www.umweltethik.

at

The Ethics of Respect for Nature

Paul W. Taylor*

I present the foundational structure for a life-centered theory of environmental

ethics. The structure consists of three interrelated components. First is the adopting
of a certain ultimate moral attitude toward nature, which I call “respect for nature.”
Second is a belief system that constitutes a way of conceiving of the natural world
and of our place in it. This belief system underlies and supports the attitude in a
way that makes it an appropriate attitude to take toward the Earth’s natural
ecosystems and their life communities. Third is a system of moral rules and stan-
dards for guiding our treatment of those ecosystems and life communities, a set of
normative principles which give concrete embodiment or expression to the attitude
of respect for nature. The theory set forth and defended here is, I hold, structurally
symmetrical with a theory of human ethics based on the principle of respect for
persons.

I. HUMAN-CENTERED AND LIFE-CENTERED SYSTEMS OF

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

In this paper I show how the taking of a certain ultimate moral attitude
toward nature, which I call “respect for nature,” has a central place in the
foundations of a life-centered system of environmental ethics. I hold that a set
of moral norms (both standards of character and rules of conduct) governing
human treatment of the natural world is a rationally grounded set if and only
if, first, commitment to those norms is a practical entailment of adopting the
attitude of respect for nature as an ultimate moral attitude, and second, the
adopting of that attitude on the part of all rational agents can itself be justified.
When the basic characteristics of the attitude of respect for nature are made
clear, it will be seen that a life-centered system of environmental ethics need
not be holistic or organicist in its conception of the kinds of entities that are
deemed the appropriate objects of moral concern and consideration. Nor does
such a system require that the concepts of ecological homeostasis, equilibrium,
and integrity provide us with normative principles from which could be
derived (with the addition of factual knowledge) our obligations with regard
__________
* Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Bedford
Avenue and H, Brooklyn, NY 11210. Taylor’s special fields are ethics and theory of value. He
is the author of Normative Discourse (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1961) and Principles
of Ethics: An Introduction (Encino, Calif.: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1975), and has also edited
two books of readings: The Moral Judgment: Readings in Contemporary Meta-Ethics (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963) and Problems of Moral Philosophy, 3rd ed. (Encino, Calif.:
Dickenson Publishing Co., 1971).

197
 www.umweltethik.at

198 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

to natural ecosystems. The “balance of nature” is not itself a moral norm,

however important may be the role it plays in our general outlook on the
natural world that underlies the attitude of respect for nature. I argue that
finally it is the good (well-being, welfare) of individual organisms, considered
as entities having inherent worth, that determines our moral relations with the
Earth’s wild communities of life.
In designating the theory to be set forth as life-centered, I intend to contrast
it with all anthropocentric views. According to the latter, human actions
affecting the natural environment and its nonhuman inhabitants are right (or
wrong) by either of two criteria: they have consequences which are favorable
(or unfavorable) to human well-being, or they are consistent (or inconsistent)
with the system of norms that protect and implement human rights. From this
human-centered standpoint it is to humans and only to humans that all duties
are ultimately owed. We may have responsibilities with regard to the natural
ecosystems and biotic communities of our planet, but these responsibilities are
in every case based on the contingent fact that our treatment of those ecosys-
tems and communities of life can further the realization of human values
and/or human rights. We have no obligation to promote or protect the good
of nonhuman living things, independently of this contingent fact.
A life-centered system of environmental ethics is opposed to human-cen-
tered ones precisely on this point. From the perspective of a life-centered
theory, we have prima facie moral obligations that are owed to wild plants and
animals themselves as members of the Earth’s biotic community. We are
morally bound (other things being equal) to protect or promote their good for
their sake. Our duties to respect the integrity of natural ecosystems, to preserve
endangered species, and to avoid environmental pollution stem from the fact
that these are ways in which we can help make it possible for wild species
populations to achieve and maintain a healthy existence in a natural state. Such
obligations are due those living things out of recognition of their inherent
worth. They are entirely additional to and independent of the obligations we
owe to our fellow humans. Although many of the actions that fulfill one set
of obligations will also fulfill the other, two different grounds of obligation are
involved. Their well-being, as well as human well-being, is something to be
realized as an end in itself.
If we were to accept a life-centered theory of environmental ethics, a pro-
found reordering of our moral universe would take place. We would begin to
look at the whole of the Earth’s biosphere in a new light. Our duties with
respect to the “world” of nature would be seen as making prima facie claims
upon us to be balanced against our duties with respect to the “world” of human
civilization. We could no longer simply take the human point of view and
consider the effects of our actions exclusively from the perspective of our own
good.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 199

