%0 Journal Article
%T On Appeals to Nature and their Use in the Public Controversy over Genetically Modified Organisms
%A Andrei Moldovan
%J -
%D 2018
%R https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v38i3.5050
%X Abstract In this paper I discuss appeals to nature, a particular kind of argument that has received little attention in argumentation theory. After a quick review of the existing literature, I focus on the use of such arguments in the public controversy over the acceptabil-ity of genetically-modified organisms in the food industry. Those who reject this biotechnology invoke its unnatural character. Such arguments have re-ceived attention in bioethics, where they have been analyzed by distinguishing different meanings that ¡°nature¡± and ¡°natural¡± might have. I argue that in many such appeals to nature the main deficiency of these arguments is semantic, in particular, that these words cannot be assigned a determi-nate meaning at all. In doing so, I rely on semantic externalism, a widely accepted theory of linguistic meaning
%U https://informallogic.ca/index.php/informal_logic/article/view/5050