‘Nature'

Mill’s essay, ‘Nature’, one of the few undoubted classics of environmental philosophy, was originally published as one of three essays on religion. Mill wanted to refute the view that the workings of nature can provide good reasons for believing in the existence of a benevolent creator. He also considered that a religion-based view of the goodness of nature was an obstacle to necessary attempts to improve nature. In this Reading, ^* Mill makes a distinction between two different senses of the word ‘nature’, and argues that in neither sense is it rational to take nature as a guide to be followed by human beings.