Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics - 25th Anniversary Edition Book

Foreword to the 25th Anniversary Edition ix

Acknowledgments Xiii

1 Environmental Ethics and Human Ethics 3

1 Introduction 3

2 Moral Agents and Moral Subjects 14

3 Formal Conditions for Valid Moral Principles 25

4 Material Conditions for Valid Moral Principles: The Content of Human Ethics 33

5 The Structural Symmetry between Human Ethics and Environmental Ethics 41

6 Biology and Ethics 47

7 A Note on the Ethics of the Bioculture 53

2 The Attitude of Respect for Nature 59

1 Introduction 59

2 The Concept of the Good of a Being 60

3 The Concept of Inherent Worth 71

4 Having and Expressing the Attitude of Respect for Nature 80

5 Respect for Nature as an Ultimate Attitude 90

3 The Biocentric Outlook on Nature 99

1 The Biocentric Outlook and the Attitude of Respect for Nature 99

2 Humans as Members of the Earth's Community of Life 101

3 The Natural World as a System of Interdependence 116

4 Individual Organisms as Teleological Centers of Life 119

5 The Denial of Human Superiority 129

6 The Argument for the Biocentric Outlook 156

4 The Ethical System 169

1 The Basic Rules of Conduct 169

2 Priority Principles 192

3 The Basic Standards of Virtue 198

5 Do Animals and Plants Have Rights? 219

1 Legal Rights and Moral Rights 219

2 Analysis of the Assertion of Moral Rights 226

3 The Defeasibility of Rights 241

4 Is If Logically Conceivable for Animals and/or Plants to Have Moral Rights? 245

5 A Modified Concept of Moral Rights 251

6 Competing Claims and Priority Principles 256

1 The General Problem of Competing Claims 256

2 Human Rights and the Inherent Worth of Nonhumans 260

3 Five Priority Principles for the Fair Resolution of Conflicting Claims 263

a The Principle of Self-Defense 264

b The Principle of Proportionality 269

c The Principle of Minimum Wrong 280

d The Principle of Distributive Justice 291

e The Principle of Restitutive Justice 304

4 The Ethical Ideal of Harmony between Human Civilization and Nature 307

5 The Normative Function of the Ethical Ideal 310

Bibliography 315

Index 325