Artificiality and naturoids

Abstract

The use of the term ‘naturoid’ calls for the resolution of an ambiguity that involves the concept of ‘artificial’ in many contexts. From a linguistic standpoint, the term artificial (artificiale in Italian, künstlich in German, artificiel in French) covers a heterogeneous area which should be clarified before we proceed. In all languages, this concept seems to generically indicate all that is ‘‘man-made’’ or ‘‘not natural’’ and, at the same time, though more rarely, something which tries to imitate things existing in nature.