Physis (φύσις) is a Greek theological, philosophical, and scientific term usually translated into English as "nature". Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Nature, in the broadest sense is equivalent to the natural world, physical universe, material world or material universe. In the Odyssey, Homer uses the word once (its earliest known occurrence), referring to the intrinsic way of growth of a particular species of plant. The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the ^[1] In other very early uses it had such a meaning: related to the natural growing of plants, animals, and other features of the world as they tend to develop without external influence. But in the pre-Socratic philosophers it developed a complex of other meanings. The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously but expounding knowledge developed earlier ^[2]

Since Aristotle, the physical (the subject matter of physics, properly τὰ φυσικά "natural things") has often been contrasted with metaphysical (the subject of metaphysics), discussed in Aritotle's works so titled, Physics and Metaphysics. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Physics (or "Physica" or "Physicae Auscultationes" meaning "lessons" is a key text in the philosophy of Aristotle. Metaphysics is one of the principal works of Aristotle and the first major work of the branch of philosophy with the same name

"Physis" was understood by Thoreau as coming from darkness into light, biologically, cosmically, cognitively. (Walden Pond, 'Spring')

Leo Strauss felt this was a sign of something new in the world which the Greeks discovered – something distinct from the concept of a "way" general to other cultures. Leo Strauss (September 20 1899 &ndash October 18 1973 was a German -born Jewish-American political philosopher who specialized in the study of classical (See also dharma and tao, for the development of related notions in other cultures. The Sanskrit term ( Devanāgarī: धर्म Pali transliteration dhamma) is an Indian spiritual and religious Tao ( 道, Pinyin Dào) is a metaphysical concept found in Taoism, Confucianism, and more generally in ancient Chinese philosophy )

In medicine the element -physis occurs in such compounds as symphysis, epiphysis, and a few others, in the sense of a growing. A symphysis is a fibrocartilaginous fusion between two bones It is a type of Cartilaginous joint. Epiphysis is the name for a rounded end of a long Bone. The epiphysis is filled with red Bone marrow, which produces Erythrocytes, or red blood cells The physis also refers to the "growth plate," or site of growth at the end of long bones. The epiphyseal plate (or epiphysial plate, physis, or growth plate) is a hyaline Cartilage plate in the metaphyses of children and

Notes

1. ^ Homer's text: ὣς ἄρα φωνήσας πόρε φάρμακον ἀργεϊφόντης ἐκ γαίης ἐρύσας, καί μοι φύσιν αὐτοῦ ἔδειξε. (So saying, Argeiphontes [=Hermes] gave me the herb, drawing it from the ground, and showed me its nature. ) Odyssey 10. The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. 302-3 (ed. A. T. Murray).
2. ^ A useful though somewhat erratically presented account of the pre-Socratic use of the concept of φύσις may be found in Naddaf, Gerard The Greek Concept of Nature, SUNY Press, 2006. The word φύσις occurs very early in Greek philosophy, and in several senses. Generally, these senses match rather well the current senses in which the English word nature is used, as confirmed by Guthrie, W. K. C. Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (volume 2 of his History of Greek Philosophy), Cambridge UP, 1965. The etymology of the word "physical" shows its use as a synonym for "natural" in about the mid-15th century: Harper, Douglas. Physical. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on September 20, 2006. .

See also

• Nature
• Nature (philosophy)
• Physics
• Philosophy of physics
• Ontology