When our interests or the interests of those we care for will be hurt, we do not recognize a moral obligation to “let nature take its course,” but when we do not want to be bothered with an obligation, “that’s just the way the world works” provides a handy excuse.
Stephen Sapontzis, ‘Predation’, Ethics and Animals, vol. 5, no. 2 (1984), p. 29
Nature, even human nature, will cease more and more to be an absolute datum: more and more, it will become what scientific manipulation has made it.
Bertrand Russell, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, London, 1961, p. 371
A distinction is sometimes drawn between ‘man-made’ famines and famines caused by nature. […] Blaming nature can, of course, be very consoling and comforting. It can be of great use especially to those in positions of power and responsibility. Comfortable inaction is, however, typically purchased at a very heavy price—a price that is paid by others, often with their lives.
Jean Drèze & Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action, Oxford, 1989, pp. 46-47
Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder.
Nick Bostrom, ‘In Defense of Posthuman Dignity’, Bioethics, vol. 19, no. 3 (June, 2005), p. 211
De la palabra naturaleza puede observarse lo que Hegel señalaba para la expresión derecho de naturaleza, a saber: que se presenta en la historia de la filosofía como un vocablo equívoco que confunde los dos significados muy diversos de realidad inmediata y de término de aspiración ideal. Los cínicos han sido los primeros en fundar sobre la mal definida noción de lo natural las dos nociones de lo primitivo y de lo ejemplar, de lo originario y de lo ideal, de lo inicial y de lo final.
Rodolfo Mondolfo, Rousseau y la conciencia moderna, Buenos Aires, 1962, pp. 19-20