ABSTRACT
Nature can be understood to have acquired its perfection through a natural selection that rationalizes biological systems far more ruthlessly than any engineer could. Nature is both rational and normative. Charles Walters sees nature as a rationally designed, self-perpetuating system, requiring the involvement of humans. Walters’ divergence from Charles Darwin’s view of nature reflects his concern with first causes and ultimate origins. Wild nature is seen as a well-run factory in which waste products are efficiently recycled and long-term sustainability assured through exclusive use of renewable inputs. Indeed he sees greater goodness in nature than do either of the other two writers and relies more on it in presenting a plausible case for human progress. Seeing problems in nature as economic problems contributes to their solution, for if problems are essentially economic, the conditions for their solution have exclusively to do with constraints imposed by the economic environment.
