- #1
WarrenPlatts
- 134
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In the beginning, there was nothing but the Plasma. Everything was simple. What existed before the Plasma, science cannot yet say. The Plasma had a high energy density. It condensed into complex atoms of hydrogen and helium. Then there was Light. When the universe lit up, there was valuing going on.
When everything lit up, the parts of the complex atoms functioned just thus and so, and so preserved themselves from the forces of destruction, thus demonstrating their Good Design. If things had been otherwise, everything would have fallen apart. And since there was Good Design, there were means-end relations. And since there were means, there was instrumental valuing going on. And since there was instrumental valuing going on, there was intrinsic valuing going on.
Eventually, the hydrogen and helium atoms in their turn condensed into galaxies and stars. Other types of atoms formed within the stars. Each epoch leading to the present was an epic unto itself, when prodigious things-valuing-in-themselves would form only to succumb to crisis, and then to reform, from the ensuing chaos, evermore complex things-valuing-in-themselves. Eventually, the planet we now call Earth formed, and life began.
Biocentric ethics looks back at this pageant and says that genuine valuing began only when life began. All that came before was mere systemic value, chance riches coincidently instrumental for life.
Cosmocentric ethics takes it for granted that the universe and all things within it are intrinsically valuable in the moral sense by virtue of their intrinsic valuing in the objective sense. Since the intrinsic valuing of biological systems is morally considerable, the intrinsic valuing of physical systems must be as well. All this does not entail that ethical decisions regarding Nature are impossible. Humans remain at the center of concern, but they are not the only concern.
When everything lit up, the parts of the complex atoms functioned just thus and so, and so preserved themselves from the forces of destruction, thus demonstrating their Good Design. If things had been otherwise, everything would have fallen apart. And since there was Good Design, there were means-end relations. And since there were means, there was instrumental valuing going on. And since there was instrumental valuing going on, there was intrinsic valuing going on.
Eventually, the hydrogen and helium atoms in their turn condensed into galaxies and stars. Other types of atoms formed within the stars. Each epoch leading to the present was an epic unto itself, when prodigious things-valuing-in-themselves would form only to succumb to crisis, and then to reform, from the ensuing chaos, evermore complex things-valuing-in-themselves. Eventually, the planet we now call Earth formed, and life began.
Biocentric ethics looks back at this pageant and says that genuine valuing began only when life began. All that came before was mere systemic value, chance riches coincidently instrumental for life.
Cosmocentric ethics takes it for granted that the universe and all things within it are intrinsically valuable in the moral sense by virtue of their intrinsic valuing in the objective sense. Since the intrinsic valuing of biological systems is morally considerable, the intrinsic valuing of physical systems must be as well. All this does not entail that ethical decisions regarding Nature are impossible. Humans remain at the center of concern, but they are not the only concern.