Do species have independent moral status?
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2024-10-02
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en
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Can an argument be made, that we ought to preserve species because they are species? In other words, can species be said to have independent moral status (they warrant moral concern for their own sake, independent of anything valuing them)? In this paper, multiple arguments for species having independent moral status are examined. All arguments that are discussed build on a perfectionist idea of the good – they base their argumentation on certain ideas of what a ‘good’ species entails. In this paper, it is argued that these perfectionist values do not make sense within the framework that the different authors use for their arguments. This leads to the conclusion that currently, there is no convincing argument why species would have independent moral status.
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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen