Study Guide for the Final Exam

1. State the following views (in your own words if you prefer, so long as they capture the views): Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Individualism, Holism, Leopoldian Ecocentrism (LE), Wildness Ecocentrism (WE).

2. PEE the "Last Person" Argument for Biocentrism. Even if you deem the argument to be sound, single out a controversial premise and present an objection to it. Evaluate the plausibility of the objection.

3. State the Life Principle and Sentience Principle. Explain why Goodpaster thinks the Life Principle is more plausible than the Sentience Principle. Discuss a problem for the Life Principle. Evaluate the problem. Does Goodpaster have an interesting response? Explain why or why not.

4. Explain the difficulties Hettinger and Throop raise for Leopoldian Ecocentrism (LE), and explain why they take Wildness Ecocentrism (WE) to be more plausible. Discuss a difficulty for WE. Evaluate the difficulty. Do Hettinger and Throop have an interesting response? Explain why or why not.

5. State and explain what you take to be the two most plausible views concerning the value of members of endangered species presented in the Russow article. Discuss possible drawbacks of each view. Which view is better? Justify your answer.

6. State the Restoration thesis under discussion in Elliot's "Faking Nature". Assume that restoration attempts can be perfected. Explain as carefully as you can exactly why Elliot believes that, despite the perfection of restoration attempts, such restoration attempts remain morally unjustifiable (in most cases). Be sure to utilize one of Elliot's arguments from analogy in your discussion. Discuss a criticism of Elliot's position. Evaluate the criticism.

7. Identify a central argument in one of the following "population and consumption" pieces:

• McKibben's "A Special Moment in History: The Challenge of Overpopulation and Overconsumption"
• Kasun's "The Unjust War against Population"
• Gardner, Assadourian, and Sarin's "The State of Consumption Today"
• Wolf's "Population and the Environment"

Present the selected argument as clearly as you can (either formally or informally). State the conclusion explicitly. Provide the strongest available reasons for why someone might deem the premises to be plausible. Explain as clearly as you can how the conclusion is supposed to be derived from the premises. Finally, evaluate the argument for soundness. Even if you deem the argument to be sound, present an objection to it. Is the objection a good one? Explain why or why not.