THEORY
2.4 The eight-point platform of deep ecology- The flourishing of human and non-human
life on Earth has value in itself. This value is
independent of their usefulness for human
purposes. - The richness and diversity of life forms are
values in themselves and contribute to the
flourishing of human and non-human life on
Earth. - Humans have no right to reduce this
richness and diversity except to satisfy vital
needs. - The flourishing of human life and cultures is
compatible with a substantial decrease in
the human population. The flourishing of
non-human life requires such a decrease. - Present human interference with the
non-human world is excessive, and the
situation is rapidly worsening.
6. Policies affecting basic economic,
technological and ideological structures
must change.
7. The ideological change is mainly that of
appreciating life quality (dwelling in
situations of inherent value) rather than
adhering to an increasingly higher standard
of living.
8. Those who subscribe to the above have an
obligation directly or indirectly to participate
in the attempt to implement the necessary
changes.
Adapted from Devall and Sessions ( 1985 : 70);
Naess ( 1989 : 29); Devall ( 1990 : 14–15).(Merchant 2005 : 77–8). Broadly speaking, holistic theories are prepared
toextend the boundaries of moral consideration well beyond individual
humans by according intrinsic value to a range of non-human entities (to
include animals, plants and even rocks) and to ‘whole’ categories, such as
species and ecosystems. Holists are engaged in two kinds of exercise: a quest
foranethical code of conduct based on the existence of intrinsic value in
nature and the development of an ethics based on a changed ecological
consciousness or ‘state of being’ (Dobson 2000 :ch.2). Both approaches can
be found in the work of Arne Naess, one of the founders of deep ecology,
whose ideas have shaped the development of ecocentrism.
The claim that nature possesses intrinsic value is clearly stated in the
eight-point platform for deep ecology drawn up by Naess and Sessions (see
Box2.4): ‘The flourishing of human and non-human life on Earth has intrin-
sic value. The value of non-human life forms is independent of the useful-
ness these may have for narrow human purposes’ (Naess 1989 : 29). Naess is
informed by the idea of symbiosis: that every entity has value because it is
needed by at least one other entity. Nothing and no one is entirely indepen-
dent, so everything has value. He also extracts a principle of equality from
the holistic thesis that everything is interdependent. This principle – Naess
calls it ‘biocentric egalitarianism’ – states that all forms of life have ‘the
equal right to live and blossom’.^3 Naess does not attempt to produce a scien-
tific case for intrinsic value; instead, biocentric egalitarianism is justified as
simply an ‘intuitively clear and obvious value axiom’. Thus, with this first
theme, Naess seems to be offering the basis for a green theory of value.