Stripping nature of value licensed its exploitation without moral restraint

Evidence

The standard criticism is that such a notion puts nature on an equal moral footing with humans. In reality, however, there is only very rarely an appearance of this language of equality. At most, the conception championed by Leopold, for example, asks for moral consideration of nonhuman nature; but such a consideration does not require a previous conclusion of equality. … We can make the claim for the moral consideration of nature as part of our extended community, and the inclusion of that nature in a theory of justice, without insisting that every part of nature has moral worth identical and equal to our own. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 391 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Here we can extend the community of justice by basing that community in some type of quality that we share with nature. This takes a recognition that we are like nature—not as separate or unique as we would like to think—and is something that Plumwood herself desires. This goes back to the argument made by Rodman (1977) that we develop a vocabulary that encompasses humans and nonhuman animals, but that is not based on purely human notions. The challenge posed by both Rodman and Plumwood is for us to recognize the distinctiveness of nature, but also the commonalities that we share. The focus, then, is on qualities that human beings have in common with many animals and/or the rest of the larger natural world; they are powerful indicators of what we share more broadly as the essence of being. In other words, there is plenty to recognize as shared by both humanity and the nature in which it operates. In this sense, the theoretical walls built by liberals between these two realms seem limited, artificial, and unnecessary. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 449 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mechanism’s view of dead passive matter sanctioned nature’s exploitation — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 444; Mechanism stripped away the organic view’s ethical restraints on nature exploitation — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 480; The Scientific Revolution’s death of nature licensed nature’s manipulation — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 761 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Extending moral consideration to nature need not imply equality with humans #complicates (0.76) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 391
• Justice to nature can rest on shared qualities without erasing difference #complicates (0.75) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 449