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Natural: How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science
Bottom of the pile
23
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
28/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Alan Levinovitz
Publisher:
Beacon Press
Date:
April 7, 2020
Natural illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means âgood,â from misinformation about health choices to justifications for sexism, racism, and flawed economic policies.
What The Reviewers Say
[Levinovitz's] book feels like a series of essays — thoughtful, engaging forays into realms where the idea of the natural is most abused. It is remarkably wide-ranging. Levinovitz considers childbirth, hunter-gatherer societies, bears and wolves in Yellowstone Park, alternative medicine, 'wellness' brands such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, nature-based metaphors for economic systems, and doping and sex segregation in elite sport.
Levinovitz cautions against pursuing moral answers in nature’s mirror.
...a concise and imaginative exploration of the ways that people use and abuse the idea of the natural: sometimes sensibly, to be sure, but more often sloppily or even cynically in order to feel better about themselves, justify their actions and beliefs, or make a quick buck.
Levinovitz provides a reflective account of how his own attitude toward 'naturalness' changed through the journey of writing the book. Although he was initially skeptical about the use of the word, he came to recognize its importance as he unpacked the different values that people ascribe to it. The take-home message? Rather than dismissing 'natural' altogether, we should strive to acknowledge and explore its many facets, depending on the context. In this sense, Levinovitz’s book is an important call for more nuance over simplicity, for compromise over dogmatism, and for embracing uncertainty over certainty..
