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WillowOne's Positions

Appeal to Nature

Type

Informal

AKA

Naturalistic Fallacy, Is-Ought Fallacy (related)

Description

Arguing that something is good or right because it is natural, or bad because it is unnatural.

Examples

  • "Homoeopathy must work—it’s all-natural."
  • "Vaccines are bad because they are artificial."
  • "Marriage has always been between a man and a woman; it's natural." (See Gay Marriage.)

Notes

  • Arsenic, smallpox, and drowning are natural. Anaesthesia, spectacles, and clean water are not. "Natural" tells you where a thing came from, not whether it is good for you.
  • The fallacy is a special case of the Is–ought problem: a fact about origins is being asked to deliver a conclusion about value, and no fact can do that on its own.

Also see

#fallacy