevailing scientific paradigms, which were subject to periodic shifts as new evidence emerged. Popper, a proponent of the philosophy of critical rationalism, emphasized the importance of falsifiability in scientific theories, arguing that our understanding of nature was refined through the process of conjecture and refutation.

The question "What is nature?" has been a central theme in the philosophical discourse throughout history. The ideas of various philosophers, from Aristotle to Kuhn, have contributed to the ongoing dialogue surrounding the essence of the natural world and its relationship with science. By engaging with these philosophical perspectives, we can deepen our understanding of nature and its significance for human thought.

We are currently experiencing major paradigm shifts in our understanding of nature. Technology has grown to a point that humans have developed vast powers of change and destruction, but it has also become clear that we are ourselves nature,  and that the wrong understanding of nature can easily alienate us from ourselves. On the other hand, where is the limit?