Translated by Thomas Sheehan1
[309 {GA 9 239}] The Romans translated φύσις by the word natura. Natura comes from nasci, "to be born, to originate . . ." as in the Greek root γεν-. Natura means "that which lets something originate from itself."
Since those times "nature" has become the fundamental word that designates essential relations that Western historical humanity has to beings, both to itself and to beings other than itself. This fact is shown by a rough list of dichotomies that have become prevalent: nature and grace (i.e., super-nature), nature and art, nature and history, nature and spirit. But we likewise speak of the "nature" of spirit, the "nature" of history, and the "nature" of the human being. By this last phrase we mean not just one's body or even the species "human," but one's whole essence. Therefore generally when we speak of the "nature of things," we mean what things are in their "possibility" and how they are, regardless of whether and to what degree they "actually" are.
In Christian thought, the human being's "natural state" means what is bestowed upon humans in creation and turned over to their freedom. Left to itself, this "nature," through the passions, brings about the total destruction of the human being. For this reason "nature" must be suppressed. It is in a certain sense what should not be.
In another interpretation, it is precisely the unleashing of the drives and passions that is natural for human beings. According to Nietzsche, homo naturae is someone who makes the "body" the key to the interpretation of the world and who thus secures a new and harmonious relation to the "sensible" in general, to the "elements" (fire, water, earth, light), to the passions and drives and whatever is conditioned by them. And at the same time, in virtue of this new relation these people bring "the elemental" into their power [310] and by this power make themselves capable of the mastery of the world in the sense of a systematic world-domination.
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