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T y R a t e r m a n
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3601 Pacific Avenue
Office: Wendell Phillips 207 Email: traterman {at} pacific {.} edu Phone: (209) 946-7624
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"An Environmentalist's Lament on Predation" Environmental Ethics, Volume 30, No. 4 (Winter 2008)
Abstract
I lament the fact that some animals need to prey on others in order to live. While I obviously do not want predators to die of starvation, I nonetheless think that a world in which no animal needed to prey on others would, in some meaningful sense, be a better world. Furthermore, I believe that this position is not based in mere sentimentalism, but rather can be rationally defended. This paper attempts to provide such a defense. After articulating numerous reasons for taking predation to be lamentable, I argue that one can lament predation even while acknowledging certain respects in which predation is genuinely praiseworthy. Further, I maintain that holding the position I do does not disqualify me as an environmentalist. Finally, I explore what the implications of my position are for human behavior; and I argue that they are acceptable.
Click here for a .pdf of this paper (roughly 8,000 words).
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