II. THE GOOD OF A BEING AND THE CONCEPT OF INHERENT

WORTH

What would justify acceptance of a life-centered system of ethical princi-

ples? In order to answer this it is first necessary to make clear the fundamental
moral attitude that underlies and makes intelligible the commitment to live by
such a system. It is then necessary to examine the considerations that would
justify any rational agent’s adopting that moral attitude.
Two concepts are essential to the taking of a moral attitude of the sort in
question. A being which does not “have” these concepts, that is, which is
unable to grasp their meaning and conditions of applicability, cannot be said
to have the attitude as part of its moral outlook. These concepts are, first, that
of the good (well-being, welfare) of a living thing, and second, the idea of an
entity possessing inherent worth. I examine each concept in turn.
(1) Every organism, species population, and community of life has a good
of its own which moral agents can intentionally further or damage by their
actions. To say that an entity has a good of its own is simply to say that,
without reference to any other entity, it can be benefited or harmed. One can
act in its overall interest or contrary to its overall interest, and environmental
conditions can be good for it (advantageous to it) or bad for it (disadvantageous
to it). What is good for an entity is what “does it good” in the sense of
enhancing or preserving its life and well-being. What is bad for an entity is
something that is detrimental to its life and well-being.1
We can think of the good of an individual nonhuman organism as consisting
in the full development of its biological powers. Its good is realized to the
extent that it is strong and healthy. It possesses whatever capacities it needs
for successfully coping with its environment and so preserving its existence
throughout the various stages of the normal life cycle of its species. The good
of a population or community of such individuals consists in the population
or community maintaining itself from generation to generation as a coherent
system of genetically and ecologically related organisms whose average good
is at an optimum level for the given environment. (Here average good means
that the degree of realization of the good of individual organisms in the
population or community is, on average, greater than would be the case under
any other ecologically functioning order of interrelations among those species
populations in the given ecosystem.)
The idea of a being having a good of its own, as I understand it, does not
entail that the being must have interests or take an interest in what affects its
life for better or for worse. We can act in a being’s interest or contrary to its
__________
1
The conceptual links between an entity having a good, something being good for it, and events
doing good to it are examined by G. H. Von Wright in The Varieties of Goodness (New York:
Humanities Press, 1963), chaps. 3 and 5.
 www.umweltethik.at

200 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

interest without its being interested in what we are doing to it in the sense of
wanting or not wanting us to do it. It may, indeed, be wholly unaware that
favorable and unfavorable events are taking place in its life. I take it that trees,
for example, have no knowledge or desires or feelings. Yet it is undoubtedly
the case that trees can be harmed or benefited by our actions. We can crush
their roots by running a bulldozer too close to them. We can see to it that they
get adequate nourishment and moisture by fertilizing and watering the soil
around them. Thus we can help or hinder them in the realization of their good.
It is the good of trees themselves that is thereby affected. We can similarly act
so as to further the good of an entire tree population of a certain species (say,
all the redwood trees in a California valley) or the good of a whole community
of plant life in a given wilderness area, just as we can do harm to such a
population or community.
When construed in this way, the concept of a being’s good is not coextensive
with sentience or the capacity for feeling pain. William Frankena has argued
for a general theory of environmental ethics in which the ground of a creature’s
being worthy of moral consideration is its sentience. I have offered some
criticisms of this view elsewhere, but the full refutation of such a position, it
seems to me, finally depends on the positive reasons for accepting a life-
centered theory of the kind I am defending in this essay.2
It should be noted further that I am leaving open the question of whether
machines—in particular, those which are not only goal-directed, but also
self-regulating—can properly be said to have a good of their own.3 Since I am
concerned only with human treatment of wild organisms, species populations,
and communities of life as they occur in our planet’s natural ecosystems, it is
to those entities alone that the concept “having a good of its own” will here
be applied. I am not denying that other living things, whose genetic origin and
environmental conditions have been produced, controlled, and manipulated by
humans for human ends, do have a good of their own in the same sense as do
wild plants and animals. It is not my purpose in this essay, however, to set out
or defend the principles that should guide our conduct with regard to their
good. It is only insofar as their production and use by humans have good or
ill effects upon natural ecosystems and their wild inhabitants that the ethics
of respect for nature comes into play.
(2) The second concept essential to the moral attitude of respect for nature
is the idea of inherent worth. We take that attitude toward wild living things
__________
2
See W. K. Frankena, “Ethics and the Environment,” in K. E. Goodpaster and K. M. Sayre,
eds., Ethics and Problems of the 21st Century (Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press,
1979), pp. 3-20. I critically examine Frankena’s views in “Frankena on Environmental Ethics,”
Monist, forthcoming.
3
In the light of considerations set forth in Daniel Dennett’s Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays
on Mind and Psychology (Montgomery, Vermont: Bradford Books, 1978), it is advisable to leave
this question unsettled at this time. When machines are developed that function in the way our
brains do, we may well come to deem then proper subjects of moral consideration.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 201

(individuals, species populations, or whole biotic communities) when and only

when we regard them as entities possessing inherent worth. Indeed, it is only
because they are conceived in this way that moral agents can think of them-
selves as having validly binding duties, obligations, and responsibilities that are
owed to them as their due. I am not at this juncture arguing why they should
be so regarded; I consider it at length below. But so regarding them is a
presupposition of our taking the attitude of respect toward them and accord-
ingly understanding ourselves as bearing certain moral relations to them. This
can be shown as follows:
What does it mean to regard an entity that has a good of its own as
possessing inherent worth? Two general principles are involved: the principle
of moral consideration and the principle of intrinsic value.
According to the principle of moral consideration, wild living things are
deserving of the concern and consideration of all moral agents simply in virtue
of their being members of the Earth’s community of life. From the moral point
of view their good must be taken into account whenever it is affected for better
or worse by the conduct of rational agents. This holds no matter what species
the creature belongs to. The good of each is to be accorded some value and
so acknowledged as having some weight in the deliberations of all rational
agents. Of course, it may be necessary for such agents to act in ways contrary
to the good of this or that particular organism or group of organisms in order
to further the good of others, including the good of humans. But the principle
of moral consideration prescribes that, with respect to each being an entity
having its own good, every individual is deserving of consideration.
The principle of intrinsic value states that, regardless of what kind of entity
it is in other respects, if it is a member of the Earth’s community of life, the
realization of its good is something intrinsically valuable. This means that its
good is prima facie worthy of being preserved or promoted as an end in itself
and for the sake of the entity whose good it is. Insofar as we regard any
organism, species population, or life community as an entity having inherent
worth, we believe that it must never be treated as if it were a mere object or
thing whose entire value lies in being instrumental to the good of some other
entity. The well-being of each is judged to have value in and of itself.
Combining these two principles, we can now define what it means for a
living thing or group of living things to possess inherent worth. To say that
it possesses inherent worth is to say that its good is deserving of the concern
and consideration of all moral agents, and that the realization of its good has
intrinsic value, to be pursued as an end in itself and for the sake of the entity
whose good it is.
The duties owed to wild organisms, species populations, and communities
of life in the Earth’s natural ecosystems are grounded on their inherent worth.
When rational, autonomous agents regard such entities as possessing inherent
worth, they place intrinsic value on the realization of their good and so hold
 www.umweltethik.at

202 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

themselves responsible for performing actions that will have this effect and for
refraining from actions having the contrary effect.

