Incluye bibliografía: páginas 231-250 e índice: páginas 251-258

Preface page.. Acknowledgments.. 1 Introduction.. 1.1. A Focus on Biodiversity.. 1.2. The Structure of the Book.. 1.3. Three Flawed Arguments.. 2 Concern for the Environment.. 2.1. The Myth of Lost Futures.. 2.2. The Myth of the Golden Age.. 2.3. Wilderness.. 3 Intrinsic Values and Biocentrism.. 3.1. Adequacy Conditions for a Conservationist Ethic.. 3.2. Two Concepts of Intrinsic Value.. 3.3. Arguments for Intrinsic Value.. 3.4. Biocentrism and Deep Ecology.. 3.5. Animal Welfare.. 4 Tempered Anthropocentrism.. 4.1. Demand Values.. 4.2. Transformative Values.. 4.3. Obligations of Conservation.. 4.4. Wilderness and Aesthetic Appreciation.. 4.5. The Boundary Problem.. 4.6. The Directionality Problem.. 4.7. Solutions.. 4.8. Adequacy Tests.. 5 Problems of Ecology.. 5.1. Ecological Models.. 5.2. New Directions.. 5.3. Extinction.. 6 The Consensus View of Conservation Biology.. 6.1. Adaptive Management.. 6.2. The Place Prioritization Problem.. 6.3. The Surrogacy Problem.. 6.4. The Viability Problem.. 6.5. Defining "Biodiversity".. 7 Incommensurability and Uncertainty.. 7.1. Types of Values.. 7.2. Multiple Criterion Synchronization.. 7.3. The Context of Biodiversity.. 7.4. Coping with Uncertainty.. 7.5. Probabilistic Place Prioritization.. 7.6. A Bayesian Future?.. 8 In Conclusion: Issues for the Future.. 8.1. The Value of Biodiversity.. 8.2. The Science of Biodiversity Conservation.. References.. Index

This book explores the epistemological and ethical issues at the foundations of environmental philosophy, emphasizing the conservation of biodiversity. Sahotra Sarkar criticizes previous attempts to attribute intrinsic value to nature and defends an anthropocentric postion on biodiversity conservation based on an untraditional concept of transformative value. However, unlike other studies in the field of environmental philosophy, this book is concerned as much with epistemological issues as with environmental ethics. It covers a broad range of topics, including problems of explanation and prediction in traditional ecology and how individual-based models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology are transforming ecology. Introducing a brief history of conservation biology, Sarkar analyzes the new consensus framework for conservation planning through adaptive management. He concludes with a discussion of the future directions for theoretical research in conservation biology and environmental philosophy. Inglés