natura naturans
Nature actively creating
Natura naturans is a Latin philosophical term meaning "nature naturing"—nature as an active, creative force that produces and sustains all things.
The phrase contrasts with natura naturata ("nature natured"), which refers to the passive products of that creative force.
Spinoza made the distinction central to his philosophy, identifying natura naturans with God or substance itself.
The term appears in philosophical and theological discussions about whether nature is merely a collection of objects or an ongoing generative power: The pantheist sees natura naturans everywhere, not a clockwork universe but a living process.
- SpinozaDutch philosopher of monism
- creationMaking something exist
- immanenceQuality of residing within
- substancePhysical material with mass
- world-soulSpirit animating all existence
emergence · Neoplatonism · pantheism · emanation · causality · monism · self-organization · Goethe · Scholasticism · Aristotle · ontology · essence · Romanticism · dynamism · metaphysics · vitality · wholeness · force
- RationalismDescartes, cogito ergo sum, a priori, Spinoza, clear ideas
- SpinozaSpinoza, substance, attribute, mode, attributes
natura naturanscreatures
Animate beings, especially animals
natural products · phenomena · effects · modes · particulars
nature, natural, naturally, naturalness, naturalism, naturalist, naturalistic, naturalize, naturalization