III. THE ATTITUDE OF RESPECT FOR NATURE

Why should moral agents regard wild living things in the natural world as
possessing inherent worth? To answer this question we must first take into
account the fact that, when rational, autonomous agents subscribe to the
principles of moral consideration and intrinsic value and so conceive of wild
living things as having that kind of worth, such agents are adopting a certain
ultimate moral attitude toward the natural world. This is the attitude I call
“respect for nature.” It parallels the attitude of respect for persons in human
ethics. When we adopt the attitude of respect for persons as the proper (fitting,
appropriate) attitude to take toward all persons as persons, we consider
the fulfillment of the basic interests of each individual to have intrinsic value.
We thereby make a moral commitment to live a certain kind of life in rela-
tion to other persons. We place ourselves under the direction of a system of
standards and rules that we consider validly binding on all moral agents as
such.4
Similarly, when we adopt the attitude of respect for nature as an ultimate
moral attitude we make a commitment to live by certain normative principles.
These principles constitute the rules of conduct and standards of character that
are to govern our treatment of the natural world. This is, first, an ultimate
commitment because it is not derived from any higher norm. The attitude of
respect for nature is not grounded on some other, more general, or more
fundamental attitude. It sets the total framework for our responsibilities to-
ward the natural world. It can be justified, as I show below, but its justification
cannot consist in referring to a more general attitude or a more basic normative
principle.
Second, the commitment is a moral one because it is understood to be a
disinterested matter of principle. It is this feature that distinguishes the atti-
tude of respect for nature from the set of feelings and dispositions that com-
prise the love of nature. The latter stems from one’s personal interest in and
response to the natural world. Like the affectionate feelings we have toward
certain individual human beings, one’s love of nature is nothing more than the
particular way one feels about the natural environment and its wild inhabi-
tants. And just as our love for an individual person differs from our respect
for all persons as such (whether we happen to love them or not), so love of
nature differs from respect for nature. Respect for nature is an attitude we
__________
4
I have analyzed the nature of this commitment of human ethics in “On Taking the Moral
Point of View,” Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. 3, Studies in Ethical Theory (1978), pp. 35-61.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 203

believe all moral agents ought to have simply as moral agents, regardless of
whether or not they also love nature. Indeed, we have not truly taken the
attitude of respect for nature ourselves unless we believe this. To put it in a
Kantian way, to adopt the attitude of respect for nature is to take a stance that
one wills it to be a universal law for all rational beings. It is to hold that stance
categorically, as being validly applicable to every moral agent without excep-
tion, irrespective of whatever personal feelings toward nature such an agent
might have or might lack.
Although the attitude of respect for nature is in this sense a disinterested
and universalizable attitude, anyone who does adopt it has certain steady,
more or less permanent dispositions. These dispositions, which are themselves
to be considered disinterested and universalizable, comprise three interlocking
sets: dispositions to seek certain ends, dispositions to carry on one’s practical
reasoning and deliberation in a certain way, and dispositions to have certain
feelings. We may accordingly analyze the attitude of respect for nature into
the following components. (a) The disposition to aim at, and to take steps to
bring about, as final and disinterested ends, the promoting and protecting of
the good of organisms, species populations, and life communities in natural
ecosystems. (These ends are “final” in not being pursued as means to further
ends. They are “disinterested” in being independent of the self-interest of the
agent.) (b) The disposition to consider actions that tend to realize those ends
to be prima facie obligatory because they have that tendency. (c) The disposi-
tion to experience positive and negative feelings toward states of affairs in the
world because they are favorable or unfavorable to the good of organisms,
species populations, and life communities in natural ecosystems.
The logical connection between the attitude of respect for nature and the
duties of a life-centered system of environmental ethics can now be made clear.
Insofar as one sincerely takes that attitude and so has the three sets of disposi-
tions, one will at the same time be disposed to comply with certain rules of
duty (such as nonmaleficence and noninterference) and with standards of
character (such as fairness and benevolence) that determine the obligations
and virtues of moral agents with regard to the Earth’s wild living things. We
can say that the actions one performs and the character traits one develops in
fulfilling these moral requirements are the way one expresses or embodies the
attitude in one’s conduct and character. In his famous essay, “Justice as
Fairness,” John Rawls describes the rules of the duties of human morality
(such as fidelity, gratitude, honesty, and justice) as “forms of conduct in which
recognition of others as persons is manifested.”5 I hold that the rules of duty
governing our treatment of the natural world and its inhabitants are forms of
conduct in which the attitude of respect for nature is manifested.
__________
5
John Rawls, “Justice As Fairness,” Philosophical Review 67 (1958): 183.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 207

(3) Each individual organism is conceived of as a teleological center of life,

pursuing its own good in its own way. (4) Whether we are concerned with
standards of merit or with the concept of inherent worth, the claim that
humans by their very nature are superior to other species is a groundless claim
and, in the light of elements (1), (2), and (3) above, must be rejected as nothing
more than an irrational bias in our own favor.
The conjunction of these four ideas constitutes the biocentric outlook on
nature. In the remainder of this paper I give a brief account of the first three
components, followed by a more detailed analysis of the fourth. I then con-
clude by indicating how this outlook provides a way of justifying the attitude
of respect for nature.

