ABSTRACT
In the system formed by this interaction, the environment can be thought to represent matter. In that sense, even our body can be considered an extension of the environment. By contrast, the living thing represents life or spirit.61 Thus, to regard the environment as an extension of the organism is to assimilate the environment into the domain of the living thing. Yet questions relating to organisms and the environment have been considered in terms of physical properties of the environment, not in terms of life. This too is a valid method of biological research. A view of nature from the standpoint of living things rather than the environment, cannot be applied
indiscriminately to all living things. For lower animals or plants, with whose lives we have very limited empathetic understanding, it is legitimate to express their lives through the physical characteristics of the environment. However, can we say that the view of a living thing which is, so to speak, translated and defined in terms of the environment, truly representative of the actual living thing? Although living things cannot freely create or transform their environment, neither are they entirely controlled by it. Rather, from their respective points of view, they continuously act on and try to control the environment. If living things were simply swept along by the environment, we would not need to recognize their autonomy and independence - they would be nothing more than automata.
