NATURE, PHILOSOPHY OF

the discipline that investigates substantive issues regarding the actual features of nature as a reality. The discussion here is divided into two parts: the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. In this discipline, the most fundamental, broad, and seminal features of natural reality as such are explored and assessments are made of their implications for metaphysics, or theory of reality; for one's Weltanschauung, or world view; for anthropology, or doctrine of humans; and for ethics, or theory and manner of moral action. These implications are explored on the assumption that the understanding of the natural setting in which life is staged strongly conditions beliefs and attitudes in many fields. In its German form, Naturphilosophie, the term is chiefly identified with Friedrich Schelling and G.W.F. Hegel, early 19th-century German Idealists who opposed it to Logik and to the Phnomenologie des Geistes (of the spirit or mind). Employment of the term spread, in due time, beyond its narrower historical context in German Idealism and came to be used, particularly in Roman Catholic parlance, in the sense that it bears in this article (e.g., the philosophies of physics and biology). Despite a notable decline in its usage in more recent years, the term is here employed, in the interest of the clear delineation of topics, as a complement to the philosophy of science, the discipline to which its subject matter has been allocated by recent philosophers. Thus in this work, the article on the philosophy of science is largely restricted to man's approach to nature, and thus to epistemological (theory of knowledge) and methodological issues, while that on the philosophy of nature encompasses the more substantive issues about nature as it is in itself. Additional reading Philosophy of physics R. Harre, Philosophical Aspects of Cosmology, and W. Davidson, Philosophical Aspects of Cosmology, Br. J. Phil. Sci., 13:104119, 120129 (1962); Othmar Spann, Naturphilosophie, 2nd ed. (1963); Ivor Leclerc, The Nature of Physical Existence (1972); Pascual Jordan, Albert Einstein: Sein Lebenswerk und die Zukunft der Physik (1969), and Atom und Weltall: Einfhrung in den Gedankeninhalt der modernen Physik, 2nd ed. (1960); E.T. Whittaker, From Euclid to Eddington: A Study of Conceptions of the External World (1949); Jacques Merleau-Ponty and Bruno Morando, Les Trois tapes de la cosmologie (1971; Eng. trans., The Rebirth of Cosmology, 1975); Louis de Broglie, La Physique nouvelle et les quanta (1937; Eng. trans., The Revolution in Physics, 1953, reprinted 1969); R.G. Collingwood, The Idea of Nature (1945, reprinted 1960); P.K. Feyerabend, Philosophie de la nature, in M.F. Sciacca (ed.), Les Grands Courants de la pense mondiale contemporaine, part. 2, vol. 2, pp. 901927 (1961); Errol E. Harris, The Foundations of Metaphysics in Science (1965); Jagjit Singh, Great Ideas and Theories of Modern Cosmology, rev. and enlarged ed. (1970); P.A. Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: PhilosopherScientist, 2 vol. (1959); Philipp Frank, Philosophy of Science (1957); Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929, corrected ed. 1978), and The Concept of Nature (1920, reprinted 1964); Mary B. Hesse, Forces and Fields (1961); Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker, Zum Weltbild der Physik, 12th ed. (1976); Adolph Gruenbaum, Philosophical Problems of Space and Time, 2nd enlarged ed. (1973); Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy (1958); A.S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1928, reprinted 1958); Henri Poincare, La Science et l'hypothse (1903; Eng. trans., Science and Hypothesis, 1905); Henry Margenau, The Nature of Physical Reality (1950, reprinted 1977), and Physics and Philosophy (1978). Karl R. Popper, Realism and the Aim of Science (1983), The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism (1982), and Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics (1982), comprise the work of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, who challenges most of the traditional assumptions in modern physics; Jeremy Bernstein, Science Observed: Essays of My Mind (1982), is a collection of essays on the process of science; Roger S. Jones, Physics as Metaphor (1982) is an original personal commentary on the nature of physical science; Heinz R. Pagels, The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature (1982), is a review of modern physics; see also Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, 2nd rev. ed. (1983); Benjamin Gal-Or, Cosmology, Physics, and Philosophy (1983); Edward M. MacKinnon, Scientific Explanation and Atomic Physics (1982); and P.C.W. Davies, The