VI. HUMANS AS MEMBERS OF THE EARTH’S COMMUNITY OF

LIFE

We share with other species a common relationship to the Earth. In accept-

ing the biocentric outlook we take the fact of our being an animal species to
be a fundamental feature of our existence. We consider it an essential aspect
of “the human condition.” We do not deny the differences between ourselves
and other species, but we keep in the forefront of our consciousness the fact
that in relation to our planet’s natural ecosystems we are but one species
population among many. Thus we acknowledge our origin in the very same
evolutionary process that gave rise to all other species and we recognize
ourselves to be confronted with similar environmental challenges to those that
confront them. The laws of genetics, of natural selection, and of adaptation
apply equally to all of us as biological creatures. In this light we consider
ourselves as one with them, not set apart from them. We, as well as they, must
face certain basic conditions of existence that impose requirements on us for
our survival and well-being. Each animal and plant is like us in having a good
of its own. Although our human good (what is of true value in human life,
including the exercise of individual autonomy in choosing our own particular
value systems) is not like the good of a nonhuman animal or plant, it can no
more be realized than their good can without the biological necessities for
survival and physical health.
When we look at ourselves from the evolutionary point of view, we see that
not only are we very recent arrivals on Earth, but that our emergence as a new
species on the planet was originally an event of no particular importance to
the entire scheme of things. The Earth was teeming with life long before we
appeared. Putting the point metaphorically, we are relative newcomers, enter-
ing a home that has been the residence of others for hundreds of millions of
years, a home that must now be shared by all of us together.
The comparative brevity of human life on Earth may be vividly depicted by
imagining the geological time scale in spatial terms. Suppose we start with
algae, which have been around for at least 600 million years. (The earliest
 www.umweltethik.at

208 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

protozoa actually predated this by several billion years.) If the time that algae
have been here were represented by the length of a football field (300 feet), then
the period during which sharks have been swimming in the world’s oceans and
spiders have been spinning their webs would occupy three quarters of the
length of the field; reptiles would show up at about the center of the field;
mammals would cover the last third of the field; hominids (mammals of the
family Hominidae) the last two feet; and the species Homo sapiens the last six
inches.
Whether this newcomer is able to survive as long as other species remains
to be seen. But there is surely something presumptuous about the way humans
look down on the “lower” animals, especially those that have become extinct.
We consider the dinosaurs, for example, to be biological failures, though they
existed on our planet for 65 million years. One writer has made the point with
beautiful simplicity:

We sometimes speak of the dinosaurs as failures; there will be time enough for
that judgment when we have lasted even for one tenth as long. . . . 6

The possibility of the extinction of the human species, a possibility which

starkly confronts us in the contemporary world, makes us aware of another
respect in which we should not consider ourselves privileged beings in relation
to other species. This is the fact that the well-being of humans is dependent
upon the ecological soundness and health of many plant and animal communi-
ties, while their soundness and health does not in the least depend upon human
well-being. Indeed, from their standpoint the very existence of humans is quite
unnecessary. Every last man, woman, and child could disappear from the face
of the Earth without any significant detrimental consequence for the good of
wild animals and plants. On the contrary, many of them would be greatly
benefited. The destruction of their habitats by human “developments” would
cease. The poisoning and polluting of their environment would come to an end.
The Earth’s land, air, and water would no longer be subject to the degradation
they are now undergoing as the result of large-scale technology and uncon-
trolled population growth. Life communities in natural ecosystems would
gradually return to their former healthy state. Tropical forests, for example,
would again be able to make their full contribution to a life-sustaining atmo-
sphere for the whole planet. The rivers, lakes, and oceans of the world would
(perhaps) eventually become clean again. Spilled oil, plastic trash, and even
radioactive waste might finally, after many centuries, cease doing their terrible
work. Ecosystems would return to their proper balance, suffering only the
disruptions of natural events such as volcanic eruptions and glaciation. From
these the community of life could recover, as it has so often done in the past.
__________
6
Stephen R. L. Clark, The Moral Status of Animals (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), p. 112.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 209

But the ecological disasters now perpetrated on it by humans—disasters from

which it might never recover—these it would no longer have to endure.
If, then, the total, final, absolute extermination of our species (by our own
hands?) should take place and if we should not carry all the others with us into
oblivion, not only would the Earth’s community of life continue to exist, but
in all probability its well-being would be enhanced. Our presence, in short, is
not needed. If we were to take the standpoint of the community and give voice
to its true interest, the ending of our six-inch epoch would most likely be
greeted with a hearty “Good riddance!”

VII. THE NATURAL WORLD AS AN ORGANIC SYSTEM

To accept the biocentric outlook and regard ourselves and our place in the
world from its perspective is to see the whole natural order of the Earth’s
biosphere as a complex but unified web of interconnected organisms, objects,
and events. The ecological relationships between any community of living
things and their environment form an organic whole of functionally interde-
pendent parts. Each ecosystem is a small universe itself in which the interac-
tions of its various species populations comprise an intricately woven network
of cause-effect relations. Such dynamic but at the same time relatively stable
structures as food chains, predator-prey relations, and plant succession in a
forest are self-regulating, energy-recycling mechanisms that preserve the equi-
librium of the whole.
As far as the well-being of wild animals and plants is concerned, this
ecological equilibrium must not be destroyed. The same holds true of the
well-being of humans. When one views the realm of nature from the perspec-
tive of the biocentric outlook, one never forgets that in the long run the
integrity of the entire biosphere of our planet is essential to the realization of
the good of its constituent communities of life, both human and nonhuman.
Although the importance of this idea cannot be overemphasized, it is by now
so familiar and so widely acknowledged that I shall not further elaborate on
it here. However, I do wish to point out that this “holistic” view of the Earth’s
ecological systems does not itself constitute a moral norm. It is a factual aspect
of biological reality, to be understood as a set of causal connections in ordinary
empirical terms. Its significance for humans is the same as its significance for
nonhumans, namely, in setting basic conditions for the realization of the good
of living things. Its ethical implications for our treatment of the natural envi-
ronment lie entirely in the fact that our knowledge of these causal connections
is an essential means to fulfilling the aims we set for ourselves in adopting the
attitude of respect for nature. In addition, its theoretical implications for the
ethics of respect for nature lie in the fact that it (along with the other elements
of the biocentric outlook) makes the adopting of that attitude a rational and
intelligible thing to do.
 www.umweltethik.at

