Baard, Patrik
- Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
This article argues that holistic ecocentrism unnecessarily introduces elements to explain why we ought to halt biodiversity loss. I suggest that atomistic accounts can justify the same conclusion by utilising fewer elements. Hence, why we ought to preserve biodiversity can be made reasonable without adding elements such as intrinsic values of ecosystems or moral obligations to conserve collectives of organisms. Between two equally good explanations of the same phenomenon, the explanation utilising fewer elements, which speaks in favour of atomistic accounts, will be the better one.
Keywords
Biodiversity; biocentrism; ecocentrism; Ockham's razor
Published in
Environmental Values
2021, volume: 30, number: 1, pages: 93-110
SLU Authors
Associated SLU-program
SLU Swedish Biodiversity Centre
Global goals (SDG)
UKÄ Subject classification
Ethics
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/096327120X15752810324048
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/106532