Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:10:31.367Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Tempered Anthropocentrism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2009

Sahotra Sarkar
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Get access

Summary

Can we introduce value for biodiversity in such a way that (i) values remain anthropocentric but (ii) a reverence for nature is not lost? Part (ii) of this question is important because most, perhaps all, biodiversity conservationists share a reverence for nature that goes beyond appreciating its utility in the mundane sense that it delivers goods for our material consumption. This chapter will try to provide an affirmative answer to this question by developing a framework for attributing values using a concept of “transformative” value originally introduced in this context in 1987 by Bryan G. Norton but surprisingly ignored in the literature since then. The result is an anthropocentric defense of biodiversity conservation, but this anthropocentrism is tempered by an appreciation of the fact that biodiversity does not have the sort of human value that is routinely traded in the marketplace. It does not have cash value. The value it has is much more important. The normative account advocated here fits most easily into a consequentialist framework, though, in its discussion of the obligations for biodiversity conservation (§ 4.3), it draws on arguments that are usually associated with the deontological tradition. Environmental ethics extends ethical discussion into the nonhuman realm and thereby necessarily broadens the scope of normative ethical theory – in such a context, it is unhelpful to view the different traditions within ethics (consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, etc.) as being incompatible in principle.

Type
Chapter
Information
Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy
An Introduction
, pp. 75 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Tempered Anthropocentrism
  • Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy
  • Online publication: 17 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498558.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Tempered Anthropocentrism
  • Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy
  • Online publication: 17 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498558.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Tempered Anthropocentrism
  • Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book: Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy
  • Online publication: 17 July 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511498558.006
Available formats
×