The Book of Nature is a religious and philosophical concept originating in the Latin Middle Ages that explores the relationship between religion and science , which views nature as a book for knowledge and understanding. Early theologians, such as St. Paul , believed the Book of Nature was a source of God 's revelation to humankind. He believed that when read alongside sacred scripture , the "book" and the study of God's creations would lead to a knowledge of God himself. This type of revelation is often referred to as a general revelation . The concept corresponds to the early Greek philosophical belief that humans, as part of a coherent universe, are capable of understanding the design of the natural world through reason. Philosophers, theologians, and scholars frequently deploy the concept. The phrase was first used by Galileo , who used the term when writing about how "the book of nature [can become] readable and comprehensible".
60-485: From the earliest times in known civilizations, events in the natural world were expressed through a collection of stories concerning everyday life. In ancient times, it was believed that the visible, mortal world existed alongside an upper world of spirits and gods acting through nature to create a unified and intersecting moral and natural cosmos. Humans, living in a world that was acted upon by free-acting and conspiring gods of nature , attempted to understand their world and
120-402: A first principle . He argues that in the beginning, if the cosmos had come to be, its first motion would lack an antecedent state; and, as Parmenides said, " nothing comes from nothing ". The cosmological argument , later attributed to Aristotle, thereby draws the conclusion that God exists. However, if the cosmos had a beginning, Aristotle argued, it would require an efficient first cause ,
180-433: A cannot be the same as ba". Near the end of Metaphysics , Book Λ , Aristotle introduces a surprising question, asking "whether we have to suppose one such [mover] or more than one, and if the latter, how many". Aristotle concludes that the number of all the movers equals the number of separate movements, and we can determine these by considering the mathematical science most akin to philosophy, i.e., astronomy. Although
240-405: A created world, and appeared under certain conditions that had little to do with personal deities. The Greeks believed that natural phenomena occurred by "necessity" through intersecting chains of "cause" and "effect". Greek philosophers, however, lacked a new vocabulary to express such abstract concepts as "necessity" or "cause" and consequently used words available to them to refer metaphorically to
300-418: A general explanation of the apparent wandering of the classical planets arising from uniform circular motions of celestial spheres . While the number of spheres in the model itself was subject to change (47 or 55), Aristotle's account of aether , and of potentiality and actuality , required an individual unmoved mover for each sphere. Simplicius argues that the first unmoved mover is a cause not only in
360-519: A notion that Aristotle took to demonstrate a critical flaw. But it is a wrong assumption to suppose universally that we have an adequate first principle in virtue of the fact that something always is so ... Thus Democritus reduces the causes that explain nature to the fact that things happened in the past in the same way as they happen now: but he does not think fit to seek for a first principle to explain this 'always' ... Let this conclude what we have to say in support of our contention that there never
420-491: A pre-modern knowledge of nature. It was believed that "While God has made all things that reside in the Book of Nature, certain objects in nature share similar characteristics with other objects, which delineates the sphere of nature and 'establishes the systematizing principles upon which knowledge of the natural world is based'". Nature could now be read like a book. By the sixteenth century, discord between traditional authorities
480-464: A primary cause (or first uncaused cause ) or " mover " of all the motion in the universe . As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Λ ) of his Metaphysics , Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation : self-contemplation. He equates this concept also with
540-407: A process of abstraction, which may result in metaphysical principles that can be used to explain various natural phenomena, including their causes and effects. Events with no identifiable reason happen by chance and reside outside the boundaries of natural philosophy. The search for causal explanations became a dominant focus in natural philosophy, whose origins lay in the Book of Nature as conceived by
600-405: Is changeable and that there are several types of change, including quality and quantity, generation and destruction, increase and diminution, alteration, and motion. Change occurs when one given state becomes something contrary to it: that is to say, what exists potentially comes to exist actually (see potentiality and actuality ). Therefore, "a thing [can come to be], incidentally, out of that which
660-475: Is essential for all forms of life. This immaterial form of activity must be intellectual in nature and it cannot be contingent upon sensory perception if it is to remain uniform; therefore, eternal substance must think only of thinking itself and exist outside the starry sphere, where even the notion of place is undefined for Aristotle. Their influence on lesser beings is purely the result of an "aspiration or desire", and each aetheric celestial sphere emulates one of
