rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: What’s So Good About Biodiversity?
    sub title: A Call for Better Reasoning About Nature’s Value
  name:
    name part: Maier, Donald S.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  name:
    name part: SpringerLink (Online service)
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: ne
    date issued: 2012
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: electronic
    form: electronic resource
    reformatting quality: access
    form: remote
    extent: VII, 568 p. 1 illus. online resource.
  abstract: This book is unique in its treatment of biodiversity, which has come to be an emblem of what is worthy of protection and fostering in the natural world. It undertakes a comprehensive, detailed, and careful philosophical analysis of the many reasons that scientists, economists, philosophers, and others offer for why biodiversity is supposed to be such a central good of nature. Its conclusion is both surprising and disturbing: No reason for biodiversity's good can be found that is not ill-conceived, logically indefensible, internally contradictory, or self-undermining. The profound failure to find the good of nature in its biodiversity is a springboard for rethinking what, exactly, makes the natural world so uniquely and robustly valuable. This leads to a novel suggestion – that nature's value might be located in a particular human-nature relationship, which anchors the appropriate fit of people in the world at large. Understanding nature's value in this way has far-reaching consequences, which call into question common orthodoxies of conservation, restoration, and environmentalism generally. "In 1985, Michael Soulé, considered by many to be the father of the academic discipline of conservation biology, laid out his four normative postulates for the field: diversity of organisms is good, ecological complexity is good, evolution is good, and biotic diversity has intrinsic value. In this book, Don Maier provides an essential, lucid, and critical evaluation of these claims. It is a must read for all who seek to conserve the diversity of life." Jonathan Newman, Director, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph "It’s widely claimed that biodiversity is valuable. But to date, there has been little systematic, critical scrutiny of this claim. Don Maier’s “What’s so good about biodiversity?” boldly undertakes this task. After carefully examining a variety of arguments for the value of biodiversity, and expressing serious doubts about where the valuation of biod…
  table of contents: 1 Prologue -- 2 Preliminaries -- 3 What biodiversity is.- 4 What biodiversity is not.- 5 The calculus of biodiversity value -- 6 Theories of biodiversity value -- 7 Some inconvenient implications -- 8 Natural value starting from people.- 9 Figures -- 10 Glossary of Scientific, Computational, Economic, and Philosophical Terms -- 11 Acknowledgments -- 12 References -- 13 Index.
  note: by Donald S. Maier.
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy
  subject:
    topic: Business
  subject:
    topic: Management science
  subject:
    topic: Ethics
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy of nature
  subject:
    topic: Biodiversity
  subject:
    topic: Environment
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy
  subject:
    topic: Ethics
  subject:
    topic: Environment, general
  subject:
    topic: Biodiversity
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy of Nature
  subject:
    topic: Business and Management, general
  classification: BJ1-1725
  classification: 170
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Springer eBooks
  related item:
    title info:
      title: The International Library of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Ethics, 19
  identifier: 9789400739918
  identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3991-8
  record info:
    record creation date: 120522
    record change date: 20151204163112.0
    record identifier: 978-94-007-3991-8