Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The naturalistic fallacy appears to be ubiquitous and irresistible. The avant-garde and the rearguard, the devout and the secular, the learned elite and the lay public all seem to want to enlist nature on their side, everywhere and always. Yet a closer look at the history of the term "naturalistic fallacy" and its associated arguments suggests that this way of understanding (and criticizing) appeals to nature's authority in human affairs is of relatively modern origin. To apply this category cross-historically masks considerable variability and naturalizes our own assumptions about the natural and the human.
Source: Isis
DOI: 10.1086/678173
Author: Lorraine Daston
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2054625411