Views on Nature in Metaphorical Discourse

Depending on context, we use the word “nature” to refer to many different sorts of things; living animals as well as non-biological matter may be relevant. For some people, e.g., in poetry and in the New-Age movement,1 nature is a living being with omnipotent qualities, e.g., the character of being a living totality with rationality. For others, nature is more tied to everyday life; biologists consider nature as an ecosystem, industrialists look at it as a resource, the hunter experiences its wildlife and the artist discover its forms. To me, nature does not denote a definite object, but rather a fascinating cacophony of conceptions. In this article, I discuss some conceptions that manifest themselves in the Swedish discourse on nature.2 The purpose is to demonstrate, on the one hand, the heterogeneous character of views