Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Preserving Nature For The Benefit Of All Sentient Individuals, Eze Paez Jan 2020

Preserving Nature For The Benefit Of All Sentient Individuals, Eze Paez

Animal Sentience

I agree with Treves et al.’s proposal for a preservation ethics based on the principle that nonhuman well-being is a matter of justice and compassion. In this commentary, I advance two objections. First, only sentient beings, rather than all life, belong in the moral community. Second, given that nature is probably harmful overall for sentient individuals, preserving it for the benefit of future human and nonhuman generations requires us to modify it as far as practicable.


The Intrinsic Value Of Nature, Joanna E. Lambert Jan 2019

The Intrinsic Value Of Nature, Joanna E. Lambert

Animal Sentience

Treves et al. explain the need to preserve the rights of nonhuman species, human youth, and future generations. Although conservation biology has claimed to have an intrinsic valuation ethic since its inception in the 1980s, many aspects of the field have taken a decidedly anthropocentric and instrumentalist trajectory. This has important consequences for conservation-related policy and practice at all scales: local, regional, and global.


Ethical Foundations For The Lethal Management Of Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalocrocorax Auritus) In The Eastern United States: An Argument Analysis, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson Jun 2018

Ethical Foundations For The Lethal Management Of Double-Crested Cormorants (Phalocrocorax Auritus) In The Eastern United States: An Argument Analysis, Chelsea Batavia, Michael Paul Nelson

Ethics and Conservation Biology Collection

Lethal management of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalocrocorax auritus) has been implemented in many areas of the United States. In this paper, the philosophical method of argument analysis is used to assess ethical premises underlying the proposition that Double-crested Cormorant populations should be culled to reduce pressures on wild fisheries in the Great Lakes region of the eastern USA. This influential argument has been used to justify the destruction of more than half a million Double-crested Cormorants and hundreds of thousands of their nests and eggs. Three versions of the argument are formulated and assessed. It is shown that each of the …


Individuals In The Wild, Bob Fischer Jan 2018

Individuals In The Wild, Bob Fischer

Animal Sentience

If many wild animals have net negative lives, then we have to consider how likely it is that the good for animals, considered as individuals, aligns with the good for species, or the climate, or the preservation of wild spaces.


Wildlife Conservation And Animal Rights: Are They Compatible?, Michael Hutchins, Christen Wemmer Jan 1986

Wildlife Conservation And Animal Rights: Are They Compatible?, Michael Hutchins, Christen Wemmer

Conservation Collection

The purpose of this paper is to explore the philosophical tenets of the animal rights/humane ethic as they relate to the environmental ethic and, more specifically, as they relate to wildlife management and conservation. The two ethics will be compared in an effort to identify potential sources of conflict. Recent criticisms of the animal rights ethic, most notably by Fox (1978, 1979), Rodman (1977), Callicott (1980), Gunn (1980), and Hutchins et al. (1982) have identified several major discrepancies. The implications of these differences will be discussed.