Topics Science

Question What, traditionally, have philosophers said about the widespread practice of 'anthropomorphizing' or 'personalizing' the powers of nature? Consider, for example: 'it was a "killer" hurricane,' or 'this year we saw evidence of the wrath of Mother Nature,' and so forth and so on. I can't quite explain why, but this way of speaking about weather-related natural phenomena has always irked me. Thank you.

Accepted:
January 2, 2006

Comments

I'm not sure "killer hurricane" is anthropomorphizing--"murderous hurricane" would be. "Killer" does not imply motives, just deadly effects. But to answer the rest of your question, I'm not sure I see why metaphorical language of this sort is a problem, as long as there is no reason to think that those who are talking this way--or those who are listening--are likely to take such expressions literally. Few people are so ignorant as to make this mistake, however--except, perhaps, when the powers of nature get subsumed under the powers of dieties, the result of which is a kind of ignorance that has plagued humankind since pre-history.