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Naturalistic Fallacy & Moralistic Fallacy A version of the naturalistic fallacy is that if something occurs naturally it must be intrinsically good or right. For instance, if animals roam wild (or live in free range enclosures) it is all right to eat them. Conversely, if something does not occur naturally it is intrinsically bad or wrong. For instance, people may think that additives in food are bad because industry and commerce have put them there.
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A free-ranging belled moose for the table, with dairymaid at the Kostroma Moose Farm, Russia. Photo: Alexander Minaev.
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A more technical version of the naturalistic fallacy goes back to the early 20th century British philosopher G E Moore. He was arguing about what 'good' means and claimed that good cannot be analysed. Good, like an atom, does not break down into other elements that can describe it. If you try to define or analyse good, and other such words, you commit a fallacy, what he called the naturalistic fallacy.
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G E Moore. He flourished in 1930's Britain.
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The moralistic fallacy turns the naturalistic fallacy on its head. Instead of 'if it is natural it must be morally good or right', you get 'if it is morally good or right it must be natural'. For example, the attitude that it is morally good and right that herbivores should be free to graze was prevalent in the United States for most of the 20th century. However, as a consequence people shot, trapped and poisoned as an evil almost the entire US wolf population. In the era of ecology and conservation it is difficult to understand this kind of attitude to animals. Not only was this purposeful extermination but without their predator the herbivore population shot up, ate everything in sight and nearly died off from starvation. The moralistic fallacy was a tragedy to both wolves and herbivores. A little consolation is that since the 1980's American attitudes have changed somewhat. Conservationists began reintroducing wolves, laws exist now to protect them and herbivore numbers have stabilised.
Related to the naturalistic fallacy and sometimes confused with it is the is-ought fallacy.
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