Physis (φύσις) — “Nature” — both the totality of natural things and the process of birth and growth (phyein = to sprout). For the pre-Socratics, physis is the totality of the real and its immanent principle. For the Sophists, physis is contrasted with nomos (convention): what is natural is universal, what is conventional is variable. Aristotle defines nature as the internal principle of movement and rest in beings. Heidegger returns to the pre-Socratic meaning: physis as emergence, the vigor of being.
← Glossary