Prologue

Abstract

This chapter (in Sect. 1.1) relates why this book was written and why it is worthy of an environmentally concerned reader's careful consideration. Biodiversity has come to be regarded as an emblem of nature's value. However, the reasoning behind this proposition, which comes from scientists, philosophers, economists, and environmentalists both inside and outside those disciplines, appear to be consistently and persistently broken. This is an alarming state of affairs, for it breaches what might be the most substantial defense of the natural world's value. In the spirit of encouraging a fundamental re-thinking of why, really, nature is valuable, this book sets out to determine why the many attempts to get at its value through biodiversity fail. Section 1.2 reflects on the difficulties involved in bringing to bear tools of philosophical analysis to arguments that often wander deep into scientific territory. Finally, Sect. 1.3 sets some limits for the scope of the critical part of the book, making clear that a salient goal is to enable the reader to reason about nature's value better than has been generally done to this point. With an eye towards encouraging the reader to forge her own set of views, this section concludes by promising the author's own attempt at this, which is the subject of Chap. 8.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;

Our meddling intellect

Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things: —

We murder to dissect.

– from “The Tables Turned” (1798), William Wordsworth