Nature - autonomous learning

8 strange naturesa second purpose too. When answered in relation to the seven storiesrecounted, they are also designed to challenge our habitual ways of thinkingabout nature. Let me explain.One common definition of nature is that it is the non-human world.According to this definition, the word ‘nature’ is more or less synonymouswith the word ‘environment’. In our seven stories, this definition wouldencompass everything from toothfish to bucardos to shrill carder bees. Evenwithout having to formally describe any of these things as ‘natural’, it isimplicit that this master category encompasses them according toconventional usage. But these stories also remind us that nature means‘the essence of something’ as well. Using this second, broader definitionwe see that nature also encompasses humans too – whether it’s the genetictraits of African-American sportspeople or the blood ties between parentand child. Thus, to utter a phrase such as ‘It’s in their nature’ is to saythat a person has certain physiological or psychological qualities thathelp to make them the kind of person they are.This links to an even broaderconception of nature as the inherent force ordering both humans andnon-humans.To take an example from our stories, we see this force referredto when critics of biotechnology argue that it goes ‘against nature’ bycreating things like cloned foals and Pyrenean goats. Likewise, when someenvironmentalists talk about the non-human world as a self-regulatingsystem (as in the famous ‘Gaia hypothesis’) they are using the idea of atranscendental God-like power. In this third definition, we might think ofnature with a capital N as opposed to its various component parts in thehuman and non-human worlds.Table 1.1 summarises these three principaldefinitions of nature.Similarly, if we ask ‘Where is nature?’, our stories remind us justhow limited conventional understandings are.These understandings taketwo related forms. One sees nature as primarily located in the countryside,Table 1.1 The meanings of natureThe non-human The essence of An inherent forceworldsomethingThe environment/ ✓ ✓ ✓external natureHumans ✓ ✓