Nature is the mother and the habitat of man, even if sometimes a stepmother and an unfriendly home.

The line frames Dewey’s naturalism in deliberately ambivalent terms. Nature is our origin (“mother”) and our dwelling place (“habitat”), meaning human life, culture, and intelligence are continuous with the natural world rather than set apart from it. Yet nature can also be indifferent or hostile (“stepmother,” “unfriendly home”), underscoring that the environment does not exist to serve human purposes. The tension points to a pragmatic task: humans must learn, inquire, and cooperate to adapt to and reshape conditions without imagining a providentially benevolent universe. It captures Dewey’s view that meaning and security are achieved through intelligent action within nature, not by escaping it.