nature

   While the word 'nature' has multiple meanings, perhaps its commonest use in philosophy is to identify the set of kind-essential properties, a kind essence, that make something what it is. For instance, to be human is to exemplify a human nature (that is, the necessary set of properties that jointly make something human). One might think it is not possible to have more than one nature, but Christian theologians have commonly agreed that in the incarnation Jesus Christ exemplifies two natures - the divine nature necessarily and the human nature contingently. The existence of natures has multiple repercussions for theology, and not just for Chalcedonian orthodoxy. For instance, in theological anthropology one often hears discussion of a 'fallen human nature'. Taken literally, however, this would mean that fallen humans belong to a different kind essence from redeemed humans, and thus that a human being becomes of a different kind at redemption or glorification. While many philosophers are sceptical of the existence of natures - often dismissing them as linguistic constructs - the biblical claim that humans are made in the divine image is interpreted by many Christian philosophers as implying that there is a mind-independent human nature.

   See conceptualism; universals

   Further reading: Forbes 1985; Plantinga 1974b