Rarity and Endangerment: Why Do They Matter?

James, Simon P.

Abstract

It is often supposed that valuable organisms are more valuable if they are rare. Likewise if they belong to endangered species. I consider what kinds of value rarity and endangerment can add in such cases. I argue that individual organisms of a valuable species typically have instrumental value as means to the end of preserving their species. This progenitive value, I suggest, tends to increase exponentially with rarity. Endlings, for their part, typically have little progenitive value; however, I argue that they may nonetheless have persistence value because, merely by existing, they postpone the numerical extinction of their species. Finally, I propose that a sentient endling can have higher lifeworld value than it would have had were it not the last of its kind. This, I argue, is because when a sentient endling dies, very little of its lifeworld is preserved – and this, I suggest, can be a bad thing.

Citation

James, S. P. (2024). Rarity and Endangerment: Why Do They Matter?. Environmental Values, 33(3), 296–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/09632719231171836

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 24, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 8, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-06
• Deposit Date: Jun 12, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 12, 2023
• Journal: Environmental Values
• Print ISSN: 0963-2719
• Electronic ISSN: 1752-7015
• Publisher: White Horse Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 296–310
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09632719231171836
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1172824