Before anything else, I will give the definitions of intrinsic and instrumental values and nature. An intrinsic value is "the worth a thing has in an end of itself." These values are good for their own sake. Examples of these values would be love and beauty. An instrumental value is the "worth a thing has an instrument to achieve a goal or end." (Lecture) Money would be an example of an instrumental value. Having money will allow a person the achieve the goal of a life of leisure. Lastly, nature means everything in our environment-the soil, the climate, and all living things.

Anthropocentrism maintains that only human beings have intrinsic value and that nonhuman anima

I will conclude with stating that the rational thing for us to do is to make the best use of nature for our success in living our lives. And, the anthropocentric view, with its grounds in human self-interest, supports this better than the deep ecology view.

Another claim of the deep ecology view, given by Aaron Naess, is that the self is all, reality is one, and if we damage the environment, we damage ourselves (Lecture). It is true that human beings have the ability, and can choose, to subvert nature. Still, it is only natural of us to do so. A great many people commute in cars and in other transportation vehicles that can cause air pollution. Plows are used to destroy the soil that is used to grow food for us. We add waste to the garbage dumps every day. This is where the anthropocentric argument of "optimal pollution" comes in.

It can be argued by the deep ecology view that such an outlook is speciesism and that it is wrong for human beings to dominate all of nature. What I have to say to this is that it is human nature, our way of life, to trample with nature. Just as Leopold stated, we are members of our land-community (Text, p. #478). It follows that human beings have lived and evolved with nature. Human life is natural life and our activities are as natural as anything else. A great deal of the diverse things that human beings do can be perfectly natural, even if it can be destructive or lead to some transformation of nature. Our cultivation of the land or damming of the rivers is as natural as bees making honey or as birds creating their nests.

ls and the rest of nature only have instrumental v

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1104
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)