Overview

What if wilderness is bad for wildlife? This question motivates the philosophical investigation in Wilderness, Morality, and Value. Environmentalists aim to protect wilderness, and for good reasons, but wilderness entails unremittent, incalculable suffering for its non-human habitants. Given that it will become increasingly possible to augment nature in ways that ameliorates some of this suffering, the morality of wilderness preservation is itself in question. Joshua S. Duclos argues that the technological and ethical reality of the Anthropocene warrants a fundamental reassessment of the value of wilderness. After exposing the moral ambiguity of wilderness preservation, he explores the value of wilderness itself by engaging with anthropocentricism and nonanthropocentrism; sentientism, biocentrism, and ecocentrism; and instrumental value and intrinsic value. Duclos argues that the value of wilderness is a narrow form of anthropocentric intrinsic value, one with a religio-spiritual dimension. By integrating scholarship from bioethics on the norms of engineering human nature with debates in environmental ethics concerning the prospect of engineering non-human nature, Wilderness, Morality, and Value sets the stage for wilderness ethics—or wilderness faith—in the Anthropocene.

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9781666901368

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Does the prevalence of wild animal suffering undermine the value of wilderness? In asking this question, Wilderness, Morality and Value stages an important intervention into current environmental ethics, bringing together two independently contested issues: the value of wilderness, and how we should respond to the suffering of wild animals. Duclos argues –controversially and thought-provokingly– that concern for wild animal welfare gives us a moral reason to oppose wilderness preservation. Whether you agree with his argument or not, this book is well worth reading; it makes an insightful and original contribution to ongoing ethical debates about the idea of wilderness and why we should value it. -- Clare Palmer, Texas A&M University Joshua Duclos presents a provocative challenge to all sides in the philosophical debate over the meaning and ethics of wilderness preservation. Firmly rooted in the fifty-year history of academic environmental ethics, his argument is based on the idea that a concern for the welfare of non-human natural beings is a reason to oppose the preservation of wilderness and a reason for beneficent human interference into natural systems. Accordingly, a defense of wilderness in and of itself will require a different kind of argument, perhaps one based on spiritual values. This book will interest students and teachers of environmental ethics and environmental policy, who will find much to consider, question, and debate. -- Eric Katz, professor emeritus, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Does the prevalence of wild animal suffering undermine the value of wilderness? In asking this question, Wilderness, Morality and Value stages an important intervention into current environmental ethics, bringing together two independently contested issues: the value of wilderness, and how we should respond to the suffering of wild animals. Duclos argues -controversially and thought-provokingly- that concern for wild animal welfare gives us a moral reason to oppose wilderness preservation. Whether you agree with his argument or not, this book is well worth reading; it makes an insightful and original contribution to ongoing ethical debates about the idea of wilderness and why we should value it. -- Clare Palmer, Texas A&M University Joshua Duclos presents a provocative challenge to all sides in the philosophical debate over the meaning and ethics of wilderness preservation. Firmly rooted in the fifty-year history of academic environmental ethics, his argument is based on the idea that a concern for the welfare of non-human natural beings is a reason to oppose the preservation of wilderness and a reason for beneficent human interference into natural systems. Accordingly, a defense of wilderness in and of itself will require a different kind of argument, perhaps one based on spiritual values. This book will interest students and teachers of environmental ethics and environmental policy, who will find much to consider, question, and debate. -- Eric Katz, professor emeritus, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Author Information

Joshua S. Duclos holds a PhD in philosophy from Boston University and is an independent scholar.

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