Naturalistic Fallacy Examples in Ethics, Psychology & Culture

Naturalistic Fallacy

What Is the Naturalistic Fallacy?

The Naturalistic Fallacy is a fallacy in ethics that occurs when one assumes that it must be good or right because something is natural. It is the assumption that what is natural or normal is inherently good.

The term was coined by British philosopher G.E Moore in his 1903 book Principia Ethica, which discusses how terms such as ‘good’ are used outside of a moral context and what they mean when applied to nature.

The naturalistic fallacy is a term that was developed to describe the assumption that what we see in nature is good and should be emulated.

For example, if one sees that children are often cruel to animals, they might conclude that animals’ cruelty is natural and therefore acceptable.

Naturalistic Fallacy Examples

Naturalistic Fallacy example in PSychology

Examples of Naturalistic Fallacy in Psychology:

The naturalistic fallacy is the idea that what is found in nature can be applied to human behavior.

For example, if a certain type of behavior has been observed in animals, it can be assumed that humans will also behave in this way.

This assumption ignores the fact that there are many differences between animals and humans.

Naturalistic Fallacy Real-Life Examples

Naturalistic Fallacy in Real Life:

For example, “It’s natural for men to dominate women” would be an example of the Naturalistic Fallacy because it does not take into account other factors such as culture and context.

Naturalistic l Fallacy Examples in Ethics

Examples of Naturalistic Fallacy in Ethics:

The naturalistic fallacy is the mistaken belief that what is found in nature is good.

For example, if one sees a lion kill an antelope, they may think it’s good because it’s “natural” and not because of any moral reasoning.

This fallacy can be seen in many ethical theories.

Naturalistic Fallacy Examples in Culture

Naturalistic Fallacy in Culture:  The naturalistic fallacy describes the human tendency to believe that what we see in nature is “right” or better than what we do not see.

For example, if someone were to say that all humans are naturally good, they would be committing this fallacy because there is no such thing as a “natural” human; people are born with many different personalities and tendencies.

This fallacy can also refer to the idea of attributing something specific about one culture’s way of life as being more desirable than another culture’s way of life.