View source for Back to nature

{{short description|Lifestyle or philosophy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2019}}
[[File:Bench - Returning to Nature (2665084556).jpg|thumb|right]]
'''Back to nature''' or '''return to nature''' is a philosophy or style of living which emphasises closeness to [[nature]], rather than artifice and civilisation.  In this, the rustic customs and pastoralism of country life are preferred to urban fashion and sophistication.{{r|Baker|Dallmayr|Schmitt|Watson}}

At the end of the nineteenth century, a variety of back to nature movements developed in Germany which were collectively known as ''[[Lebensreform]]'' (life reform).  These included [[naturism]] and [[naturopathy]].{{r|Sharma}}
== Notable exponents ==

* [[Diogenes]] and other [[cynicism (philosophy)|cynic]]s who advocated the simple, shameless lifestyle of a dog
* [[Henry David Thoreau]], who spent two years living a [[simple life]] in a [[log cabin]] at [[Walden Pond]]
* [[John Zerzan]], an [[anarcho-primitivist]] who thinks that symbolic culture such as language is a barrier to the direct experience of nature{{r|Morris}}
* [[Ted Kaczynski]], a mathematician who opposed industrial society as the [[Unabomber]]

== See also ==
*[[Back-to-the-land movement]]
*[[Rewilding (conservation biology)]]

==References==
{{reflist |refs=
<ref name=Baker>{{citation |title=ReWild: The Art of Returning to Nature |first=Nick |last=Baker |publisher=Aurum Press |year=2017 |isbn=9781781317358}}</ref>
<ref name=Dallmayr>{{citation |title=Return to Nature?: An Ecological Counterhistory |first=Fred Reinhard |last=Dallmayr |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2011 |isbn=9780813134338}}</ref>
<ref name=Schmitt>{{citation |title=Back to nature: the Arcadian myth in urban America |first=Peter J. |last=Schmitt |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1990 |isbn=9780801840135}}</ref>
<ref name=Watson>{{citation |title=Back to Nature: The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance |first=Robert N. |last=Watson |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780812204254}}</ref>
<ref name=Morris>{{citation |last=Morris |first=Brian |page=428 |title=Anthropology and the Human Subject |date=2014 |publisher=Trafford Publishing |isbn=978-1-4907-3104-9 |language=en}}</ref>
<ref name=Sharma>{{citation |last=Sharma |first=Avi |date=22 February 2012 |title=Wilhelmine nature: natural lifestyle and practical politics in the German Life-reform movement (1890–1914) |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03071022.2011.651583 |journal=Social History |language=en |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=36–54 |doi=10.1080/03071022.2011.651583 |issn=0307-1022}}</ref>
}}

[[Category:Nature]]
[[Category:Philosophy of life]]
[[Category:Simple living]]


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