Recognition of intrinsic values of sentient beings explains the sense of moral duty towards global nature conservation

Whether nature is valuable on its own (intrinsic values) or because of the benefits it provides to humans (instrumental values) has been a long-standing debate. The concept of relational values has been proposed as a solution to this supposed dichotomy, but the empirical validation of its intuitiven...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-10, Vol.17 (10), p.e0276614-e0276614
Main Authors: Lan, Tianxiang, Sinhababu, Neil, Carrasco, Luis Roman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Animal welfare
Anthropocentrism
Biodiversity
Biological diversity
Biology and Life Sciences
Climate change
Conservation
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecosystems
Environmental aspects
Environmental impact
Ethics
Intrinsic value
Nature conservation
People and Places
Philosophers
Protection and preservation
Recognition
Research and Analysis Methods
Social aspects
Social Sciences
Values
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Summary:Whether nature is valuable on its own (intrinsic values) or because of the benefits it provides to humans (instrumental values) has been a long-standing debate. The concept of relational values has been proposed as a solution to this supposed dichotomy, but the empirical validation of its intuitiveness remains limited. We experimentally assessed whether intrinsic/relational values of sentient beings/non-sentient beings/ecosystems better explain people’s sense of moral duty towards global nature conservation for the future. Participants from a representative sample of the population of Singapore (n = 1508) were randomly allocated to two “the last human” scenarios. We found that the best predictor of such a sense of moral duty for future nature conservation is the recognition of the intrinsic values of sentient beings. Our results suggest that the concern for animal welfare may enhance rather than compete with the sense of moral duty towards nature conservation.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0276614