SOME SENSES OF NATURE

1. The outdoors -- Nature-lover
   
   
2. Everything that exists -- translation of Aristotle's physis.
   
   
3. What a thing is -- its nature. We use the term as synonymous for "essence". The characteristics of an individual.
   
   
4. What a group of things is like. We speak of "Human nature" as distinct from an individual's nature. The characteristics of a universal.
   
   
5. Our biological heredity -- Nature vs. Nurture.
   
   
6. That which has not been affected by humans -- "Natural" vs. "Artificial"
   
   
7. What humans would be, without our institutions like government or the church -- State of Nature
   
   
8. Everything about humans that does not have to do with our rational selves. It starts from the conviction that emotions or will are "natural" and reason is a veneer over our true selves.
   
   
9. The human and material world, as opposed to the divine realm.
   
   
10. An animating force of all life -- Mother Nature.