What's So Good About Biodiversity?

There has been a deluge of material on biodiversity, starting from a trickle back in the mid-1980's. However, this book is entirely unique in its treatment of the topic. It is unique in its meticulously crafted, scientifically informed, philosophical examination of the norms and values that are at the heart of discussions about biodiversity. And it is unique in its point of view, which is the first to comprehensively challenge prevailing views about biodiversity and its value. According to those dominant views, biodiversity is an extremely good thing – so good that it has become the emblem of natural value. The book's broader purpose is to use biodiversity as a lens through which to view the nature of natural value. It first examines, on their own terms, the arguments for why biodiversity is supposed to be a good thing. This discussion cuts a very broad and detailed swath through the scientific, economic, and environmental literature. It finds all these arguments to be seriously wanting. Worse, these arguments appear to have consequences that should dismay and perplex most environmentalists. The book then turns to a deeper analysis of these failures and suggests that they result from posing value questions from within a framework that is inappropriate for nature's value. It concludes with a novel suggestion for framing natural value. This new proposal avoids the pitfalls of the ones that prevail in the promotion of biodiversity. And it exposes the goals of conservation biology, restoration biology, and the world's largest conservation organizations as badly ill-conceived.    

From the reviews:“This book is a tour de force of scholarship that engages an astonishing number of perspectives and aggressively challenges a deeply and widely held assumption in our thinking about nature’s value. … it is meticulously organized and serves as a rich resource for all things biodiversity.” (David E. Storey, Environmental Philosophy, Vol. 10 (1), 2013)“In What’s So Good about Biodiversity, Maier, an environmentalist and moral philosopher, redefines the argument for the value of nature beyond the current biodiversity justification. … it is more appropriate for an environmental ethics course for advanced students. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty.” (K. R. Thompson, Choice, Vol. 50 (4), December, 2012)“The book entitled ‘What’s So Good About Biodiversity’ written by D.S. Maier presents deep intellectual reasoning about nature’s value. … The text is well written and Maier uses technical terms only when they are truly unavoidable. … this book is read not only by philosophers, but also by environmentalists and biologists.” (Christian Wilhelm, Journal of Plant Physiology, Vol. 169 (15), 2012)