“Cities are no more artificial than the hives of bees” — John Gray (Straw Dogs)
I often find myself confused by what people mean when they say that something that exists is unnatural. Are genetically modified foods ‘unnatural’? What about clothing? Music? Dogs?
One definition I saw for natural is: Existing in or caused by nature; not made or caused by humankind. What about things that were made by non-human sentients? Why draw the line at humans? And if humans naturally came to exist, shouldn’t we think of what they create as natural? What is special about conscious design? Do we even know what would exist right now if the world had been free from human intervention?
An alternative is to think of anything that doesn’t actually exist as unnatural (counterfactual worlds). Is there more utility with the current definition?
I take “natural” to mean “works with nature rather than against it”. It might be made by humans and still be natural, but GMOs, which are harmful to human and animal and insect life and to the environment, are definitely unnatural.
Western science has had a “man against nature” or “man was created to conquer nature” bias going back at least as far as Francis Bacon. In this view, what is man-made is necessarily superior to anything found in nature because God gave us stewardship over everything earthly. So, for instance, in the heyday of “Better Living Through Science!” some guys could get together in a lab and mix evaporated cow’s milk and corn syrup and some vitamins and think their infant formula was superior to the milk that millions of years of evolution had devised. Only an implicit if unstated religious belief could give someone so much hubris as to believe such a thing. But these errors of hubris go on constantly even today.
I think it’s in response to that hubris that the adoration of “natural” things arose, and although the definition of “natural” may be hard to pin down I think the movement in general has been hugely beneficial. Organic farming, natural childbirth, nutrition as therapy, breastfeeding, environmentalism, attachment parenting, etc are all examples of the “respect for nature” backlash against this “man shall conquer all” mindset.
I don’t think the definition is binary… e.g. with dogs, I don’t think the domestication of dogs in general is unnatural, but we are now going to extremes in breeding and we’re creating inbred, sickly, dependent animals which definitely seem unnatural. Things fall on a spectrum….