It is hard to define Nature. And it has been captured in philosophic thought in many different ways. How we see nature, however, affects how we see Natural Systems or Environmental Systems.
Ducarme and Duvet provide an overview of (Western) concepts of nature and of how the understanding of nature has evolved in (Western) philsophic thought and discourse. Due to the manyfolded and broad understanding of Nature, they "advocate a “wise use” of the term, in the light of its semantic complexity, backed up with clear definition in context and, when needed, replaced by more precise scientific concepts such as “biodiversity”, “evolution”, “ecosystem”, “landscape”, “wildness”, “population”, “community”, etc. (Source: Ducarme, F., Couvet, D. What does ‘nature’ mean?. Palgrave Commun 6, 14 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0390-y, consulted 9 July 2025).
Working meaningfully with Natural Systems requires to be more specific about the functions in focus of the system and the context in which it exists and operates. And even then, the choices and distinctions could have been different, always.
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