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#1732773283961720-439: Is immaterial substance (separate and individual beings), having neither parts nor magnitude. As such, it would be physically impossible for them to move material objects of any size by pushing, pulling, or collision. Because matter is, for Aristotle, a substratum in which a potential to change can be actualized, any and all potentiality must be actualized in a being that is eternal but it must not be still, because continuous activity
780-530: Is no multiplicity in God's being. Aristotelian theological concepts were accepted by many later Jewish, Islamic, and Christian philosophers. Key Jewish philosophers included Samuel Ibn Tibbon , Maimonides , and Gersonides , among many others. Their views of God are considered mainstream by many Jews of all denominations even today. Preeminent among Islamic philosophers who were influenced by Aristotelian theology are Avicenna and Averroes . In Christian theology,
840-409: Is not strictly human: to achieve it means to live in accordance not with mortal thoughts, but something immortal and divine which is within humans. According to Aristotle, contemplation is the only type of happy activity which it would not be ridiculous to imagine the gods having. In Aristotle's psychology and biology, the intellect is the soul (see also eudaimonia ). According to Giovanni Reale ,
900-587: Is not, [and] also all things come to be out of that which is, but is potentially , and is not actually." That by which something is changed is the mover, that which is changed is the matter, and that into which it is changed is the form. Substance is necessarily composed of different elements. The proof for this is that there are things which are different from each other and that all things are composed of elements. Since elements combine to form composite substances, and because these substances differ from each other, there must be different elements: in other words, "b or
960-548: Is that of a particular ordering of natural objects, and the study of nature is the systematic investigation of that order". The idea of order in nature implied a structure to the physical world whereby relationships between objects could be defined. According to Harrison, the twelfth century marked an important time in the Christian era when the world became invested with its patterns of order—patterns based on networks of likeness or similarities among material things, which led to
1020-450: Is there, is of such a nature as not to occupy any place, nor does time age it; nor is there any change in any of the things which lie beyond the outermost motion; they continue through their entire duration unalterable and unmodified, living the best and most self sufficient of lives… From [the fulfilment of the whole heaven] derive the being and life which other things, some more or less articulately but other feebly, enjoy. The unmoved mover
1080-453: Is thought to rule and lead us by nature, and to have cognizance of what is noble and divine" is the highest activity, according to Aristotle (contemplation or speculative thinking, theōríā ). It is also the most sustainable, pleasant, self-sufficient activity; something which is aimed at for its own sake. (In contrast to politics and warfare, it does not involve doing things we'd rather not do, but rather something we do at our leisure.) This aim
1140-574: The Areopagus . Christian theologians viewed the Greeks as a pagan culture whose philosophers were obsessed with the wonders of the material, or the natural world. Observation and explanation of natural phenomena were of little value to the Church. Consequently, early Christian theologians dismissed Greek knowledge as perishable in contrast to actual knowledge derived from sacred Scripture. At the same time,
1200-511: The Primum Mobile turns diurnally and whereby all terrestrial cycles are driven: day and night, the seasons of the year, the transformation of the elements, and the nature of plants and animals. Aristotle begins by describing substance, of which he says there are three types: the sensible, which is subdivided into the perishable, which belongs to physics, and the eternal, which belongs to "another science". He notes that sensible substance
1260-613: The Royal Society to "explore the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of Gd [ sic ], as manifested in the Creation". At that time, nature and the divine were seen to be parallel. However, the concern that the two books would eventually collide was becoming increasingly evident among scholars, natural philosophers, and theologians, who saw the possibility of two separate and incompatible worlds—one determined to possess nature, and
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#17327732839611320-691: The active intellect . This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology . St. Thomas Aquinas , for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae . Aristotle argues, in Book 8 of the Physics and Book 12 of the Metaphysics , "that there must be an immortal, unchanging being, ultimately responsible for all wholeness and orderliness in
1380-548: The Book of Nature remained moored to the Christian faith and occupied a prominent location in Western culture alongside the Bible. Scientific philosophers such as Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton believed that nature could teach humans the breadth of work which God had carried out; Francis Bacon told his readers that they could never be too well-versed in the book of God’s Scripture or the book of God’s nature. The Book of Nature
