An evolutionary perspective, combining theory and empirical testing, is the only view of nature that a present-day natural scientist can honestly take. This leads to a very far-reaching circular relationship between nature and our concepts of nature, since ultimately, from an evolutionary perspective, our concepts of nature are in fact nature's concepts of itself We will look at some of the consequences of the peculiar relationship from an evolutionary, an ecological, a cultural, an anthropological and finally from a bioethical perspective, going full circle from the nature of humanity as a geological species to the humanistic responsibility for nature in general and for human nature in particular, which derives from these insights into humankind's place in nature.
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