Defence For Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics, as the foundation of environmental conservation, attracts the most attention due to the increasing ecocrisis and enhancement in consciousness of ecological protection. Scholars have widely studied its short history. As a method and a tool to treat growing ecocrisis, environmentaol ethics is undoubtedly essential. However, we need to seek theoretical foundation of environmental ethics from psychological level. Whether human has the responsibility to maitain integrity and stability of ecosystem? Can the nature be the objective of ethics?Values can be devided into intrinsic value and extrinsic value. Normally, whether object has intrinsic value is the necessary and sufficient condition that determines if it could be objective of moral consideration. Classical anthropocentrism believes that only humans have intrinsic value thus only humans exist in moral world. The basic duty of modern western environmental ethics is to extend objective of moral consideration, that is to say, brings animals, plants, species, communities even inorganic environment and ecosystem into consideration of humans.The construction of intrinsic value theory is more than a matter of ethics. It is basically a product of our era. The construction of theory involves a series of important concepts and theories during the development of ecology which are the foundation of the construction. Through the investiation of evolution process, reason of reality, theoretical background, logical framework of western classic ecology, we can find meanings of ontology and axiology exist behind concepts of species, community, succession, evolution and ecosystem. We can also reveal and clarify possibility, necessity, and objectivity of intrinsic value after understanding scientific background arising from concept of intrinsic value and achieve philosophical justification towards intrinsic value.Nature is a substance possessing "goodness" of itself. It has initiative, activity and ability to evaluate merits as well as human beings. The objects of merit evaluation in nature include individuals, species, communities and nature itself as well as humans and their activities. The independent evaluation means that nature can be subject of value like humans. Exsitence is the primary purpose of lives and nature. This "purpose factor" is encoded into their genomes, achieving this purpse is its intrinsic value. For individuals, purposiveness of species is adaptability and reconstruction towards relationship and external environment. They utilize environmental resources to maintain their lives and proliferate. As an integrity, purposiveness of ecosystem is to maintain a kind of steady state via feedback mechanism. We cannot deny purposiveness of nature just cause we cannot find the "spirit" or "purpose" of naure. The purposiveness of nature exists in the dialectical unity of possibility and inevitability in future development rather than accomplished facts. We cannot try to understant its purposiveness using our parochial "willings". The intrinsic value of nature has the same objectivity as it of human intrinsic value. Values exist among the entire process of natural development, rather than burst in when nature evolved to human period. According to axiology, nature is also the central of values and purposes. In the ecosystem, different existences have their own evaluation methods towards themselves and external world which are objective, inherent and have usefulness, purposiveness,goodness to them. The existence of nature intrinsic value is unralated to human beings, it is an inherent property of nature.