1440-663: The Church Fathers needed, and did not inherit from the early Greek philosophers, was a method of interpreting the symbolic meanings embedded in the material world. According to Harrison, it was Church Father Origen in the third century who perfected a hermeneutical method that was first developed by the Platonists of the Alexandrian school by which the natural world could be persuaded to give up hidden meanings. In Christianity, early Church Fathers appeared to use
1500-430: The Church Fathers struggled with questions concerning the natural world and its creation that reflected the concerns of Greek philosophers. Despite their rejection of pagan thinking, the Church Fathers benefited from Greek dialectic and ontology by inheriting a technical language that could help express solutions to their concerns. As Peter Harrison observes, "In the application of the principles of pagan philosophy to
1560-422: The actions of the divine by observing and correctly interpreting natural phenomena, such as the motion and position of stars and planets. Efforts to analyze and understand divine intentions led mortals to believe that intervention and influence over godly acts were possible—either through religious persuasions, such as prayer and gifts, or through magic, which depended on sorcery and the manipulation of nature to bend
1620-632: The earliest Greek philosophers. Aristotle’s influence throughout Europe lasted centuries until the Enlightenment warranted fresh investigations of entrenched ideas. The Greeks constructed a view of the natural world in which all references to mythological origins and causes were removed. Greek philosophers inadvertently left the upper world vacant by abandoning ancient ties to free-acting, conspiring gods of nature. The new philosophy of nature made unseen mythological forces irrelevant. While some philosophers drifted toward atheism , others worked within
1680-649: The emerging disciplines of psychology and sociology led others to see religious belief as a temporary step in a society’s development rather than a central and essential element. By 1841, Auguste Comte proposed that empirical observation was the final culmination of human society. Gods of nature In religion , a nature deity is a deity in charge of forces of nature , such as water , biological processes , or weather . These deities can also govern natural features such as mountains, trees, or volcanoes. Accepted in panentheism , pantheism , deism , polytheism , animism , totemism , shamanism , and paganism ,
1740-416: The first Unmoved Mover is a living, thinking and personal God who "possesses the theoretical knowledge alone or in the highest degree...knows not only Himself, but all things in their causes and first principles." In Book VIII of his Physics, Aristotle examines the notions of change or motion, and attempts to show by a challenging argument, that the mere supposition of a 'before' and an 'after', requires
1800-408: The first time, the entire globe could be visited, revealing new natural wonders which had never been seen before. Ancient texts and doctrines were disputed, knowledge of the natural world was incomplete, interpretation of Christian Scripture was challenged, and Greek philosophy—which helped draft the Book of Nature—and Christian Scripture were viewed as fundamentally opposed. By this time, "Nature"
1860-717: The idea of a book of nature, librum naturae , as part of a two-book theology: "Among the Fathers of the Church, explicit references to the Book of Nature can be found, in St. Basil , St. Gregory of Nyssa , St. Augustine , John Cassian , St. John Chrysostom , Ephrem the Syrian , St. Maximus the Confessor ". St Augustine suggested that Nature and the Bible were a two-volume set of books written by God and filled with divine knowledge. By
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1920-402: The idea of approaching a knowledge of God through negative attributes. For example, we should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; all we can safely say is that God is not nonexistent. We should not say that God is wise; but, we can say that God is not ignorant (i.e. in some way God has some properties of knowledge). We should not say that God is One; but, we can state that there
1980-540: The key philosopher influenced by Aristotle was undoubtedly Thomas Aquinas . There had been earlier Aristotelian influences within Christianity (notably Anselm), but Aquinas (who, incidentally, found his Aristotelian influence via Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides) incorporated extensive Aristotelian ideas throughout his own theology. Through Aquinas and the Scholastic Christian theology of which he
2040-658: The late Greek schools were only the fruit of the seed sown by the generation which immediately preceded the Persian War. Aristotle's principles of being (see section above) influenced Anselm 's view of God, whom he called "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." Anselm thought that God did not feel emotions such as anger or love, but appeared to do so through our imperfect understanding. The incongruity of judging "being" against something that might not exist, may have led Anselm to his famous ontological argument for God's existence. Many medieval philosophers made use of
2100-562: The mathematicians differ on the number of movements, Aristotle considers that the number of celestial spheres would be 47 or 55. Nonetheless, he concludes his Metaphysics , Book Λ , with a quotation from the Iliad : "The rule of many is not good; one ruler let there be." John Burnet (1892) noted The Neoplatonists were quite justified in regarding themselves as the spiritual heirs of Pythagoras; and, in their hands, philosophy ceased to exist as such, and became theology. And this tendency
