Rolston's Ecological Ethical Thought About The Nature's Value And Its Inspiration

The well-known American ecological ethicist Prof. Holmes Rolston, generally regarded as "The Father of the Discipline of Environmental Ethics", is one of the most important scholars in ecological ethics field. His theory of the intrinsic value of nature is one of the most important components of this discipline. His theory provides us a new angle of view to reexamine our relation with nature and our current way of life and production. It is of great significance for us to establish a right view on ecology, to find deeper problems of human relations, to popularize the consciousness of environmental protection, to help people form good habits of protecting environment, to build economical society and to structure harmonious society where people enjoy harmony both with nature and others.On the basis of a painstaking survey and study on the current situation of the research work made by foreign and domestic scholars especially Chinese scholars on the problem of nature's value, the author analyzed and summarized the main ideas of the key scholars who are for or against nature's intrinsic value, analyzed the effects of his childhood and younger hood experience and America's social background on his personality and world outlook, introduced the main points of the two opposing groups of anthropocentricism and non-anthropocentricism and their influence on his theory. Then the author systematically summarized Rolston's nature's intrinsic value theory's main points, main characteristics, academic significance and its inspiration to our strategy of sustainable development.