The attitude we
think it appropriate to take toward living things depends on how we
conceive them and of our relationship to them. What moral
significance the natural world has for us depends on the way we
look at the whole system of nature and our role in it. With regard
to the attitude of respect for nature, the belief-system that
renders it intelligible and on which it depends for its
justifiability is the biocentric outlook. This outlook underlies
and supports the attitude of respect for nature in the following
sense. Unless we grasp what it means to accept that belief-system
and so view the natural order from its perspective, we cannot see
the point of taking the attitude of respect. But once we do grasp
it and shape our world outlook in accordance with it, we
immediately understand how and why a person would adopt that
attitude as the only appropriate one to have toward nature. Thus
the biocentric outlook provides the explanatory and justificatory
background that makes sense of and gives point to a person's taking
the attitude.
The beliefs that
form the core of the biocentric outlook are four in
number:
(a) The belief that
humans are members of the Earth's Community of Life in the same
sense and on the same terms in which other living things are
members of that Community.
(b) The belief that
the human species, along with all other species, are integral
elements in a system of interdependence such that the survival of
each living thing, as well as its chances of faring well or poorly,
is determined not only by the physical conditions of its
environment but also by its relations to other living
things.
(c) The belief that
all organisms are teleological centres of life in the sense that
each is a unique individual pursuing its own good in its own
way.
(d) The belief that
humans are not inherently superior to other living
things.
To accept all four
of these beliefs is to have a coherent outlook on the natural world
and the place of humans in it. It is to take a certain perspective
on human life and to conceive of the relation between human and
other forms of life in a certain way. Given this world view, the
attitude of respect is then seen to be the only suitable, fitting,
or appropriate moral attitude to take toward the natural world and
its living inhabitants.
If we now ask,
"Why should moral agents accept the four beliefs
that make up the biocentric outlook?" the answer lies in showing
that, to the extent that moral agents are rational, factually
informed, and have developed a high level of reality-awareness,
they will find those beliefs acceptable. The acceptability of the
beliefs is linked with the rationality, factual enlightenment, and
reality- awareness of moral agents in such a way that moral agents
who have those properties accept the
beliefs because they are rational, informed, and
aware of reality. The full line of reasoning that leads to this
conclusion will be given in the last part of this chapter. We must
first examine the four beliefs themselves and the grounds on which
they rest. Each will be considered in the four sections that
follow.
