Acknowledgments First, I wish to express great gratitude to (in temporal order of my contact) Carlo Ricotta, Dov Sax, Félix Forest, Jan van Dam, Richard Warwick, Tom Dudley, Maud Huynen, Bill Snyder, and Jon Erlandson for responding so graciously and promptly to pleas for copies of their papers. My pleas came in the fi rst stretch of writing, when their materials were, for all practical purposes, otherwise inaccessible to me. Special thanks are due to Tom for permitting me to cite correspondence in response to some questions that I posed to him. Thanks, too, to Philip Pettit, for sharing with me a pre-publication draft of the 2011 paper cited in this book. I owe much to discussion of my work with my philosophy colleagues, whose infectious enthusiasm for this project greatly stimulated my own enthusiasm and resolve to turn it into a book. Much of this help came from those who were exposed to the fi rst incarnation of this work at the 2009 ISEE/IAEP Joint Conference in Allenspark, Colorado. Stimulating conversations with many people pushed the project forward. Special thanks are due to Neil Manson, for his suggestion to refl ect on the value of diversity in general; to Darren Domsky, for pointing me towards the realization that informal fallacies of many kinds pervade discussions of biodiver- sity; again to Darren for providing inspiration for considering ways to “enhance” biodiversity; to Alan Habib for pointing my nose at the issue of diversity in the context of social justice; to Jennifer Welchman for some good discussion about that; and most especially to Baylor Johnson, for his encouragement, and for his presenta- tion of my work at the conference. Despite the unusually great length and complexity of the material, he somehow managed to present it so cleanly and clearly that he succeeded in stimulating an enormous amount of benefi cial discussion and enthusiasm that spilled out into the entire remainder of the conference and, I hope, into the manuscript. Since then, a number of expert friends and colleagues have generously taken the time to share their insights on various parts of the manuscript. Dan Haybron shared his expertise on the biophilia hypothesis and helped me understand some of its subtleties as well as some of the subtleties of his own thinking about it. Dale Jamieson graciously responded to my request for comment on my challenge to his D.S. Maier, What’s So Good About Biodiversity?: A Call for Better 511 Reasoning About Nature’s Value, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3991-8, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 512 Acknowledgments distinction between “affecting” and “being a product of”. Jeremy Bendik-Keymer was enormously generous with the time he devoted to a spirited discussion with me regarding several pieces of the manuscript that touched on aspects of his work. Andrew Light, too, shared perspectives on his work, which helped greatly to broaden my own perspectives on it. Derek Guerney and Larry Goulder vetted and offered their perspective as economists on the option value material. Jeffrey Lockwood was painstakingly thorough in examining the chapter on theories of biodiversity value, which greatly benefi ted from his remarks on it. Nicole Hassoun did as well as anyone could to suggest how to scour the chapter on Preliminaries clean of unneces- sary distractions. Vas Stanescu’s insightful commentary on the fi nal chapter was invaluable in helping me see where clarifi cations and qualifi cations were in order. Several anonymous reviewers offered criticisms that prompted clarifying revisions in the fi rst seven chapters, which focus on critical review of dominant views, and that spurred me to write the last chapter, which offers an alternative way to fi nd value in the natural world. I also wish to express great gratitude for the encouragement, comments, and valuable materials supplied by several personal acquaintances. Among those persons, to Pat Musick is due very special thanks for her yeowoman-like assistance in editing the fi rst draft of the manuscript for the ISEE/IAEP Joint Conference, yet more help with the fi rst draft submitted for publication, and an enthusiasm for this project that helped to make even me – a professional skeptic – believe in it. I am also indebted to Linda Winter, whose encouraging and nurturing presence had outsize infl uence in reinvigorating my belief in this project and in anchoring my resolve to fi nally bring it to completion. Last but not least, I cannot fail to mention Squeaky, whose uniqueness – taxonomically speaking and in many other respects – and whose refusal to be “managed” has constantly reminded me of what natural value is all about. Two wonderful, highly interdisciplinary fora at Stanford University – the Environmental Norms, Institutions, and Policy Workshop coordinated by Debra Satz and the Environmental Humanities Project coordinated by Ursula Heise – helped enormously to expand the breadth of my thinking on the issues covered in this book and beyond. Their workshops exposed me to material that was as varied as the training of the enormously talented and