February 21, 2011

The word nature

The word nature is, in all european languages, feminine: la nature, die Nature, la natura etc. The very word "natura" in latin means "birth". Nature is verbally personified as "mother nature", in german "Mutter Natur", it is an archetype.
But along with the scientific revolution in the 17th century, nature became something dead, dead material, although even the word "material" derives from the same origin ("mater"-mother).

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