Note
Naturalistic The term "Naturalistic" is sometimes used in this context to express the idea that explanation is often, in everyday language, reduced to a serious of assumptions about basic features of the human condition. For example, the idea that it is somehow "natural" for women to want to produce and care for children. In this respect, complex ideas and issues are reduced to very simple propositions (that, by implication cannot be questioned) about "the human condition". Such propositions are, invariably, not supported by evidence of any consequence. On the contrary they are, for a variety of reasons, simply assumed to be "true". The concept of "nature" - whether expressed in terms of the idea of "human nature" or the more-abstract "Mother Nature" - is not one to which sociologists generally give much credence (except in terms of the idea that we are interested in the way such ideas are used to socialise people). This is mainly because the things that seem, at face value, "natural" and unchangeable are, once you dig a little deeper, invariably the consequence of human choice and action (and are, therefore, eminently changeable). |