Natural

I was thinking just this morning that this would make a good topic for almost a whole course. It might need some linguistics as well as philosophy. Jason

(I don’t know if this belongs on this page or the other one, but I’ll put it here since the other one’s getting a bit long, feel free to move it if you can find a better place, anyone). When I used the word natural on the other page, I think I was trying for a descriptive explanation rather than an ethical argument - I was explaining why we do eat meat, rather than why we should. I’ll try for a breakdown of my argument:

-1) Because cows (for example) are useful to humans, we protect them from diseases, other predators, habitat destruction etc. There would be no reason for us to do this if they weren’t useful to us, therefore their usefulness to humans is good for cows, as a species. -2) Cow-like animals in the wild often die after being hunted by other animals (or killed by scavengers after succumbing to disease or injury) - it is not particularly nice. Therefore, if their domestic life and death can be made better than this, then their use by humans is good for cows as individuals. -C) Therefore, providing we can provide a decent environment for them, there’s no ethical reason why we shouldn’t raise and eat animals, and a number of biological (ie, “natural”), historical and cultural reasons why we do (not “should”).

Now, there are two possible objections I see to premise 2. Firstly, it’s obvious that we don’t always provide domestic animals with good conditions, but I think that’s a reason to improve conditions rather than to get rid of domestic animals altogether. Secondly, I don’t think premise 2 would fly with humans, because (some) humans value things like self-determination rather than just quality of life. But I don’t think farm animals have those values. {[purple -D ]}

[[crimson In response to the question ‘What is natural’ I would consider ‘natural’ those actions that are innate, rather than philosophically considered. The actions of man or animal that are instinctive, perhaps related to survival, but not judgmental or abstractly reasoned. Plants growing, eating because of hunger, killing to defend an immediate threat to your life, or doing the things essential to survival, I would consider natural. I would suggest natural can be judged by the human reasoning process, but a natural action is not reasoned.V ]]