Appeal to nature

Overview

An appeal to nature is a claim that something is good or right because it is "natural", or that something is bad or wrong because it is unnatural.

This equation is generally regarded as a fallacy (it is also known as the "naturalistic fallacy") for the following reasons:

• Most of civilization is inherently "unnatural", e.g. wearing clothes.
  • Any argument based on the assumption that "unnatural" means "bad" therefore must grant that wearing clothing is wrong.
  • Any discussion in which this argument is used is maligning the framework of civil discourse in which the discussion is taking place; hitting the other person over the head with a rock is therefore an appropriate rebuttal, since it is an entirely natural response.
• The large number of obvious counterexamples. You wouldn't, say, defend a shark's right to attack swimmers (much less a vicious dog's right to maim children) just because that was its natural tendency, or make laws requiring that people behave more like chimpanzees.

Validity

As with many fallacies, there is a grain of validity to it – in this case, the fact that if something is done in nature, it may be somehow vital to survival, otherwise known as the argument from survival.

Reference

• Wikipedia