collegial scholars who partici- pated in them. Those biologists, climate scientists, environmental engineers, economists, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, information scien- tists, historians, classics scholars, literary critics, and even a few token philosophers are a testament to the possibility of harvesting rich fruit from intellectual fertiliza- tion that crosses disciplinary boundaries. I particularly benefi ted from the spirited discussion, which Carol Boggs played a key role in initiating, of parts of my book in the Environmental Norms, Institutions, and Policy Workshop. More recently, the 2011 Northeastern Workshop on Applied Ethics provided a lively forum for discus- sion of parts of the book’s last chapter. To Jack Lyon go many thanks for his heroic efforts in helping me coax the book’s index out of his DEXter software. Acknowledgments 513 I also cannot fail to mention Sarah Rabkin, my extraordinary, keenly perceptive editor, who helped me prepare the fi nal version of this manuscript. She uncovered multiple places and multiple ways to say it better. To my biologist son Paul go heartfelt thanks for a characteristic act of generosity, which planted a seed from which this book eventually grew. Seeing that I was desperate to fi nd reading material for a shared vacation, he graciously permitted me to appropriate a book that he had purchased for himself. That book launched my renewed and excited interest in the biology-based topics that eventually led to the writing of this book. I dedicate this book to my dad, Howard Maier. He had within him many books. Those of us who knew him are still reading and growing wiser from them. Glossary of Scientifi c, Computational, Economic, and Philosophical Terms The discussion of biodiversity inevitably brings into play the enormous body of scientifi c research bearing on the topic. I have not spared the non-scientist from exposure to this science, as scientists present it, complete with their technical vocabulary. I hope that this list of terms includes most that might be unfamiliar to the non-scientist. Scientifi c terms, particularly terms from the fi eld of biology, are in the majority. I indicate this disciplinary association by omitting a discipline- identifying tag for them, except when the biological sub-discipline provides useful information (for example, “biological taxonomy”). In discussing algorithms connected with the conservation of biodiversity and the quantifi cation of biodiversity, I use some terms from the fi eld of computation theory, which are also included here. These are tagged as “computation”. Some technical vocabulary from economics is used in the introductory section that characterizes various philosophical approaches to environmental ethics. These bear the tag “economics”. Some terms familiar to philosophers but possibly unfamiliar to others are included. These are tagged “philosophy” and sometimes “philosophy/psychology” when shared with the fi eld of human psychology. abiotic Not part of, conceptually distinct from, or not the direct result of living organisms. Abiotic factors include such chemical and physical infl uences as temperature, pH, and relative availability of reactive nitrogen. Contrasted with “biotic”. affective (philosophy/psychology) Relating to feelings that are expressive reactions to something perceived – for example approval, pleasure, fulfi llment, happiness, and the like. See also “conative”. agamogenesis Asexual reproduction. More precisely, reproduction that does not involve the fusion of specialized, gametic (male and female) germ cells. This is the primary or only means of reproduction for prokaryotes and many eukaryotes such as both unicellular and multicellular protists. Some fungi and some plants also reproduce via agamogenesis. D.S. Maier, What’s So Good About Biodiversity?: A Call for Better 515 Reasoning About Nature’s Value, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3991-8, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 516 Glossary of Scientifi c, Computational, Economic, and Philosophical Terms algae A diverse set of eukaryotic, single-celled to multicellular, and mostly autotrophic organisms whose largest and most complex forms are the “seaweeds”. allele, allelic A variant of a gene consisting of a specifi c sequence of DNA that occurs at the gene’s locus. An organism’s genotype is the collection of all its allelic variations, taken together. allopatric speciation The emergence of a new species as the result of diverging adaptations of physically disjoint populations of an organism. Both genetic drift and differing adaptive pressures can contribute to the differentiation of the populations. anoxia, anoxic Something approaching a total absence of dissolved oxygen in an aquatic environment. Anoxic conditions can occur as the result of a hyperabun- dance of organic matter that is then oxidized by decomposing bacteria. See also, “hypoxia”. anthropocentrism, anthropocentric (philosophy) Any of a variety of ethical stances that in some way make humans – as opposed to other organisms or natural systems – the nexus of value.