Life's Intrinsic Value: Science, Ethics, and Nature

by Agar, Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9780231117876
• ISBN10: 0231117876
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: COLUMBIA UNIV PRESS

Summary

-- Gary Varner, Environmental Ethics

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Preface	ix
The Psychological View of Intrinsic Value	1	(18)
Life on Mars, Life on Earth	1	(6)
Defining Intrinsic Value?	7	(7)
Why Are Humans Morally Special?	14	(5)
Science's Bridge from Nature to Value	19	(22)
Scientific Facts and Values	19	(5)
The Limits of Ethical Extensionism	24	(6)
Beyond Ethical Extensionism?	30	(11)
Overlapping Kinds and Value	41	(22)
Two Types of Natural Kind Overlap	41	(7)
What to Do About Kind Overlaps	48	(4)
Descriptive Overlaps and Morality	52	(6)
Combining Descriptive and Metaphysical Kind Overlaps to Unearth Environmental Value	58	(5)
Recent Defenses of Biocentrism	63	(24)
The Value of Life	63	(15)
An Ethic to Live by?	78	(9)
A Morally Specialized Account of Life	87	(14)
Commonsense and Customized Accounts of Life	87	(3)
A Biofunctional Explanation of Self-Movement	90	(4)
Why the Representationally Alive Are Morally Important	94	(3)
Other- and Self-Directed Goals	97	(4)
The Contents of Biopreferences	101	(28)
The Teleological Account of Content	101	(6)
The Threat of Genic Selectionism	107	(13)
Sentience and Goals	120	(9)
Species and Ecosystems	129	(24)
The Shortcomings of Individualism	129	(3)
Environmental Value Holism	132	(13)
Individualistic Ethics of Species and Ecosystems	145	(8)
An Impossible Ethic?	153	(22)
Biocentrism, Consequentialism, and Cognitive Tractability	153	(6)
Does Life Value Leave Room for Human Lives?	159	(16)
Notes	175	(8)
References	183	(8)
Index	191