Life processes, matter processes: the different meanings of nature among biologists and physicists

Abstract

We have applied the methodology of Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) analysis to compare the social representations related to the term nature in two groups of teachers-researchers - one of physicists and the other of biologists - from a Brazilian public university. Five classes of collective discourse were identified among the subjects researched, each one of them being expressed by both groups. Two discourses identified - which we labeled nature is the natural (DSC1) and nature is everything (DSC2) - associate nature to that which has not been touched or originally made by men (DSC1), and to everything that comprises the universe (DSC2). Although having more adherents in both groups, the first discourse had a more significant appeal among physicists; the second discourse, in its turn, was more frequent among biologists. Among the less frequent classes of discourse, one of them was characterized by the doubt of the subjects about the effective meaning of nature. The results were discussed under two approaches: (a) from the point of view of the relations between the terms nature and environment within environmental education, considering the social importance of scientists in the creation and transmission of knowledge related to this subject; and (b) from the point of view of the differences in philosophical foundations (ontological and epistemological) between the two groups of scientists of nature.