PHIL 2270 Lecture 17: ES vs EE
14 Jun 2018
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“Environmental Science vs. Environmental Ethics” – Mark Sagoff
Environmental Ethics: normative and concerned with environmental justice, respect for
nature, compassion for animals, preservation of habitats and species.
Environmental Science: descriptive and primarily concerned with observation and
experimentation to discern casual relationships.
→ They both view nature as being hierarchically organized.
• Environmental Ethics supports the view that every member of this hierarchy has
intrinsic value – the land, the trees, the animals, the ecosystem as a whole.
• Both EE and ES are committed to the view that if ecosystems are left undisturbed,
they will reach a natural balance – a certain level of organization.
6 reasons to doubt the balance and organization of ecosystems:
1) There is no empirical evidence supporting the view that they’re organized.
2) There is no cause for there to be organization, IF there was.
3) There is no consensus in the ecological community regarding rules or principles
that would explain the organization of ecosystems.
4) Ecologists have not been able to propose conditions for identifying
ecosystems.
5) There is no way to distinguish essential from accidental characteristics of
ecosystems.
6) Should anthropogenic activity be regarded as a part of ecosystems? Or are
humans not part of nature?
Kant’s Critique of Judgment: the beauty and organization of ecosystems that appear to
us are REAL but that they “cannot be reduced to rational concepts of the sort sought
by empirical science”
Sagoff notes the problem with the concept of biodiversity, he argues, is that it is vague
and ambiguous. Does biodiversity refer to ecosystems without human intervention or
does it include species diversity brought about by human intervention?
• E.g., the introduction of invasive species via shipping
• E.g., genetically engineered crops
• E.g., de-extinction
Advantages to ascribing intrinsic value to human originated biodiversity in addition to
natural biodiversity:
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