Abstract

This work is an attempt to show the similarities between the concept of nature held by Eriugena and Heidegger. This similarity provides the basis for both a criticism of the view of nature held by recent epistemology and a criticism of recent epistemology's view of medieval thought. These criticisms open the way for a modern understanding of nature in terms of the Good, that is, a re-enchantment of nature. This re-enchantment centers upon the development of the modern sciences, both natural and historical, and the effect that these have had upon metaphysics. The re-enchantment of nature discussed in this work is not an attempt to dismiss modern science in favour of medieval science. Instead, it is an attempt to re-capture the notion that human nature or the self can only be understood in relation to the Good and, in so far as human nature is a part of nature itself, an understanding of the self in terms of the Good is also an understanding of nature in terms of the Good.