Nature as science of culture ; Nature comme science de la culture

International audience ; This article is a presentation of the notion of nature from a historical, cultural and epistemological perspective, for the book Atlas des sciences de la culture.The modern representation of nature, which emerged in the West during the Renaissance, refers to the trend that led to positivism and the natural sciences in the sense of Naturwissenschaften, which range from physics to biology, including chemistry, geology and so on. In the 20th century, however, the dependence of the knowledge built up by the various Naturwissenschaften on the social framework in which they were developed began to be studied. These science studies highlighted the imperfections of the modern vision. This was concomitant with neoliberalism and globalisation, and the theory of ecosystem services, which envisages thinking of nature as an economic resource whose value is given by the market. The liberal economy would gradually establish a utility function for living things. However, philosophies of nature were turned upside down by the discovery of the combinatorial properties of genome molecules, a veritable revolution. This article takes a closer look at this break with the past and its consequences, such as the new ancillary role of mathematics. ; Cet article est une présentation de la notion de nature sous l’angle historique, culturel et épistémologique, destiné à l’ouvrage Atlas des sciences de la culture.La représentation moderne de la nature, apparue à la Renaissance en Occident, désigne le courant qui débouche sur le positivisme et les sciences de la nature au sens de Naturwissenschaften, qui vont de la physique à la biologie en passant par la chimie, la géologie, etc. Au 20ème siècle cependant, commence à être étudiée la dépendance des connaissances construites par les diverses Naturwissenschaften vis-à-vis du cadre social dans lequel elles ont été élaborées. Ces science studies mettent en lumière les imperfections de la vision moderne. Ce fut concomitant avec le néolibéralisme et la globalisation, et la ...