ENGLISH

Life's Intrinsic Value

By Nicholas Agar

Book information

Publisher
Columbia University Press
Year
2001
ISBN
0231117868, 9780231117869
Open Library ID
OL10196126M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
795 kB (814441 bytes)
Pages
213\213
Topic
Biology Ecology
Library
demonoid.me
Time added
2011-04-11 19:55:47

Description

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.

Similar books