L30 Phil 235F Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: California Condor, Turkey Vulture, Keystone Species
Document Summary
We are causing lots of species to go extinct. Many are plants and insects, but others are from the rest of spectrum of life. Nearly half of all primates are going extinct. The view that species do matter is a type of holism. According to individualism, our obligations are simply toward individuals, so it would be equally wrong to kill a common turkey vulture and a california condor. But environmentalists typically claim that it is worse to kill a member of an endangered species than a non-endangered one. Various species of tortoises native to the galapagos islands. Goats are brought to the islands (by pirates, whalers) sometime a few hundred years ago. Goats multiplied incredibly fast, and tortoises came very close to extinction. What did environmentalist groups do in response. Eden approach - restore the environment to the original ecosystem. Problem: sometimes it is too late, species have gone extinct.