Accidental Universe (1982). Philosophy of biology Francisco Josc Ayala and Theodosius Dobzhansky (eds.), Studies in the Philosophy of Biology: Reduction and Related Problems (1974), a collection of conference papers that discuss definitions and the implications of reductionism; M.O. Beckner, Biology, in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 310318 (1967), an excellent review of some of the basic philosophical problems in biology; Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory (1968), an attempt to unify the disparate aspects of biology and formulate general principles; Barry Commoner, In Defense of Biology, Science, 133:17451748 (1961), an argument for the autonomy of biology decrying the emphasis on molecular biology to the neglect of general biology; Francis Crick, Of Molecules and Men (1966), a work that expresses the attitudes and positions taken by many molecular biologists in defense of reductionism; W.M. Elsasser, The Chief Abstractions of Biology (1975), a refutation of reductionist analysis in the life sciences; A.G.N. Flew, Evolutionary Ethics (1967), a significant attempt to relate evolutionary theory to ethics. T.A. Goudge, The Ascent of Life (1961), a work devoted solely to philosophical problems of evolutionary theory; Marjorie Grene, Approaches to a Philosophical Biology (1968), a review of the European viewpoints on the philosophy of nature (Naturphilosophie); Thomas H. and Julian Huxley, Touchstone for Ethics, 18931943 (British title, Evolution and Ethics, 18931943; 1947, reprinted 1969), opposing views on the same theme by two famous biologists; Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology (1966, reprinted 1979), a collection of essays presenting an existential interpretation of biology in the tradition of Naturphilosophie; Jacques Monod, Le Hasard et la ncessit: essai sur la philosophie naturelle de la biologie moderne (1970; Eng. trans., Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology, 1971), a significant addition to the biological literature by a Nobel Prize-winning biologist; Ashley Montagu (ed.), Man and Aggression, 2nd ed. (1973), a collection of essays and reviews critical of the notion of innate aggressiveness as expounded by Konrad Lorenz and Robert Ardrey; Ronald Munson (ed.), Man and Nature: Philosophical Issues in Biology (1971), a collection of writings that provides an excellent introduction to biophilosophy, with incisive commentary by the editor; Jean Piaget, Biologie et connaissance (1967; Eng. trans., Biology and Knowledge, 1971), concerned primarily with the evolution of mental faculties; V.R. Potter, Bioethics (1971), a collection of articles dealing with the influence of biology on practical moral problems. Bernhard Rensch, Biophilosophie auf erkenntnistheoretischer Grundlage (1968; Eng. trans., Biophilosophy, 1971), a work emphasizing the rise and nature of consciousness within the framework of the evolutionary process; Michael A. Simon, The Matter of Life (1971), a good review of approaches to the philosophy of biology; George Gaylord Simpson, This View of Life: The World of an Evolutionist (1964), a collection of essays by a renowned scholar, some of which have shaped the direction of philosophical biology, and the especially pertinent chapter, Man's Place in Nature, in his Meaning of Evolution, pp. 281294, rev. ed. (1967); Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Le Phnomne humain (1956; Eng. trans., The Phenomenon of Man, 1959), a controversial attempt to meld science and religion by presenting a mystical viewpoint of cosmic evolution; C.H. Waddington, The Ethical Animal (1960), a defense of the claim that biological facts can provide grounds for moral principles. Steven Rose (ed.), Against Biological Determinism (1982) and Towards a Liberatory Biology (1982), are two volumes of essays collected by the Dialectics of Biology Group, based on proceedings of meetings of philosophers and biologists and exploring alternatives in modern life science; Charles Birch and John B. Cobb, The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (1982), is a survey of philosophical interpretations of problems of ecology; John C. Greene, Science, Ideology, and World View: Essays in the History of Evolutionary Ideas (1981), is a discussion of the role of philosophy of evolution in Western intellectual history; C. Leon Harris, Evolution: Genesis and Revelations: With Reading from Empodocles and Wilson (1981), is a survey of the history of evolutionary thought; and U.J. Jensen and R. Harr (eds.), The Philosophy of Evolution (1981), is a collection of essays on evolutionary concepts in different fields; see also Ernst Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance (1982).