Re:Thomas Jefferson on Patents
by rflrob on Saturday July 16, 2011 @09:38PM
(#2772269)
This quote seems to fall victim to the Naturalistic fallacy. That which is natural is not necessarily good, and that which is good is not necessarily natural. Whether or not patents have an overall positive effect is reasonable to debate, just don't say that they're unnatural, and therefore wrong.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
The point is not quite that.
The point is not: they are not natural therefore they are wrong. It is: they are not natural, therefore they are not simply, automatically right -- they can have only a practical justification.