9. The Appeal to Nature Fallacy | THUNK 

Hello! First time commenting, and I must say that I couldn't help myself. These videos are amazing. It's refreshing to hear a cry for logical debate, especially from someone with a sense of humor. I love your thoughts, I love your puns, I love your hats.

It´s very interesting to see that some fallacies are so entrenched in language. The OE Etymological Dictionary reports the word "unnatural" to come into English in the 15th century with the meaning of "not in accord with physical nature". Already in the 1520s it is attested the first use of the word meaning "at variance with moral standards". My guess is that this fallacy was already so popular that the word picked up the second meaning of "wrong" pretty fast. I wonder what other words and concepts similarly undermine our logical thought.

I started watching your videos from the beginning because why not in this quarantine times. I already rolling around the house, I can roll while watching. Anyways. I just wanted to say this was the funniest and relatable topic so far :D Thankss

What really, really, really drives me mad is when people complain about synthesized vitamins. Ascorbic acid from a chemical facility and the vitamin C in an Apple are identical. One is not different from another. And if juice-manufacturers put synthesized ascorbic acid in our juice, because most of the stuff was lost making the juice, that is pretty nice of them and not "bad". Same goes for many, many synthesized materials and chemicals, especially food-related stuff.

I have some difficulty telling this apart from what seems like a related fallacy, the naturalistic fallacy; which as I recall goes something like "that's how it is, therefore that's how it should be", which I also feel should be known as the "If it ain't broken, don't fix it"-fallacy.

Thank you ! I just discovered the channe, I'll continue to watch :) The concept of Nature (in french also) is very vague. This sounds very relevant to me, even if I don't understand everything. It reminds me Bruno Latour (french philosopher) critics about the link between nature and culture.

You should lengthen your videos, I'd say. Each time I end one of your videos I feel like we'd just gotten into the heart of the topic and my curiosity was really roused, when suddenly you're requesting comments in some whimsical manner.

And eating meat. People *always* use it to defend supporting an industry responsible for more suffering than any other in history.

I hold an aristotelian belief that everything has a purpose and that a purpose of something is determened by what makes that thing special, the purpose of humans is to perfect our minds and reason which make us nobler than other animals. Because of this, things that are artificial or unnatural actually appeal to me more.

I think deriving some ethical values from nature is not necessarily fallacious. I believe that the basis for what is "good" must come from what is good for mankind, since moral and ethical systems are essentially evolutionary memes that reward and perpetuate societies that use them. If a system of ethics forwards the cause of mankind more than another, then it is more good. Under this definition, it's clear that the best system of ethics is the one that directly works to improve mankind with relation to the nature of mankind, doing what is easiest and most utilitarian. So examining whether or not our psychology and physiology promote and reward a behavior is a critical factor in whether or not it is "good"

wow that is a good video. I think I'll watch more of ur stuff

Thank you, sir. Very good video.

Great video. Subbed :)

Great job.

3:11 i was waiting to hear how rape and bullying dont appeal to the naturalistic fallacy and yet i was told that rape and bullying dont happen in the animal kingdom. What? If you leave a baby in the woods? Were humans just made along with their houses?

Understanding that something is the result of millennia of evolution does not make it "right" or even "okay." What it does do is allows us to see that it is a "natural" tendency that requires discipline and thought to suppress, so that we can recognize that suppression and reward it appropriately, while still penalizing the failure to rise above our heredity.

Good work\

There are bad laws. For example extortion, deceptively renamed taxation. Which leads to, the next 8000 sentences.

Nature is generally better.

Toilet paper is bad if mass produced from brand new paper as opposed to recycled as more trees are cut down

I now have my video to go to when arguing with stupid people on the internet. Thank you!

there is nothing unnatural bcause there is nothing that can come from outside of nature because nature is everything because nature is a word and language is natural

Yeah, a lot non vegans LOVE the appeal to nature fallacy.

love the hat

This is my thoughts on nature, and has kinda always been! (im not english so might have some typos here and there) Anyways, I kinda look like at nature like a force that tries to create balance.. disases for instance, can be terrible and kill alot of people, like the black death.. But thanks to the black death we got more hospitals, healthier people, more functional homes, freedom of thoughs etc etc, so in the long run it can be a good thing to restore balance and push up futher! This ofc sounds fucking evil and to many like insanity.. But I look at it as a needed part of nature. This is why im sceptical to curing canser..

but if something exists..technically it is "natural"