INTRINSIC VALUE, MORAL STANDING, AND SPECIES

Environmental philosophers often conflate the concepts of intrinsic va lue and moral standing. As a result, individualists needlessly deny in trinsic value to species, while holists falsely attribute moral standi ng to species. Conceived either as classes or as historical individual s, at least some species possess intrinsic value. Nevertheless, even i f a species has interests or a good of its own, it cannot have moral s tanding because species lack sentience. Although there is a basis for duties toward some species (in terms of their intrinsic value), it is not the one that the holists claim.