What is Artificial, Natural, and the Limits of Language

The philosophy of artificial and natural begins with a simple question: what is artificial?

Natural

If you look at dictionary definitions, the distinction between natural and artificial appears very clear. However, when we look at the world more closely, this demarcation is not correct at all. We need a deeper understanding of what is natural and what is artificial, and that could even be the key to understanding truth itself.

Let us look at languages and numbers. Any language is formed from letters. For example, in the English language, there are 26 letters. These letters are used in different arrangements to make sounds and words that represent the same meaning. However, these sounds and symbols are secondary constructs used to represent our environment. If we see a “tree,” we call it a tree.

But for a biologist, a tree is not just a tree. There are many more important details missing when we just approximate our observation to letters, which are called “tree.” Someone might write an entire book about a specific tree. But fundamentally, we can never represent a tree in written format like this, whatever we are writing would just be an abstract construct. That is an inherent problem with language.

So if someone says a tree is natural, I wouldn’t agree. Nobody can accurately describe what a tree is by using artificial words of the English language.

Similarly, numbers are artificial too. There are no natural numbers, and there are no imaginary numbers. I wrote an article some time ago on why there are no natural numbers. So everything expressed in English and numbers is artificial and abstract.

Then there is a problem. What is artificial?

If there is an objective truth which is identifiable, it cannot be within words and numbers, as both are human-made. One has to look beyond words and numbers, directly into experience itself, to see and develop understanding while the observation happens. This is the main focus of the blog. Mindfulness is the name for this process, which is looking at the observation while it is happening, without giving it a name or a number.

Artificial terrain

Once we do the observation, it is fundamentally wrong to try to describe it in words, as it will always not be the thing we observed that we are describing. What we will observe are processes, which are naturally changing at rapid speeds. Yet, it would take one a lifetime to see this in their own understanding.

Just like it was mentioned in F. Wallace’s speech: “Where is water?” Liberation is within, not without.