28th February 2005, 9:10 PM
Most people would say the oppposite, believing we once lived with nature and now we live outside it.
And yes, language in general is basically just a means of defining where one thing ends and another begins, but I'm talking about how science has no need for such terms.
Oh and, your definition of natural and unnatural has some meaning to it. Basically what you mean to say is "of God" and "of humans" when you say that. Alright, understood. Not so arbitrary when put that way, and you put a bird's nest (and by extension things like it such as a monkey using a stick to get termites) in the category of unnatural so there's no immediate contradictions or anything. Okay, that works.
So am I to take it the seperation lies in something's preexisting physical state before any intelligent alterations are done to it, as opposed to after intelligent alteration? If so, it's not arbitrary any more, so okay that works.
That's not a distinction I make myself though.
And yes, language in general is basically just a means of defining where one thing ends and another begins, but I'm talking about how science has no need for such terms.
Oh and, your definition of natural and unnatural has some meaning to it. Basically what you mean to say is "of God" and "of humans" when you say that. Alright, understood. Not so arbitrary when put that way, and you put a bird's nest (and by extension things like it such as a monkey using a stick to get termites) in the category of unnatural so there's no immediate contradictions or anything. Okay, that works.
So am I to take it the seperation lies in something's preexisting physical state before any intelligent alterations are done to it, as opposed to after intelligent alteration? If so, it's not arbitrary any more, so okay that works.
That's not a distinction I make myself though.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)