Book contents
- Animal Ethics in the Wild
- Animal Ethics in the Wild
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Moral Considerability
- Chapter 2 Speciesism
- Chapter 3 Wild Animal Suffering
- Chapter 4 Perversity and Futility
- Chapter 5 Jeopardy
- Chapter 6 Relationality
- Chapter 7 Priority
- Chapter 8 Tractability
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - Jeopardy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2023
- Animal Ethics in the Wild
- Animal Ethics in the Wild
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Moral Considerability
- Chapter 2 Speciesism
- Chapter 3 Wild Animal Suffering
- Chapter 4 Perversity and Futility
- Chapter 5 Jeopardy
- Chapter 6 Relationality
- Chapter 7 Priority
- Chapter 8 Tractability
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines jeopardy objections, according to which intervention in nature should be prevented insofar as it will threaten other, more important values. Depending on the theory endorsed, these values vary, including the preservation of ecosystems or species (holism), living entities such as plants and other non-sentient organisms (biocentrism), or the “natural” and “the wilderness.” It argues that both holistic and biocentric views either rely on an irrational preference for the status quo or they build their case on implausible axiological assumptions that lead to unacceptable consequences for human interests. Finally, the so-called “natural,” understood as the result of evolution or as the natural wilderness, is revealed, at most, as possessing a kind of value that can be easily outweighed by that of nonhuman well-being. Appeals to the natural cannot in any case ground an opposition to helping wild animals across the board.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Animal Ethics in the WildWild Animal Suffering and Intervention in Nature, pp. 104 - 125Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022