Please answer the following short answer questions about Callicott’s papers “On the Intrinsic

Value of Non-Human Species” and “Intrinsic Value in Nature: A Meta-Ethical Analysis”

 
1.     How does Callicott distinguish between intrinsic value and instrumental value? Please
define both clearly and provide a precise example that illuminates the difference.
2.     What is truncated value according to Callicott? Is the account of the truncated intrinsic
value that Callicott defends compatible with Leopold’s conception of value in the Land
Ethic?

3.     What is G.E. Moore’s account of intrinsic value? What’s Callicott’s argument against this
Moorean conception? How might Moore respond to Callicott’s worries?
4.     What are Callicott’s worries about J-Theism, holistic rationalism, and conativism? Why
can’t they each provide an account of intrinsic value?

5.     What is Bio-empathy? What is Callicott’s argument that bioempathy serves as a basis
for intrinsic value in the non-human natural world? Engage in perspective taking with
Callicott’s argument.

6.     What is Callicott’s defense of moral sentimentalism? Can an ethics of care provide us
with a grounding for the intrinsic value of the non-human natural world? Briefly research
“care ethics” and compare and contrast that account with Callicott’s.

7.     What is the phenomenological proof of instrinsic value? What is the teleological proof
of intrinsic value?

8.     Callicott argues by analogy against the pragmatists by suggesting that arguments for
intrinsic value are normative and non-pragmatic by indirectly appealing to Douglas, DuBois,
and Martin Luther King’s arguments for the intrinsic value of persons. Does Callicott’s anti-
pragmatic argument hold for natural environments as well?

9.     What are Rolston and Callicott disagreeing about as far as intrinsic value is concerned?
What’s Callicott’s argument against Rolston’s view about intrinsic value being independent
of consciousness?
10.  What is Callicott’s argument for the importance of consciousness for intrinsic value? Is
this something that is pivotal to Leopold’s account in the Land Ethic or in the Sand County
almanac? Please explain.