Evolución y Diversidad: contravía

"Biodiversity is thus signally valuable because of its intellectual interest. A proactive role in its conservation is required because it is irreplaceable - extinctions are forever. Arguments from intellectual interest may seem unconvincing to those who demand immediate pragmatic virtues in the narrowest sense of immediate utility. This attitude is typical in the United States, where, for instance, the accepted legal defense of a controversial sexually explicit work of art is to claim that it has redeeming social value, not that it is, after all, a work of art. Nevertheless, the best argument for the conservation of biodiversity remains its intellectual promise. Narrow pragmatism would lead to a devaluation not just of biodiversity but of the entire scientific enterprise, if not of every intellectual and aesthetic aspect of human culture. We should not be embarrased to defend the importance of our intellectual interests and pursuits. All the comforts of life that are traded in the marketplace are ultimately the products of human intellectual life, of our culture, and very often -but obviously not always- of that part of our intellectual culture that we identify as science. Thus even narrow pragmatism dictates the attribution of a high value to intellectual life and science; without them, pragmatism would be useless. Janzen was correct to note that biologists have a professional imperative to conserve biodiversity. Nonbiologists share that imperative to the extent that they value biology as a field of endeavor that should be pursued in any society that can afford it. Moreover, there is nothing that says that nonbiologists cannot share the pleasure of the knowledge that the professional pursuit of biology generates. The world is interesting. We enjoy knowing about it, though some of us may cherish this knowledge more than others. Finally, for many individuals, not limited to professional scientists, scientific knowledge of the world, the sense that we are beginning to understand our surroundings, deeply affects our most basic attitudes towards all aspects of life. Science has a cultural value beyond the technology that it provides."

Sarkar, S. 2005. Biodiversity and environmental philosophy, an introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Evolución y Diversidad

miércoles, 19 de enero de 2011

contravía

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