Meaning for Unnatural

The problem with which we are wrestling is that we are unable to find a meaning for unnatural that enables us to arrive at the conclusion that homosexu- ality is unnatural or that if homosexuality is unnatural, it is therefore wrongful behavior. We have examined [five] common meanings of natural and unnatural, and have seen that none of them performs the task that it must perform if the advocates of this argument are to prevail. Without some more satisfactory explanation of the connection between the wrongfulness of homosexuality and its alleged unnaturalness, the argument [that homosexuality is wrong because it is unnatural] must be rejected. of the terms in the circle means, you can use that background knowledge plus the definition to figure out what the other terms mean. The goal of dictionary definitions is to supply us with factual information about the standard meanings of words in a particular language. As dictionary definitions are, in effect, factual claims about how people in general actually use certain words, dictionary definitions can be either accurate or inaccurate. The Oxford American Dictionary defines one meaning of “fan” as “a device waved in the hand or operated mechanically to create a current of air.” This is, strictly speaking, incorrect because a bellows also meets these conditions but is not a fan. Dictionary definitions can be criticized or defended on the basis of a speaker’s sense of the language or, more formally, by empirical surveys of what speakers accept as appropriate or reject as inappropriate uses of the term.