210 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

VIII. INDIVIDUAL ORGANISMS AS TELEOLOGICAL CENTERS

OF LIFE

As our knowledge of living things increases, as we come to a deeper under-

standing of their life cycles, their interactions with other organisms, and the
manifold ways in which they adjust to the environment, we become more fully
aware of how each of them is carrying out its biological functions according
to the laws of its species-specific nature. But besides this, our increasing
knowledge and understanding also develop in us a sharpened awareness of the
uniqueness of each individual organism. Scientists who have made careful
studies of particular plants and animals, whether in the field or in laboratories,
have often acquired a knowledge of their subjects as identifiable individuals.
Close observation over extended periods of time has led them to an apprecia-
tion of the unique “personalities” of their subjects. Sometimes a scientist may
come to take a special interest in a particular animal or plant, all the while
remaining strictly objective in the gathering and recording of data. Nonscien-
tists may likewise experience this development of interest when, as amateur
naturalists, they make accurate observations over sustained periods of close
acquaintance with an individual organism. As one becomes more and more
familiar with the organism and its behavior, one becomes fully sensitive to the
particular way it is living out its life cycle. One may become fascinated by it
and even experience some involvement with its good and bad fortunes (that
is, with the occurrence of environmental conditions favorable or unfavorable
to the realization of its good). The organism comes to mean something to one
as a unique, irreplaceable individual. The final culmination of this process is
the achievement of a genuine understanding of its point of view and, with that
understanding, an ability to “take” that point of view. Conceiving of it as a
center of life, one is able to look at the world from its perspective.
This development from objective knowledge to the recognition of individual-
ity, and from the recognition of individuality to full awareness of an organism’s
standpoint, is a process of heightening our consciousness of what it means to
be an individual living thing. We grasp the particularity of the organism as a
teleological center of life, striving to preserve itself and to realize its own good
in its own unique way.
It is to be noted that we need not be falsely anthropomorphizing when we
conceive of individual plants and animals in this manner. Understanding them
as teleological centers of life does not necessitate “reading into” them human
characteristics. We need not, for example, consider them to have conscious-
ness. Some of them may be aware of the world around them and others may
not. Nor need we deny that different kinds and levels of awareness are exem-
plified when consciousness in some form is present. But conscious or not, all
are equally teleological centers of life in the sense that each is a unified system
of goal-oriented activities directed toward their preservation and well-being.
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 211

When considered from an ethical point of view, a teleological center of life

is an entity whose “world” can be viewed from the perspective of its life. In
looking at the world from that perspective we recognize objects and events
occurring in its life as being beneficent, maleficent, or indifferent. The first are
occurrences which increase its powers to preserve its existence and realize its
good. The second decrease or destroy those powers. The third have neither of
these effects on the entity. With regard to our human role as moral agents, we
can conceive of a teleological center of life as a being whose standpoint we can
take in making judgments about what events in the world are good or evil,
desirable or undesirable. In making those judgments it is what promotes or
protects the being’s own good, not what benefits moral agents themselves, that
sets the standard of evaluation. Such judgments can be made about anything
that happens to the entity which is favorable or unfavorable in relation to its
good. As was pointed out earlier, the entity itself need not have any (conscious)
interest in what is happening to it for such judgments to be meaningful and
true.
It is precisely judgments of this sort that we are disposed to make when we
take the attitude of respect for nature. In adopting that attitude those judg-
ments are given weight as reasons for action in our practical deliberation. They
become morally relevant facts in the guidance of our conduct.

IX. THE DENIAL OF HUMAN SUPERIORITY

This fourth component of the biocentric outlook on nature is the single most
important idea in establishing the justifiability of the attitude of respect for
nature. Its central role is due to the special relationship it bears to the first three
components of the outlook. This relationship will be brought out after the
concept of human superiority is examined and analyzed.7
In what sense are humans alleged to be superior to other animals? We are
different from them in having certain capacities that they lack. But why should
these capacities be a mark of superiority? From what point of view are they
judged to be signs of superiority and what sense of superiority is meant? After
all, various nonhuman species have capacities that humans lack. There is the
speed of a cheetah, the vision of an eagle, the agility of a monkey. Why should
not these be taken as signs of their superiority over humans?
One answer that comes immediately to mind is that these capacities are not
as valuable as the human capacities that are claimed to make us superior. Such
uniquely human characteristics as rational thought, aesthetic creativity, auton-
__________
7
My criticisms of the dogma of human superiority gain independent support from a carefully
reasoned essay by R. and V. Routley showing the many logical weaknesses in arguments for
human-centered theories of environmental ethics. R. and V. Routley, “Against the Inevitability
of Human Chauvinism,” in K. E. Goodpaster and K. M. Sayre, eds., Ethics and Problems of the
21st Century (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), pp. 36-59.
 www.umweltethik.at

