Vedånta Desika and Thomas Aquinas on the Intrinsic Value of Nature: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Environmental philosopher J. Baird Callicott has commented that the question of nature’s intrinsic value “is the central theoretical question in environmental ethics. Indeed, how to discover intrinsic value in nature is the defining problem for environmental ethics.”1 While nature’sintrinsic value is certainly not the only issue for ecological ethics, it has raised a considerable debate among philosophers. Some, like Callicott and Holmes Rolston III contend that nature does have intrinsic value, while others like Bryan Norton argue that nature has only instrumental value as it serves human needs. For those who do assert intrinsic value, they differ
about the source of this value: is it already present in nature, waiting to be discovered, as Rolston argues, or is it something created by humans andmthen applied to non-human nature, as Callicott avers?