Environmentalists are drawn to the natural because it seems to provide firm ground for preserving the things they hold dear. In the preceding two essays, I've suggested (1) that there isn't a single state of nature towards which biotic communities tend, a state of balance and (2) that “Nature” (remember what the scare quotes and capitalization mean) is largely a human construct that we use for rhetorical and persuasive purposes. We use it because things that are “natural” seem obviously to be right and valuable. Things that are “unnatural” seem just as obviously be wrong and expendable.
Forget the first problem for a moment and suppose that there were a balanced state of nature towards which biotic communities tend. Would that state be “Natural”? Would the mere fact that such a state exists be sufficient to make it obligatory to promote the existence of biotic communities in which that state is found? Would it be sufficient to conclude that the balanced state is good? No. If an argument is to conclude with an ethical obligation, it must include an ethical premise.
It's that premise I want to find. It's that premise I need to persuade those who do not already share my commitment to natural values. I want to be an evangelist for a world in which there are places that show little influence of human civilization, a world in which all species of plants and animals (and fungi and bacteria and algae and ...) are valued, and a world in which all people are able to develop their skills and character.
A world is rich in proportion to its ability to provide for the health and prosperity of all its inhabitants, human and non-human.
I feel the truth of that statement as if it were revealed truth, but revelations are persuasive only to those who already believe. I am searching for some fundamental values shared by all thinking people from which that statement will follow as logical necessity. I want an argument for natural values that will persuade anyone possessed of basic human decency and a willingness to be persuaded by rational argument. I am sure those values and the corresponding argument exist, but I have yet to find a way to articulate them.
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