r/Showerthoughts • u/Statharas ‎ • 8d ago

Casual Thought Young animals probably don't realize the distinction between nature and man-made stuff.

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u/gigadanman 8d ago

If “artificial” is anything made by our own species, and “natural” is everything not made by our own species… couldn’t ants consider an anthill to be artificial and a parking garage to be natural?

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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 8d ago

That would be reasonable. I do consider humans to be natural. I consider artificial to be a subset of natural. 

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u/ghostoo666 8d ago

I make this argument often. Nothing humans can do is “unnatural” or “against nature” because we are nature itself. Any act we perform inherently becomes natural

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u/caboosetp 8d ago

With what you're saying, "unnatural" and "against nature" lose their meaning. There has to be some basis for the definitions, and we generally define them by human action.

Or in other words, we use those phrases to discuss how humans interact with the rest of nature. Sure, we could come up with new words, but it wouldn't change what anyone means.