The Intrinsic Value of Endangered Species [Hardcover]

Why save endangered species without clear aesthetic, economic, or ecosystemic value? This book takes on this challenging question through an account of the intrinsic goods of species. Ian A. Smith argues that a species intrinsic value stems from its ability to flourishits organisms continuing to reproduce successfully and it avoiding extinctionwhich helps to demonstrate a further claim, that humans ought to preserve species that we have endangered. He shows our need to exercise humility in our relations with endangered species through the preservation of their intrinsic goods, which in turn rectifies our degradation of their importance. Unique in its appeal to virtue ethics and to species concepts, The Intrinsic Value of Endangered Speciesis an important resource for scholars working in environmental ethics and the philosophy of biology.

1. Introduction: The Humpback Chub  2. Species Concepts and Ontology  3. Rolstons Account: Objective Value  4. Johnson's Account: Well-Being Interests  5. Callicott's Account: Leopolds Story  6. The Intrinsic Goods of Species  7. The Role of Humility  8. Problems and Solutions  9. Competing Moral Considerations, Preservation Considerations  10. Preservation of Higher-Order Taxa?

Ian A. Smithis Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Washburn University, US