The Greek Concept of Nature

Introduction

The Greek notion of phusis, usually translated as nature (from the Latin natura), has been decisive both for the early history of philosophy and for its subsequent development. In fact, it is often said that the Greeks discovered “nature.” But what did the earliest philosophers actually have in mind when they spoke of phusis? There is a formidable amount of controversy on the subject. This investigation attempts to reconstruct from a historical perspective the origin and evolution of this concept. The impetus behind this study (and the general thesis it proposes) originated many years ago in an analysis of book 10 of Plato’s Laws. In this work (which will be the subject of a separate volume), Plato criticizes those who wrote works in prose or in verse of the peri phuseo\s type. Plato’s primary reproach is that the authors of these works never admitted the notion of intention (implied by techne\) as the explanatory principle behind the order that governs the universe. This refusal, in Plato’s eyes, is at the basis of the “atheism ” of his time. In order to understand the true meaning of the doctrine of Plato’s adversaries, I felt that it was necessary to reconstruct the entire movement of thought that led to the problem that Plato was attempting to resolve. When one closely examines the contents of these works entitled Peri phuseo\s, it is clear their primary aim is to explain how the present order of things was established. This, in fact, clearly follows from Plato’s own analysis in Laws 10. These works propose a theory to explain the origin (and development ) of the world, humanity, and the city/society. The structure of these works (even before undertaking a linguistic analysis of the word phusis) leads one to conclude that for the first philosophers or pre-Socratics as we conventionally call them, the word phusis in this context means the origin and growth of the universe as a totality. And since humanity and the society in which they reside are also part of this totality explanations of the origin and development of humanity and society must necessarily follow an explanation of the world. In Laws 10, Hesiod is also among the accused. The reason is that according to Hesiod’s account in the Theogony, the gods originate after the universe. More precisely, according to Hesiod’s theogonic account, gods are derived 1 Introduction from primordial entities (Chaos, Gaia, Eros, Tartaros, etc.), whereas for Plato, if one does not postulate a divinity present from the beginning and independent of the material on which it works, it is impossible to attribute the order that governs the universe to an intelligence. When one closely analyses Hesiod’s theogonic account, it is possible to discern the same three part schema that is discernable in the pre-Socratic accounts of the peri phuseo\s type: namely a cosmogony, an anthropogony, and a politogony. In reality, this three part schema is intimately connected with the form of a cosmogonic myth which, in turn, is closely connected with the mythico-ritual scenario of the periodic renewal of the world. The aim is to provide an explanation for the present social and natural order and a guarantee that these orders will remain as they are. In fact, in a cosmogonical myth, both cosmic evolution and cosmic order are modeled on, and expressed in terms of, the socio-political structure or life of the community. In a certain sense, this myth explains and guarantees a “way of life” for the social group. This brings us to another interesting feature of accounts of the peri phuseo\s type. It is still somewhat commonplace to associate the preSocratic conception of philosophy with complete “disinterested” inquiry or speculation (evidenced somewhat in Aristotle’s generic phusiologoi to qualify these individuals). But a keen interest in politics appears to have been the norm among these early philosophers. In fact, it is possible that their respective historia (investigation or inquiry) may have been politically motivated. The word historia and/or phusis or more precisely historia peri phuseo\s, may have been the newly minted phraseology to express the new rational approach to a way of life in conformity with the new political realities and the new comprehensive view of how the world, man and society originated and developed. There is, in fact, an interesting parallel and continuity between political engagement and cosmological theory and by extension a way of life in all the pre...