Alan Levinovitz: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Flawed Science || HPP Ep. 9

Dr. Alan Levinovitz illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good,” from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies.
Book: www.amazon.com...
Transcript: www.humanprogr...
Dr. Levinovitz focuses primarily on the relationship between religion, literature, and science, with particular attention to classical Chinese thought and comparative ethics. His most recent book, Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science, examines the meaning of "natural" and argues that modern Western culture has divinized nature. He is currently working on another book project, The Gentleman and the Jester, which develops a binary typology of ethical education. Other interests include the tension between paratext (introductions, footnotes, etc.) and primary text, the significance of play, and the role of genre in ethical discourse.
Marian L. Tupy is the editor of Human​Progress​.org, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and coauthor of The Simon Project. He specializes in globalization and global well‐​being and politics and economics of Europe and Southern Africa. Learn more: www.cato.org/p...
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[@RollingTree2]

- Another excellent topic/interview. The very common (often not deeply considered) idea that nature/natural is inherently better is certainly very illogical, relevant, and problematic. Dr. Levinovitz caveat to that "illogical" point ...re emotional aspects, (emotional satisfaction is not illogical), ...but that clear eyes on that is important, is a great point. Failure to break things down/clarify in detail is a core element of many logic failures and poor conclusions. Good stuff! - Perhaps he clarifies it better in his book, but Dr. Levinovitz skips over w/ only the barest acknowledgement a key distinction re nature/natural as justification for political ideology. As he notes, nature/natural is an illogical basis for justifying a political system in the sense that nature/natural is the RIGHT/CORRECT way. But a very common and logical argument is that nature/natural is a logical basis for justifying what/which political system CAN ACTUALLY WORK based on human proclivities. He seemed to acknowledge/grant this with the very briefest of comment, but still continues to ignore it while repeatedly making sweeping statements that ANY political basis in nature/natural is illogical. The practical application/what will actually work CAN certainly be an important/key aspect/basis in justifying one political system over another. Perhaps it's just a matter of better clarification, but the emphasized and repeated sweeping dismissal seems misleading if so. - Great talk and ideas! Thanks to you both. Anxious to read the book ...sounds good. Keep up the great work Mr. Tupy. HumanProgress.org is a rare beacon of rational light in a wilderness of short term shallow thought and sensationalism.

[@warrencoats1579]

A fascinating conversation

[@emergpa7285]

I have made the same quasi joking statement for years. "There's nothing nature does that man can't do better."