Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words "Phusis kruptesthai philei." How the aphorism, usually translated as "Nature loves to hide," has haunted Western culture ever since is the subject of this engaging study by Pierre Hadot. Taking the allegorical figure of the veiled goddess Isis as a guide, and drawing on the work of both the ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, Hadot traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words. Over time, Hadot finds, "Nature loves to hide" has meant that all that lives tends to die; that Nature wraps herself in myths; and (for Heidegger) that Being unveils as it veils itself. Meanwhile the pronouncement has been used to explain everything from the opacity of the natural world to our modern angst. From these kaleidoscopic exegeses and usages emerge two contradictory approaches to nature: the Promethean, or experimental-questing, approach, which embraces technology as a means of tearing the veil from Nature and revealing her secrets; and the Orphic, or contemplative-poetic, approach, according to which such a denuding of Nature is a grave trespass. In place of these two attitudes, Hadot proposes one suggested by the Romantic vision of Rousseau, Goethe, and Schelling, who saw in the veiled Isis an allegorical expression of the sublime. "Nature is art and art is nature," Hadot writes, inviting us to embrace Isis and all she represents: art makes us intensely aware of how completely we ourselves are not merely surrounded by nature but also part of nature.

作者皮埃尔•阿多（Pierre Hadot，1922—2010），法国20世纪著名哲学家、史学家与文献学家，法兰西学院荣誉教授。主要从事古希腊罗马思想研究，以研究古代哲学尤其是新柏拉图主义和斯多亚主义而闻名世界。阿多是福柯最欣赏的哲学家之一，也是最早把维特根斯坦介绍到法国的主要人物之一。他强调古代哲学并非一套理论学说，而是一种与生活方式、生命品质密切相关的精神修炼。代表著作：《精神修炼与古代哲学》、《古代哲学的智慧》、《作为生活方式的哲学》、《维特根斯坦和语言的界限》、《伊西斯的面纱》等。

译者张卜天，1979年生，中国科技大学物理学学士，北京大学科技哲学博士，现为中国科学院自然科学史研究所副研究员。研究方向为西方中世纪和近代早期科学思想史。著有《质的量化与运动的量化——14世纪经院自然哲学的运动学初探》，“机械论的起源、演变及其问题研究”课题获得2011年国家社会科学基金青年项目资助。主编“科学源流译丛”。主要译有《大问题——简明哲学导论》、《韦洛克拉丁语教程》、《世界图景的机械化》、《现代性的神学起源》、《科学革命的编史学研究》等二十余部著作。