Appeal to Nature: Difference between revisions

=== '''[[wikipedia:Appeal to nature|Appeal To Nature]]''': ===

==== Also called ====

* Natural Law Fallacy

:: This fallacy involves assuming something is good or correct on the basis that it happens in nature, is bad because it does not, or that something is good because it "comes naturally" in some way. This is fallacious because it turns "natural" into an ideal state without any meaningful reason, effectively using it as a synonym for "desirable" or "normal."

== [[Literature]] ==

* Here's an example from [[The Bible]] commonly used to demonstrate why one should always interpret its passages carefully: [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2017:8&version=NIV1984 Proverbs 17:8] tells us that bribery works. [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Whoa! The Bible is telling us to bribe people?]] [[Exact Words|Um, no, pay attention.]] What Proverbs 17:8 tells us is that bribery ''works''. It doesn't say that ''therefore we should'' bribe people to be successful. Yes, this passage might be a rather cynical observation, but that's all it is: an observation.

** Similarly, the popular drinks Scumble (made of "mostly apples") and Splot containing such vaguely defined ingredients as "tree bark" and "naturally occuring mineral salts".

** Pratchett has a lot of fun with this trope; both Verence and his wife Magrat fall prey to it on a regular basis, usually for the worse (in Witches Abroad, teetotaller and lightweight Magrat drinks a third of a bottle of absinthe because she vaguely recognizes it as involving wormwood, after which point she, Granny Weatherwax, and Nanny Ogg start calling it "herbal wine"). In another book, Ankh-Morpork's notorious CMOT Dibbler is making himself a killing off a particularly desperate dandruff sufferer selling herbal shampoo "now with more herbs!" One character notes, "throw a bunch of weeds in the pot and you've got herbs."

 

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==