Wild Animals in Our Backyard. A Contextual Approach to the Intrinsic Value of Animals
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Wild Animals in Our Backyard. A Contextual Approach to the Intrinsic Value of Animals Jac. A. A. Swart • Jozef Keulartz
Received: 19 January 2011 / Accepted: 27 January 2011 / Published online: 20 February 2011 The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract As a reflection on recent debates on the value of wild animals we examine the question of the intrinsic value of wild animals in both natural and manmade surroundings. We examine the concepts being wild and domesticated. In our approach we consider animals as dependent on their environment, whether it is a human or a natural environment. Stressing this dependence we argue that a distinction can be made between three different interpretations of a wild animal’s intrinsic value: a species-specific, a naturalistic, and an individualistic interpretation. According to the species-specific approach, the animal is primarily considered as a member of its species; according to the naturalistic interpretation, the animal is seen as dependent on the natural environment; and according to the individualistic approach, the animal is seen in terms of its relationship to humans. In our opinion, the species-specific interpretation, which is the current dominant view, should be supplemented—but not replaced by—naturalistic and individualistic interpretations, which focus attention on the relationship of the animal to the natural and human environments, respectively. Which of these three interpretations is the most suitable in a given case depends on the circumstances and the opportunity for the animal to grow and develop according to its nature and capabilities.
Jac. A. A. Swart (&) Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Science and Society Group (SSG), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), University of Groningen, PO Box 221, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] J. Keulartz Applied Philosophy Group, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] J. Keulartz Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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J. A. A. Swart, J. Keulartz
Keywords Intrinsic value Wild animals Domestication Specific and non-specific care Capabilities
1 Introduction In recent decades we have seen growing attention being paid to the moral position of wild animals, as they are increasingly being affected by human activities. Worldwide, their territories are increasingly fragmented, contaminated, and disturbed by for example, transport activities and facilities, tourism, urban development, and agriculture. Between 1970 and 2007, the populations of almost 30 percent of vertebrate species in the world declined with species in tropical areas appearing to be especially vulnerable (WWF 2010). However, it is not only socioeconomic developments that affect animal wildlife. The increasing meddling of humans in the natural world is also illustrated by the rise of the discipline of conservat
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