ethics and morality of Paul Taylor's view of the environment

One key ethical issue, contentious amongst environmentalists today as well as those activists who oppose the ethical philosophy of environmentalism, is whether environmentalism should be focused on improving the lot of the human animal on earth, or should attempt to benefit all species upon earth in an equal fashion. The philosopher Paul Taylor argues that environmental ethics should emphasize the interdependent nature all individual members of earth's biological community. He states that environmentalists should embrace the idea that no single species is superior to the others. However, although Paul Taylor's philosophy is commendable in its emotional intensity when he says, "we have a self-evident moral obligation to the individual members of the Earth's biotic community to protect and promote their good for their sake" (518), his philosophy of species equality is fundamentally flawed. Environmentalism is a human ideological construction. No...
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