Abstract

From the point of view of the concept of culture, the age of the Anthropocene means that the old distinction between nature and culture is collapsing. Today, there is less and less wild and “untouched” nature on earth that could be cultivated by humans, but nature itself has become a cultural product. “Natural nature” is so exposed to human cultivation that the distinction between nature and culture is disappearing – with effects that cannot be foreseen today. This article shows the emergence and shifts of the aforementioned linguistic distinction in European intellectual history.