近代思想史に於ける自然の問題

Abstract

In the history of modern thought we find two different conceptions of 'nature', one which is religious and another which is humanistic. The religious conception of 'nature' is a legacy from medieval theology; whereas the humanistic conception of 'nature' is the restoration of the Greek idea of 'nature' made at the time the Renaissance. According to the teachings of Christianity, man, created after the likeness of God, is endowed with freedom, but his nature has been corrupted through his fall. On the contrary, the belief in the goodness and harmony of nature is a characteristic of Greek philosophy as well as of Greek culture, and modern Humanism is nothing but a revival of this belief. These two conceptions of 'nature', although contrary to each other in principle, have been working through their mutual interaction to the development of modern philosophy as well as of religion. The philosophy of natural law, as advocated by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, assumes the state of nature as the primary condition of man; but at the same time, in order to uphold and explain the elevation of man's morality as well as his happiness, it has to acknowledge its transition to the state of civil society. Therefore, this theory supposes that the movement of self-transcendence is inherent in nature itself, although the transcendence remains incomplete because of its optimistic view of human nature. Luther and Pascal, on the contrary, found the culmination of moral elevation and of man's salvation in supernatural faith. The development of modern philosophy and religion can be described as a sort of arduous effort to create a synthesis of both conceptions, the natural and the supernatural.