212 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

omy and self-determination, and moral freedom, it might be held, have a

higher value than the capacities found in other species. Yet we must ask:
valuable to whom, and on what grounds?
The human characteristics mentioned are all valuable to humans. They are
essential to the preservation and enrichment of our civilization and culture.
Clearly it is from the human standpoint that they are being judged to be
desirable and good. It is not difficult here to recognize a begging of the
question. Humans are claiming human superiority from a strictly human point
of view, that is, from a point of view in which the good of humans is taken
as the standard of judgment. All we need to do is to look at the capacities of
nonhuman animals (or plants, for that matter) from the standpoint of their
good to find a contrary judgment of superiority. The speed of the cheetah, for
example, is a sign of its superiority to humans when considered from the
standpoint of the good of its species. If it were as slow a runner as a human,
it would not be able to survive. And so for all the other abilities of nonhumans
which further their good but which are lacking in humans. In each case the
claim to human superiority would be rejected from a nonhuman standpoint.
When superiority assertions are interpreted in this way, they are based on
judgments of merit. To judge the merits of a person or an organism one must
apply grading or ranking standards to it. (As I show below, this distinguishes
judgments of merit from judgments of inherent worth.) Empirical investiga-
tion then determines whether it has the “good-making properties” (merits) in
virtue of which it fulfills the standards being applied. In the case of humans,
merits may be either moral or nonmoral. We can judge one person to be better
than (superior to) another from the moral point of view by applying certain
standards to their character and conduct. Similarly, we can appeal to non-
moral criteria in judging someone to be an excellent piano player, a fair cook,
a poor tennis player, and so on. Different social purposes and roles are implicit
in the making of such judgments, providing the frame of reference for the
choice of standards by which the nonmoral merits of people are determined.
Ultimately such purposes and roles stem from a society’s way of life as a whole.
Now a society’s way of life may be thought of as the cultural form given to
the realization of human values. Whether moral or nonmoral standards are
being applied, then, all judgments of people’s merits finally depend on human
values. All are made from an exclusively human standpoint.
The question that naturally arises at this juncture is: why should standards
that are based on human values be assumed to be the only valid criteria of merit
and hence the only true signs of superiority? This question is especially press-
ing when humans are being judged superior in merit to nonhumans. It is true
that a human being may be a better mathematician than a monkey, but the
monkey may be a better tree climber than a human being. If we humans value
mathematics more than tree climbing, that is because our conception of civi-
lized life makes the development of mathematical ability more desirable than
the ability to climb trees. But is it not unreasonable to judge nonhumans by
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 213

the values of human civilization, rather than by values connected with what
it is for a member of that species to live a good life? If all living things have
a good of their own, it at least makes sense to judge the merits of nonhumans
by standards derived from their good. To use only standards based on human
values is already to commit oneself to holding that humans are superior to
nonhumans, which is the point in question.
A further logical flaw arises in connection with the widely held conviction
that humans are morally superior beings because they possess, while others
lack, the capacities of a moral agent (free will, accountability, deliberation,
judgment, practical reason). This view rests on a conceptual confusion. As far
as moral standards are concerned, only beings that have the capacities of a
moral agent can properly be judged to be either moral (morally good) or
immoral (morally deficient). Moral standards are simply not applicable to
beings that lack such capacities. Animals and plants cannot therefore be said
to be morally inferior in merit to humans. Since the only beings that can have
moral merits or be deficient in such merits are moral agents, it is conceptually
incoherent to judge humans as superior to nonhumans on the ground that
humans have moral capacities while nonhumans don’t.
Up to this point I have been interpreting the claim that humans are superior
to other living things as a grading or ranking judgment regarding their com-
parative merits. There is, however, another way of understanding the idea of
human superiority. According to this interpretation, humans are superior to
nonhumans not as regards their merits but as regards their inherent worth.
Thus the claim of human superiority is to be understood as asserting that all
humans, simply in virtue of their humanity, have a greater inherent worth than
other living things.
The inherent worth of an entity does not depend on its merits.8 To consider
something as possessing inherent worth, we have seen, is to place intrinsic
value on the realization of its good. This is done regardless of whatever
particular merits it might have or might lack, as judged by a set of grading
or ranking standards. In human affairs, we are all familiar with the principle
that one’s worth as a person does not vary with one’s merits or lack of merits.
The same can hold true of animals and plants. To regard such entities as
possessing inherent worth entails disregarding their merits and deficiencies,
whether they are being judged from a human standpoint or from the stand-
point of their own species.
The idea of one entity having more merit than another, and so being superior
to it in merit, makes perfectly good sense. Merit is a grading or ranking
concept, and judgments of comparative merit are based on the different degrees
to which things satisfy a given standard. But what can it mean to talk about
one thing being superior to another in inherent worth? In order to get at what
__________
8
For this way of distinguishing between merit and inherent worth, I am indebted to Gregory
Vlastos, “Justice and Equality,” in R. Brandt, ed., Social Justice (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Pren-
tice-Hall, 1962), pp. 31-72.
 www.umweltethik.at

