Dimensions of Naturalness

Siipi, Helena

doi:10.2979/ete.2008.13.1.71

Cited by 97 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…However, a recent study [80] identified five different arguments in favor of the conclusion that GMOs are unnatural, corresponding in substance to ones found in the literature on the concept naturalness [81]. Thus, the question of naturalness becomes broader than to be just about biological similarity.…”

Section: Socioeconomic Feasibility: Likely Reactions Of Consumers Andmentioning

confidence: 98%

Feasibility of new breeding techniques for organic farming

Andersen

Landes

Xiang

et al. 2015

Trends in Plant Science

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Section: Socioeconomic Feasibility: Likely Reactions Of Consumers Andmentioning

confidence: 98%

Feasibility of new breeding techniques for organic farming

Andersen

Landes

Xiang

et al. 2015

Trends in Plant Science

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“…None of the articles from ecology journals or multidisciplinary science journals explicitly referred to the value of naturalness. Overall, 15 articles from the environmental ethics journals discussed concerns about the value of naturalness as such (e.g., Katz 1993;Karafyllis 2003;Verhoog et al 2003;Siipi 2008). Articles in ecology journals only indirectly addressed concerns about naturalness.…”

Section: Concerns About the Value Of Naturalnessmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The concept of nature as a given order defines nature as a non-human domain or as God's order that humans have to respect. The more human actions or products resemble natural actions or products, the more natural they are, and the more respect humans show for the natural order (Siipi 2008 which has an intrinsic value, can be understood in terms of harmony and balance (Lammerts van Bueren and Struik 2005), self-realization (Katz 1993), God's creation (Comstock 1989) or ''something out there'' that humans must obey and should not challenge (Madsen et al 2002). The genetic modification of crops is therefore an infringement of the given order and thus morally wrong.…”

Section: Concerns About the Value Of Naturalnessmentioning

confidence: 98%

Ethical Discourse on the Use of Genetically Modified Crops: A Review of Academic Publications in the Fields of Ecology and Environmental Ethics

Gregorowius

Lindemann‐Matthies

Huppenbauer

2011

J Agric Environ Ethics

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The use of genetically modified plants in agriculture (GM crops) is controversially discussed in academic publications. Important issues are whether the release of GM crops is beneficial or harmful for the environment and therefore acceptable, and whether the modification of plants is ethically permissible per se. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the moral reasoning on the use of GM crops expressed in academic publications from 1975 to 2008. Environmental ethical aspects in the publications were investigated. Overall, 113 articles from 15 ecology, environmental ethics, and multidisciplinary science journals were systematically reviewed. Three types of moral concerns were used to structure the normative statements, moral notions, and moral issues found in the articles: concerns addressing consequences of the use of GM crops, concerns addressing the act (the technique itself), and concerns addressing the virtues of an actor. Articles addressing consequences (84%) dealt with general ecological and risk concerns or discussed specific ecological issues about the use of GM crops. Articles addressing the act (57%) dealt with the value of naturalness, the value of biotic entities, and conceptual reductionism, whereas articles addressing the actor (43%) dealt with virtues related to the handling of risks and the application of GM crops. The results of this study may help to structure the academic debate and contribute to a better understanding of moral concerns that are associated with the key aspects of the ethical theories of consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.

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“…(Williams 1983;Soper 1995;Lovelock 2000;Stephens 2000;Verhoog et al 2003;Anderson 2005;Gremmen 2005;Hansen 2006;Siipi 2008). In the discourses on agriculture we described earlier, naturalness seems to appear as one kind of argument describing the relation between technology and the effect it has on nature.…”

Section: Three Kinds Of Argumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Siipi presents us with sets of comparative relations that form gradient scales of naturalness that express whether one thing is considered more natural than another. We have grouped the criteria Siipi proposes as follows: (a) subjected to more or less human interference/disruption; (b) more or less fitting images of normality and biological/genetic-based action; (c) being more or less in accordance with human nature/purpose (Siipi 2008).…”

Section: An Integrated Approach On Naturalnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstruction of the Ethical Debate on Naturalness in Discussions About Plant-Biotechnology

Haperen

Gremmen

Jacobs

2011

J Agric Environ Ethics

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This paper argues that in modern (agro)biotechnology, (un)naturalness as an argument contributed to a stalemate in public debate about innovative technologies. Naturalness in this is often placed opposite to human disruption. It also often serves as a label that shapes moral acceptance or rejection of agricultural innovative technologies. The cause of this lies in the use of nature as a closed, static reference to naturalness, while in fact ''nature'' is an open and dynamic concept with many different meanings. We propose an approach for a dynamic framework that permits an integrative use of naturalness in debate, by connecting three sorts of meaning that return regularly in the arguments brought forward in debate; cultural, technological, and ecological. We present these as aspects of nature that are always present in the argument of naturalness. The approach proposes a dynamic relation between these aspects, formed by gradients of naturalness, which in turn are related to ethical concerns. In this way we come to an overview that makes it possible to give individual arguments a relative place and that does justice to the temporality of the concept of nature and the underlying ethical concerns stakeholders have in respect to innovation in agriculture.

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Dimensions of Naturalness

Cited by 97 publications

References 59 publications

Feasibility of new breeding techniques for organic farming

Feasibility of new breeding techniques for organic farming

Ethical Discourse on the Use of Genetically Modified Crops: A Review of Academic Publications in the Fields of Ecology and Environmental Ethics

Reconstruction of the Ethical Debate on Naturalness in Discussions About Plant-Biotechnology

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