2160-423: The movement of the spheres; they were solely a constant inspiration, and even if taken for an efficient cause precisely due to being a final cause, the nature of the explanation is purely teleological. The unmoved mover, if they were anywhere, were said to fill the outer void, beyond the sphere of fixed stars: It is clear then that there is neither place, nor void, nor time, outside the heaven. Hence whatever
2220-534: The natural world. It is presumed, however, that Greek thought denied the existence of a natural world where causality was infinite, which gave rise to the notion of " first cause ", upon which the order of other causes must rely. The first contact between Christianity and Greek culture occurred in Athens in the first century CE. The Christian Scriptures note that within a few years of Christ ’s crucifixion, Paul and Silas were debating with Epicureans and Stoics at
2280-415: The nature deity can embody a number of archetypes including mother goddess , Mother Nature , or lord of the animals . First cause The unmoved mover ( Ancient Greek : ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ , romanized : ho ou kinoúmenon kineî , lit. 'that which moves without being moved') or prime mover ( Latin : primum movens ) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as
2340-447: The new philosophy of nature . As such, they began to conceptualize the natural world in more specific terms that aligned with a unique philosophy that viewed nature as immanent and where natural phenomena occurred by necessity. The Greek concept of nature, metaphorically expressed through the Book of Nature, gave birth to three philosophical traditions that became the wellspring for natural philosophy and early scientific thinking. Among
2400-407: The new philosophy to reconstitute the concept of a divine being. Consequently, the new outlook toward the natural world inspired the belief in one supreme force compatible with the new philosophy—in other words, monotheistic . However, the path from nature to rediscovering a divine being was uncertain. The belief in causality in nature implied an endless, interconnected chain of causation acting upon
2460-448: The only continuous change of place is circular motion. Therefore, there must be an eternal circular motion and this is confirmed by the fixed stars which are moved by the eternal actual substance that's purely actual. In Aristotle's estimation, an explanation without the temporal actuality and potentiality of an infinite locomotive chain is required for an eternal cosmos with neither beginning nor end: an unmoved eternal substance for whom
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2520-418: The other determined to uphold Christian faith. Works by scientists such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace began to show that nature may not reveal God, but may show that there is no god at all. Discoveries in paleontology led many to question the Christian scriptures and other divine beliefs. Scientists engaged in physical observation of nature separated themselves from spiritual issues. In contrast,
2580-491: The postulation of a first cause , an unmoved mover whose necessary existence underpins the ceaseless activity of the world of motion". Aristotle's "first philosophy", or Metaphysics (" after the Physics "), develops his peculiar theology of the prime mover, as πρῶτον κινοῦν ἀκίνητον : an independent divine eternal unchanging immaterial substance. Aristotle adopted the geometrical model of Eudoxus of Cnidus , to provide
2640-551: The raw materials of a faith, the content of which was expressed in those documents which were to become the New Testament , we can discern the beginnings of Christian theology." Eventually, Church Fathers would recognize the value of the natural world because it provided a means of deciphering God’s work and acquiring true knowledge of Him. God was believed to have infused the material world with symbolic meaning, which, if understood by man, reveals higher spiritual truths. What
2700-431: The real question is whether, given his definition of the efficient cause, it includes the unmoved mover willy-nilly. One curious fact remains: that Aristotle never acknowledges the alleged fact that the unmoved mover is an efficient cause (a problem of which Simplicius is well aware: 1363. 12–14)... Despite their apparent function in the celestial model, the unmoved movers were a final cause , not an efficient cause for
2760-417: The relationship between God and man’s knowledge of material things gave way to a world in which knowledge of the material world conveyed the knowledge of God. Whereas scholars and theologians once held a symbolist mentality of the natural world as expressive of spiritual realities, intellectual thinking now regarded nature as a "coherent entity which the senses could systematically investigate. The idea of nature
2820-563: The role of Nous in Anaxagoras , which require a good deal of reading between the lines. But he does point out rightly that the unmoved mover fits the definition of an efficient cause—"whence the first source of change or rest" ( Phys . II. 3, 194b29–30; Simpl. 1361. 12ff.). The examples which Aristotle adduces do not obviously suggest an application to the first unmoved mover, and it is at least possible that Aristotle originated his fourfold distinction without reference to such an entity. But
2880-547: The sense of being a final cause—which everyone in his day, as in ours, would accept—but also in the sense of being an efficient cause (1360. 24ff.), and his master Ammonius wrote a whole book defending the thesis (ibid. 1363. 8–10). Simplicius's arguments include citations of Plato 's views in the Timaeus —evidence not relevant to the debate unless one happens to believe in the essential harmony of Plato and Aristotle—and inferences from approving remarks which Aristotle makes about
