Cognitive Scaffold

Preparing your thinking workspace

arrow_back_ios_new
MENTAL MODEL · M1541

Naturalistic Fallacy

Naturalistic Fallacy
StructureHigh supportLogic
Included
account_tree

Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-30

CORE DEFINITION

The erroneous belief that what is natural is good (Is implies Ought). For example, believing that because survival of the fittest is a natural law, human society should also follow the law of the jungle; or that purely natural substances are necessarily non-toxic.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Logical disinfection: used to refute views that advocate 'primitive life' or 'social Darwinism'. Nature is full of rape and killing, which are also 'natural', but not 'civilized'.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Moore proposed: the fallacy of trying to directly derive 'ought' (value) from 'is' (fact), confusing descriptive and normative statements.

MINIMUM ACTION

In progress 0/3

Practice this model in one real situation:

Check to track your progress (stored locally)
Learning progress0%
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more

Source support: Explicit

  • link
    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacyZH · Explicit
    verified

RELATED MODELS

Related model

Ugly Duckling Theorem

Counting all extensional properties equally over a finite set gives different object pairs the same number of shared properties; useful similarity requires selecting or weighting features.

arrow_forwardRelated model

False Equivalence

An informal fallacy that treats limited similarities as establishing equivalence while ignoring differences relevant to the conclusion.

arrow_forwardRelated model

Inferential Distance

How many steps of logical reasoning you must go through to get from what the audience already knows to the conclusion you want to convey.

arrow_forward