BothAndBlog Forum

What are the definitions of natural and unnatural? How can anything be unnatural?

Why are they natural, but human buildings are unnatural? — TiredOfYall

Bird's nests are Natural, because they are "designed" by evolution. Buildings are Cultural because humans take control of plodding erratic Evolution, in order to speed it up, and turn it to their own purposes.

Nature vs Culture :
What makes culture distinct, according to Ortner, is that it has the power to transcend the natural and manipulate it for its own purpose.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-re ... szpotowicz

The sticky part #1 is that humans ARE natural beings as well. Just as much as a bird. So how does a building or a computer differ from a nest? They're are both built by natural beings. — Artemis

True, but trivial. Everything in the world is "natural". But only one species of natural beings has gone beyond the limitations of Natural Laws, to become a law unto themselves. Humans can now break, or bend, the laws of Nature to their own Will (culture). Admittedly, sometimes this "super-natural" power works to their own detriment (pollution) , but the law-bending also results in undeniable benefits to humanity (air-conditioning).

Ask yourself if you'd rather live like a cave-man (i.e. like an animal), or like a modern house-man ; or woman. The cave-dwellers used cold dark caverns and rough animal skins to shield them from adverse weather conditions. But, modern home-dwellers have air-conditioning to make the indoor weather more suitable to their preferences. That power to rule over Nature, makes humans more like gods than animals. As a species, humans have not yet created a Garden of Eden, but they are working on it. :joke:

PS___The technological progress of humanimals may seem to be offset by a lack of moral progress. However, from a long-term perspective, the ethical treatment of animals & fellow humans has evolved in a positive direction, as illustrated by Steven Pinker's book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, i.e. Human Nature .

You can break the laws of nature? Really? Where? How? Let me see! — Artemis

Drivers on speed-limited highways "break" the law by exceeding the posted limit. Nature has imposed certain limits on its creatures (Natural Laws), but arrogant humans have gone beyond those limitations. In that sense, they "break" the law. For example, where terrestrial animals are bound to the ground by their "nature", humans have learned to fly with artificial wings, and even to "slip the surly bonds of earth" to fly into uninhabitable space. That's un-natural, and un-lawful. Do you "see" what I'm saying? :joke:

even if you're right... being the most powerful natural beings doesn't make us and our culture unnatural. — Artemis

Perhaps not. But it does make our way of life Artificial.

Artificial synonym : unnatural
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/artificial