Are bacteriophage T4 and the long-nosed elephant fish valuable
in their own right? Nicholas Agar defends an affirmative answer to
this question by arguing that anything living is intrinsically
valuable. This claim challenges received ethical wisdom according
to which only human beings are valuable in themselves. The
resulting biocentric or life-centered morality forms the platform
for an ethic of the environment.
Agar builds a bridge between the biological sciences and what he
calls "folk" morality to arrive at a workable environmental ethic
and a new spectrum -- a new hierarchy -- of living organisms. The
book overturns common-sense moral belief as well as centuries of
philosophical speculation on the exclusive moral significance of
humans. Spanning several fields, including philosophy of
psychology, philosophy of science, and other areas of contemporary
analytic philosophy, Agar analyzes and speaks to a wide array of
historic and contemporary views, from Aristotle and Kant, to E. O.
Wilson, Holmes Rolston II, and Baird Callicot. The result is a
challenge to prevailing definitions of value and a call for a
scientifically-informed appreciation of nature.
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