214 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

is being asserted in such a claim it is helpful first to look at the social origin
of the concept of degrees of inherent worth.
The idea that humans can possess different degrees of inherent worth origi-
nated in societies having rigid class structures. Before the rise of modern
democracies with their egalitarian outlook, one’s membership in a hereditary
class determined one’s social status. People in the upper classes were looked
up to, while those in the lower classes were looked down upon. In such a
society one’s social superiors and social inferiors were clearly defined and
easily recognized.
Two aspects of these class-structured societies are especially relevant to the
idea of degrees of inherent worth. First, those born into the upper classes were
deemed more worthy of respect than those born into the lower orders. Second,
the superior worth of upper class people had nothing to do with their merits
nor did the inferior worth of those in the lower classes rest on their lack of
merits. One’s superiority or inferiority entirely derived from a social position
one was born into. The modern concept of a meritocracy simply did not apply.
One could not advance into a higher class by any sort of moral or nonmoral
achievement. Similarly, an aristocrat held his title and all the privileges that
went with it just because he was the eldest son of a titled nobleman. Unlike
the bestowing of knighthood in contemporary Great Britain, one did not earn
membership in the nobility by meritorious conduct.
We who live in modern democracies no longer believe in such hereditary
social distinctions. Indeed, we would wholeheartedly condemn them on moral
grounds as being fundamentally unjust. We have come to think of class systems
as a paradigm of social injustice, it being a central principle of the democratic
way of life that among humans there are no superiors and no inferiors. Thus
we have rejected the whole conceptual framework in which people are judged
to have different degrees of inherent worth. That idea is incompatible with our
notion of human equality based on the doctrine that all humans, simply in
virtue of their humanity, have the same inherent worth. (The belief in universal
human rights is one form that this egalitarianism takes.)
The vast majority of people in modern democracies, however, do not main-
tain an egalitarian outlook when it comes to comparing human beings with
other living things. Most people consider our own species to be superior to all
other species and this superiority is understood to be a matter of inherent
worth, not merit. There may exist thoroughly vicious and depraved humans
who lack all merit. Yet because they are human they are thought to belong
to a higher class of entities than any plant or animal. That one is born into
the species Homo sapiens entitles one to have lordship over those who are one’s
inferiors, namely, those born into other species. The parallel with hereditary
social classes is very close. Implicit in this view is a hierarchical conception
of nature according to which an organism has a position of superiority or
inferiority in the Earth’s community of life simply on the basis of its genetic
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 215

background. The “lower” orders of life are looked down upon and it is consid-
ered perfectly proper that they serve the interests of those belonging to the
highest order, namely humans. The intrinsic value we place on the well-being
of our fellow humans reflects our recognition of their rightful position as our
equals. No such intrinsic value is to be placed on the good of other animals,
unless we choose to do so out of fondness or affection for them. But their
well-being imposes no moral requirement on us. In this respect there is an
absolute difference in moral status between ourselves and them.
This is the structure of concepts and beliefs that people are committed to
insofar as they regard humans to be superior in inherent worth to all other
species. I now wish to argue that this structure of concepts and beliefs is
completely groundless. If we accept the first three components of the biocentric
outlook and from that perspective look at the major philosophical traditions
which have supported that structure, we find it to be at bottom nothing more
than the expression of an irrational bias in our own favor. The philosophical
traditions themselves rest on very questionable assumptions or else simply beg
the question. I briefly consider three of the main traditions to substantiate the
point. These are classical Greek humanism, Cartesian dualism, and the Judeo-
Christian concept of the Great Chain of Being.
The inherent superiority of humans over other species was implicit in the
Greek definition of man as a rational animal. Our animal nature was identified
with “brute” desires that need the order and restraint of reason to rule them
(just as reason is the special virtue of those who rule in the ideal state).
Rationality was then seen to be the key to our superiority over animals. It
enables us to live on a higher plane and endows us with a nobility and worth
that other creatures lack. This familiar way of comparing humans with other
species is deeply ingrained in our Western philosophical outlook. The point to
consider here is that this view does not actually provide an argument for
human superiority but rather makes explicit the framework of thought that is
implicitly used by those who think of humans as inherently superior to nonhu-
mans. The Greeks who held that humans, in virtue of their rational capacities,
have a kind of worth greater than that of any nonrational being, never looked
at rationality as but one capacity of living things among many others. But
when we consider rationality from the standpoint of the first three elements
of the ecological outlook, we see that its value lies in its importance for human
life. Other creatures achieve their species-specific good without the need of
rationality, although they often make use of capacities that humans lack. So
the humanistic outlook of classical Greek thought does not give us a neutral
(nonquestion-begging) ground on which to construct a scale of degrees of
inherent worth possessed by different species of living things.
The second tradition, centering on the Cartesian dualism of soul and body,
also fails to justify the claim to human superiority. That superiority is supposed
to derive from the fact that we have souls while animals do not. Animals are
 www.umweltethik.at

216 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

mere automata and lack the divine element that makes us spiritual beings. I
won’t go into the now familiar criticisms of this two-substance view. I only add
the point that, even if humans are composed of an immaterial, unextended soul
and a material, extended body, this in itself is not a reason to deem them of
greater worth than entities that are only bodies. Why is a soul substance a thing
that adds value to its possessor? Unless some theological reasoning is offered
here (which many, including myself, would find unacceptable on epistemologi-
cal grounds), no logical connection is evident. An immaterial something which
thinks is better than a material something which does not think only if thinking
itself has value, either intrinsically or instrumentally. Now it is intrinsically
valuable to humans alone, who value it as an end in itself, and it is instrumen-
tally valuable to those who benefit from it, namely humans.
For animals that neither enjoy thinking for its own sake nor need it for living
the kind of life for which they are best adapted, it has no value. Even if
“thinking” is broadened to include all forms of consciousness, there are still
many living things that can do without it and yet live what is for their species
a good life. The anthropocentricity underlying the claim to human superiority
runs throughout Cartesian dualism.
A third major source of the idea of human superiority is the Judeo-Christian
concept of the Great Chain of Being. Humans are superior to animals and
plants because their Creator has given them a higher place on the chain. It
begins with God at the top, and then moves to the angels, who are lower than
God but higher than humans, then to humans, positioned between the angels
and the beasts (partaking of the nature of both), and then on down to the lower
levels occupied by nonhuman animals, plants, and finally inanimate objects.
Humans, being “made in God’s image,” are inherently superior to animals and
plants by virtue of their being closer (in their essential nature) to God.
The metaphysical and epistemological difficulties with this conception of a
hierarchy of entities are, in my mind, insuperable. Without entering into this
matter here, I only point out that if we are unwilling to accept the metaphysics
of traditional Judaism and Christianity, we are again left without good reasons
for holding to the claim of inherent human superiority.
The foregoing considerations (and others like them) leave us with but one
ground for the assertion that a human being, regardless of merit, is a higher
kind of entity than any other living thing. This is the mere fact of the genetic
makeup of the species Homo sapiens. But this is surely irrational and arbitrary.
Why should the arrangement of genes of a certain type be a mark of superior
value, especially when this fact about an organism is taken by itself, unrelated
to any other aspect of its life? We might just as well refer to any other genetic
makeup as a ground of superior value. Clearly we are confronted here with
a wholly arbitrary claim that can only be explained as an irrational bias in our
own favor.
That the claim is nothing more than a deep-seated prejudice is brought home
to us when we look at our relation to other species in the light of the first three
 www.umweltethik.at

