Definition of Naturalistic Fallacy
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Javier Navarro, in Apr. 2019
Fallacy is used to indicate that an argument is apparently valid. Fallacy is equivalent to sophistry and etymologically comes from the Latin fallacia and this from the verb falre, which means to deceive. On the other hand, in the terminology of the logic Fallacy is called the errors that are made in reasoning.
The naturalistic fallacy is a very common type of error in ethical argumentation
When it is stated that the homosexuality it is unnatural and because of that it is immoral a fallacious argument is being used. When you say that something is morally good because it is natural, you also incur a misleading argument. In short, the component of falsehood consists of starting from a concrete and objective reality and deducing from it a criterion moral about what should be correct.
In philosophical terms, the logical inconsistency of this fallacy is based on the fact that it is impossible to deduce the ought to be of something from its being. Philosophers like David Hume or Richard Pierce argue that ethical doctrines for which goodness is reducible to a natural property are incurring the naturalistic fallacy. On
synthesisTo affirm that what is natural equals good is an unfounded ethical assessment.To the margin of the strictly philosophical question, it must be borne in mind that this reasoning Inconsistent and misleading can be used for two different reasons. On the one hand, with the intention of deceiving or manipulating someone or, on the contrary, because its fallacious dimension is unknown and it is considered a valid form of argument.
The justification for slavery is a classic example of a naturalistic fallacy
For centuries the slavery it was considered a normal and morally accepted practice. Thus, there were powerful men of a supposedly superior race who subdued other men of races valued as inferior.
The phenomenon of slavery was socially accepted for several reasons: it was a tradition, was based on the "superiority" of some individuals over others, it was understood that the right property had to prevail over other individual rights and, lastly, the master was considered to act correctly because he took charge of an inferior being.
The submission of some people had become socially normalized and therefore seemed natural. Consequently, opposing slavery had an unnatural dimension and, in parallel, what went against the "natural" was considered something wrong from the point of view of morality.
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