2940-429: The sensible world". In the Physics (VIII 4–6) Aristotle finds "surprising difficulties" explaining even commonplace change, and in support of his approach of explanation by four causes , he required "a fair bit of technical machinery". This "machinery" includes potentiality and actuality , hylomorphism , the theory of categories , and "an audacious and intriguing argument, that the bare existence of change requires
3000-496: The three traditions inspired by Plato , Aristotle , and Pythagoras , the Aristotelian corpus became a pervasive force in natural philosophy until it was challenged in early modern times. Natural philosophy, which encompassed a body of work whose purpose was to describe and explain the natural world, derived its foremost authority in the medieval era from Christian interpretations of Aristotle, in which his natural philosophy
3060-477: The twelfth century, a renewed study of nature was beginning to emerge along with the recovered works of ancient philosophers, translated from Arabic to original Greek. The writings of Aristotle were seen as being among the most important of the ancient texts and had a remarkable influence among intellectuals. Interest in the material world, in conjunction with the doctrines of Aristotle, elevated sensory experience to new levels of importance. Earlier teachings concerning
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#17327732839613120-500: The unembellished basis of theology. As the whole of nature depends on the inspiration of the eternal unmoved movers, Aristotle was concerned to establish the metaphysical necessity of the perpetual motions of the heavens. It is through the seasonal action of the Sun upon the terrestrial spheres, that the cycles of generation and corruption give rise to all natural motion as efficient cause. The intellect, nous , "or whatever else it be that
3180-463: The unmoved movers, as best it can, by uniform circular motion . The first heaven, the outmost sphere of fixed stars, is moved by a desire to emulate the prime mover (first cause), in relation to whom, the subordinate movers suffer an accidental dependency. Many of Aristotle's contemporaries complained that oblivious, powerless gods are unsatisfactory. Nonetheless, it was a life which Aristotle enthusiastically endorsed as one most enviable and perfect,
3240-467: The will of the gods. Humans believed they could discover divine intentions through observing or manipulating the natural world. Thus, mankind had a reason to learn more about nature. Around the sixth century BCE, humanity’s relationship with the deities and nature began to change. Greek philosophers, such as Thales of Miletus, no longer viewed natural phenomena as the result of omnipotent gods. Instead, natural forces resided within nature, an integral part of
3300-420: Was a time when there was not motion, and never will be a time when there will not be motion. The purpose of Aristotle's cosmological argument , that at least one eternal unmoved mover must exist, is to support everyday change. Of things that exist, substances are the first. But if substances can, then all things can perish... and yet, time and change cannot. Now, the only continuous change is that of place, and
3360-720: Was at work all along; hardly a single Greek philosopher was wholly uninfluenced by it. Perhaps Aristotle might seem to be an exception; but it is probable that, if we still possessed a few such "exoteric" works as the Protreptikos in their entirety, we should find that the enthusiastic words in which he speaks of the " blessed life " in the Metaphysics and in the Ethics (Nicomachean Ethics) were less isolated outbursts of feeling than they appear now. In later days, Apollonios of Tyana showed in practice what this sort of thing must ultimately lead to. The theurgy and thaumaturgy of
3420-694: Was beginning to surface. The European Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment had begun, and many areas of tradition and knowledge were being challenged. More universities were being built across Europe, and the invention of the printing press meant scientific and artistic ideas could be exchanged more easily. Ancient philosophies and accepted writings such as those of Galen and Ptolemy were set aside, and more theories were being actively investigated. New technology and equipment, such as improved telescopes and microscopes, could be used to explore what had previously been taken for granted. Improved ships meant that, for
3480-408: Was moving from being seen as a personified, independent, active entity to being seen as an impersonal machine, such as by Kepler as a kind of clockwork. The Book of Nature was acquiring greater authority for its wisdom and as an unmediated source of natural and divine knowledge. Hands-on investigations, whether of the human body, horticulture, or the stars, were encouraged. As a source of revelation,
3540-477: Was seen as a way of learning more about God. The view of nature as divine revelation and the need for scientific research continued for several centuries. When the word scientist began to replace the term natural philosopher in the 1830s, the most talked-about scientific books in the UK were the eight-volume Bridgewater Treatises . These books, funded by the last Earl of Bridgewater , were written by men appointed by
3600-424: Was viewed as a doctrine intended to explain natural events in terms of readily understood causes. Aristotle reasoned that knowledge of natural phenomena was derived by abstraction from a sensory awareness of the natural world—in short, knowledge was obtained through sensory experience. A world constructed by abstract ideas alone could not exist. In his reasoning, the structures inherent in nature are revealed through
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