自然价值与人类对自然的道德义务

自然价值被认为是生态伦理学这一学科的理论基石。在传统伦理中,自然只具有对人类有用的外在价值。生态伦理学对自然的价值重新进行了界定。一方面,它扩展了"有用性"的内涵,不再从人与自然的对立中来看待自然的外在价值,而是从人对自然的依赖性来理解这一概念;另一方面,生态伦理学从目的论与整体论视角来肯定自然的内在价值。生态伦理对自然价值的全面肯定在时间维度上将人类道德义务扩展到当代人与后代人之间;在空间纬度上则扩展到了人与自然之间。

The Value of Nature and the Duty of Human Beings

The value of nature is regarded as theoretical foundation of eco-ethic s. According to traditional concepts, nature only has extrinsic value; however e co-ethics has given a redefinition to the value of nature. On the one hand, eco- ethics extends the concept of extrinsic values by understanding human dependence upon nature instead of the conflicts between the two; on the other hand, it r ecognizes the intrinsic value of nature in the teleological and integral p erspectives. The comprehensive affirmation of the value of nature in eco-ethics extends human duty to later generations in the historical dimension of time with moral considerations between man and nature in the spatial dimension.