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Stealing from another response: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural only one sub-item of thes

Stealing from another response: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural only one sub-item of these fifteen definitions of "natural" mentions a difference between human vs non-human. Lets look at the definition for nature: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nature https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nature Definition 2b is succint: "an inner force (such as instinct, appetite, desire) or the sum of such forces in an individual" According to this, of course, something like murder is quite natural. Is the stranger giving you directions not following that "nature" within which makes him help you for nothing in return? Is your request for help not a natural thing? Ultimately, I don't like arguments about definitions, because I think they're a cheap way out: "x is (not) bad because its y"; they also force discussions about all the wrong things, ignoring the core of what both parties care about regarding the issue.

jerry1979 6y ago
In my previous post I mentioned that I want to separate human actions from animal actions, and that we can actually do that using some sort of test. We have used the word "natural" and "unnatural" to talk about this difference, but I also used lots of other words. I want to find what essential quality separates people actions from animal actions. It seems to me that all unnatural things got "affected by human discernment". Using that rubric, I find it interesting that all of the definitions of "natural" you provided fall into those categories of either "fundamentally affected" or "not affected" by human discernment where things left in their base state we call "natural" and things left in their affected state we call "unnatural". Examples: 1. Natural justice - that humans have a kind of justice beyond what nature provide which also implies that humans have sussed out the various justices allotted by nature. 3. Adopted vs natural child - human convention creates long-lasting parent-child relationships without a birth connection. 10. Growing without human care 13. (a) Closely resembling an original, (b) freedom from artificiality -- both of which require a human to create the artificiality.

jerry1979 6y ago

In my previous post I mentioned that I want to separate human actions from animal actions, and that we can actually do that using some sort of test. We have used the word "natural" and "unnatural" to talk about this difference, but I also used lots of other words. I want to find what essential quality separates people actions from animal actions. It seems to me that all unnatural things got "affected by human discernment". Using that rubric, I find it interesting that all of the definitions of "natural" you provided fall into those categories of either "fundamentally affected" or "not affected" by human discernment where things left in their base state we call "natural" and things left in their affected state we call "unnatural". Examples: 1. Natural justice - that humans have a kind of justice beyond what nature provide which also implies that humans have sussed out the various justices allotted by nature. 3. Adopted vs natural child - human convention creates long-lasting parent-child relationships without a birth connection. 10. Growing without human care 13. (a) Closely resembling an original, (b) freedom from artificiality -- both of which require a human to create the artificiality.