SOURCE: O'Meara, Dominic J. “The Concept of Natura in John Scottus Eriugena (De divisione naturae Book I).” Vivarium 19, no. 2 (November 1981): 126-45.

In the following essay, O'Meara explains Eriugena's use of the word natura and considers his purpose in describing a fourfold division of it.

The first book of John Scottus Eriugena's great philosophical dialogue, the De Divisione Naturae, begins as follows:

MASTER.

 As I frequently ponder and … carefully investigate the fact that the first and fundamental division of all things which either can be grasped by the mind or lie beyond its grasp is into those that are and those that are not, there comes to mind as a general term for them all what in Greek is called φύσιs and in Latin Natura. Or do you think otherwise? 

PUPIL.

No, I agree. For I too, when I enter upon the path of reasoning, find that this is...