Speaking of Forms of Life: The Language of Conservation [Hardcover]

Humans pose an unprecedented threat to life in all its great diversity of forms. The human-induced extinction rate has been compared to mass extinctions of the past. But this language masks the fact that the crisis is due to voluntary, and thus, avoidable choices and actions. Speaking of Forms of Life shows that at the root of this crisis is the tragic inadequacy of the language predominantly used to represent and address what we are doing, including the language of sustainable development, rights for animals and the rest of nature, their intrinsic value, and conservation of species as populations. This talk alienates us from the other living things, from what they actually are, have and do, and it perpetuates the harm and loss. Campagna and Guevara compellingly argue, on rigorous but accessible grounds, that there is an alternative language to guide conservation, in confronting the radically urgent, ethical issues it faces. This is a language with which we are all familiar, mastered by naturalists, from Aristotle to Audubon. It articulates the primary value in life and the standard that must guide how human beings should live, as one form of life, among countless others. This book is a homecoming for those who practice conservation to, above all else, secure a creatures ability to satisfy the necessities of its form of life. 

This is an essential book for anyone who cares about conservation and is concerned about the frightening pace of extinctions. The great theme of the book is the importance of the language in which we think and talk about living beings.  Daniel Guevara and Claudio Campagna make available for conservationists the ground-breaking work of Philippa Foot and Michael Thompson on natural goodness and on our thought about living beings. They show how it can be brought to bearlF