Fall 1981 RESPECT FOR NATURE 217

elements of the biocentric outlook. Those elements taken conjointly give us a

certain overall view of the natural world and of the place of humans in it. When
we take this view we come to understand other living things, their environmen-
tal conditions, and their ecological relationships in such a way as to awake in
us a deep sense of our kinship with them as fellow members of the Earth’s
community of life. Humans and nonhumans alike are viewed together as
integral parts of one unified whole in which all living things are functionally
interrelated. Finally, when our awareness focuses on the individual lives of
plants and animals, each is seen to share with us the characteristic of being
a teleological center of life striving to realize its own good in its own unique
way.
As this entire belief system becomes part of the conceptual framework
through which we understand and perceive the world, we come to see ourselves
as bearing a certain moral relation to nonhuman forms of life. Our ethical role
in nature takes on a new significance. We begin to look at other species as we
look at ourselves, seeing them as beings which have a good they are striving
to realize just as we have a good we are striving to realize. We accordingly
develop the disposition to view the world from the standpoint of their good
as well as from the standpoint of our own good. Now if the groundlessness of
the claim that humans are inherently superior to other species were brought
clearly before our minds, we would not remain intellectually neutral toward
that claim but would reject it as being fundamentally at variance with our total
world outlook. In the absence of any good reasons for holding it, the assertion
of human superiority would then appear simply as the expression of an irratio-
nal and self-serving prejudice that favors one particular species over several
million others.
Rejecting the notion of human superiority entails its positive counterpart:
the doctrine of species impartiality. One who accepts that doctrine regards all
living things as possessing inherent worth—the same inherent worth, since no
one species has been shown to be either “higher” or “lower” than any other.
Now we saw earlier that, insofar as one thinks of a living thing as possessing
inherent worth, one considers it to be the appropriate object of the attitude of
respect and believes that attitude to be the only fitting or suitable one for all
moral agents to take toward it.
Here, then, is the key to understanding how the attitude of respect is rooted
in the biocentric outlook on nature. The basic connection is made through the
denial of human superiority. Once we reject the claim that humans are superior
either in merit or in worth to other living things, we are ready to adopt the
attitude of respect. The denial of human superiority is itself the result of taking
the perspective on nature built into the first three elements of the biocentric
outlook.
Now the first three elements of the biocentric outlook, it seems clear, would
be found acceptable to any rational and scientifically informed thinker who is
fully “open” to the reality of the lives of nonhuman organisms. Without
 www.umweltethik.at

218 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Vol. 3

denying our distinctively human characteristics, such a thinker can acknowl-

edge the fundamental respects in which we are members of the Earth’s commu-
nity of life and in which the biological conditions necessary for the realization
of our human values are inextricably linked with the whole system of nature.
In addition, the conception of individual living things as teleological centers
of life simply articulates how a scientifically informed thinker comes to under-
stand them as the result of increasingly careful and detailed observations.
Thus, the biocentric outlook recommends itself as an acceptable system of
concepts and beliefs to anyone who is clear-minded, unbiased, and factually
enlightened, and who has a developed capacity of reality awareness with
regard to the lives of individual organisms. This, I submit, is as good a reason
for making the moral commitment involved in adopting the attitude of respect
for nature as any theory of environmental ethics could possibly have.

X. MORAL RIGHTS AND THE MATTER OF COMPETING

CLAIMS

I have not asserted anywhere in the foregoing account that animals or plants
have moral rights. This omission was deliberate. I do not think that the
reference class of the concept, bearer of moral rights, should be extended to
include nonhuman living things. My reasons for taking this position, however,
go beyond the scope of this paper. I believe I have been able to accomplish
many of the same ends which those who ascribe rights to animals or plants
wish to accomplish. There is no reason, moreover, why plants and animals,
including whole species populations and life communities, cannot be accorded
legal rights under my theory. To grant them legal protection could be inter-
preted as giving them legal entitlement to be protected, and this, in fact, would
be a means by which a society that subscribed to the ethics of respect for nature
could give public recognition to their inherent worth.
There remains the problem of competing claims, even when wild plants and
animals are not thought of as bearers of moral rights. If we accept the biocen-
tric outlook and accordingly adopt the attitude of respect for nature as our
ultimate moral attitude, how do we resolve conflicts that arise from our respect
for persons in the domain of human ethics and our respect for nature in the
domain of environmental ethics? This is a question that cannot adequately be
dealt with here. My main purpose in this paper has been to try to establish a
base point from which we can start working toward a solution to the problem.
I have shown why we cannot just begin with an initial presumption in favor
of the interests of our own species. It is after all within our power as moral
beings to place limits on human population and technology with the deliberate
intention of sharing the Earth’s bounty with other species. That such sharing
is an ideal difficult to realize even in an approximate way does not take away
its claim to our deepest moral commitment.