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Rarity and endangerment: Why do they matter?

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  • Simon P James

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon P James, 2024. "Rarity and endangerment: Why do they matter?," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(3), pages 296-310, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:33:y:2024:i:3:p:296-310
    DOI: 10.1177/09632719231171836
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Elena Angulo & Franck Courchamp, 2009. "Rare Species Are Valued Big Time," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(4), pages 1-5, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Kalpita Bhar Paul, 2024. "Coemergent eco-consciousness and self-consciousness," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(3), pages 253-256, June.
    2. Tom Greaves, 2024. "The ecology of finitude," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(6), pages 579-584, December.

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