Comment by MaxChaplin on 17/02/2025 at 14:19 UTC

3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: There Is Nothing Natural

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The problem here is that it makes the word "natural" meaningless, even though it's useful in many cases. For example, if someone is talking about a natural nuclear fission reactor, you know they're not talking about a power plant. If a landlord promised natural light, you're probably expecting sunlight from a window, not light bulbs.

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Comment by mdavey74 at 17/02/2025 at 16:04 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Sure, I think there’s two different dichotomies in play here. One is natural/unnatural which I’m claiming is false because there is only the natural world that exists and ‘unnatural’ is just a placeholder for something we don’t understand. The other is natural vs artificial, where artificial is something created by modern human beings and it explicitly excludes everything else.