Senior Elissa Walter (Bio/Phil) to give presentation
Talk title "Is the Preservation of Biodiversity a Justified Conservation Target?" Lunch provided.
Date: Thursday, February 28th, 2013
Time: 12:00 pm
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Leighton #303 (NOTE ROOM CHANGE)
Sponsored by: Philosophy - Paul Hart Fund
Contact: Sandy Saari, x4232Import into your calendar program
Abstract: In recent years, human activities, such as clearing land, draining wetlands, harvesting timber, and overfishing, have resulted in unprecedented declines in biodiversity on both local and global scales. While many scientists, philosophers, and policy makers agree that biodiversity should serve as a principle conservation target, philosophical and biological arguments professing the value of biodiversity are often flawed and incomplete because they exist in isolation from one another. This project integrates both philosophical and biological ideas and evidence in order to construct a theoretically and empirically justified argument that proves that biodiversity is an ethically and biologically justified conservation target. Ultimately, this research concludes that humans have an ethical obligation to preserve the biodiversity of Earth's ecosystems.