Egenis seminar (hybrid) with Dr Ellen Clarke (University of Leeds)

Individuality worries for the targets of conservation ecology

Environmental conservationists assume that there is value of some kind in the living world, and position themselves as seeking to maximise it, or to save the things that manifest it. But they are typically a lot less precise than a philosopher might be about exactly what the value is and - in focus for me - which things exhibit it. There are a bunch of things that get mentioned - for example organisms, species, ecosystems and more - that are quite heterogeneous in their ontological properties - whether they are individuals or not, what sort of spatio-temporal boundaries they have, whether they qualify as substances, whether they are objective, and so on. In this talk I articulate a worry, which is that playing fast and loose with these alternative conservation targets might get conservationists into trouble.

Date: Monday 17 December, 15:15-17:00 GMT

Venue: Byrne House, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter

Online: via Zoom

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