In everyday morality, naturalness definitely continues to be a positively charged term. It plays a significant role wherever technical progress opens up natural processes to human control, for example in reproductive medicine, genetics and modern agriculture. This book enquires into the reasons and motives for the privileged position of the (relatively) natural over the (relatively) artificial and seeks out its roots in the history of ideas.

Dieter Birnbacher, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.