The Ontology Of Species: Commentary On Kasperbauer’S ‘Should We Bring Back The Passenger Pigeon? The Ethics Of De-Extinction’

Abstract

Beneath important ethical questions about the impacts of de-extinct species on ecosystems and the potential harms to individual organisms lies a more fundamental assumption; namely, that the thing being "de-extinct-ed" is indeed a member of previously existing species. This is the ontological assumption: that genetic make-up of the individual is both a necessary and sufficient condition for species membership. Questioning this ontological assumption poses an even more critical challenge for de-extinction. Genes a member of a species do not make. They represent a mere necessary condition. Sufficiency entails a broad set of ecological connections, inside and out. In this commentary on Kasperbauer’s target article, I argue for the primacy of ontology in the ethical analysis of de-extinction.

Publication Date

1-2-2017

Publication Title

Ethics, Policy and Environment

Volume

20

Issue

1

Number of Pages

18-20

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2017.1291825

Socpus ID

85014522823 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85014522823

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