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T RANSFORMATIVE VALUE

2. ANTHROPOCENTRIC INSTRUMENTALISM

2.6. T RANSFORMATIVE VALUE

take his DNA and make a clone. The clone would have much in common with the dead person before he died, but it would not be the same person.143

Because of these and probably also other hitherto unknown problems, reviving species through cloning may never be a real alternative on a larger scale even if it is technically possible. The irreversibility of extinction is thus something we must consider a reality. There is (in general) no such thing involved when we lose money. If we miss an opportunity to make money, we can with few exceptions make money some other time and some other way. If we destroy a species, we can probably never get it back no matter how much money we have.

That a loss is forever seems to be a very important psychological factor when we deal with species extinction.144 The discussion we have seen here may be one possible explanation.

There is one more thing we have to keep in mind when we talk about choice value: Choice value for human beings is clearly important, but “choice value” for evolution is even more important. If we diminish biodiversity, the evolutionary process will have fewer genomes to “choose” from.145 This in turn means that we decrease the probability that the particular species with the particular property we need for food or medicine or any of the other uses we have discussed earlier, will turn up. It also means that possibilities for the biological communities to adapt to future changes (human induced or not) will be smaller. The members of some species obviously do not have any choice at all. They are totally dependent on one type of food, host, pollen distributor, etc. Members of other specie however do have a choice. When one or more of the species they utilise disappear, they have less of a choice. This in turn can make things more difficult for them in the long run. The species might become less abundant and they may eventually disappear. If this species is important for us, it means it is also important for us not to diminish the number of choices for the members of the species. We will discuss the matter of ecosystem stability and adaptation soon but before that, we will discuss another type of value other species can have for human beings.

Strong anthropocentrism the way it is defined by Norton sees nature as valuable only to the extent that it satisfies demand values. Weak anthropocentrism also admits for nature to have value for us by providing transformative value. A demand value is something that can provide satisfaction for a felt preference. Transformative value on the other hand is a type of value that something has when it makes us examine, and possibly alter our set of felt preferences.146

To illustrate the concept of transformative value, Norton gives us two examples:

The first example features a teenager who really wants to go to a rock concert, but instead of a ticket to the rock concert, she receives a ticket to a concert with a symphony orchestra. As a result, she becomes very disappointed.

The ticket does not represent a demand value for her, i.e. it does not satisfy any of her preferences, and she wants to give the ticket away. After having been persuaded by her parents to attend the classical concert, she acquires a taste for classical music, which continues to give her much pleasure. Thanks to the ticket, she alters her set of felt preferences concerning music from only including rock music to also including classical music. The ticket therefore represents a transformative value for her.

Norton also gives us an example of negative transformative value. This time the example is about a child whose friends are bad for him. The time spent with these people ultimately changes the demand values of the child in a direction that relative to some other basic value is negative for him. It is therefore an example of a negative transformative value.147

I interpret Norton’s use of the term ‘weak anthropocentrism’ based on these examples as a kind of anthropocentric instrumentalism according to which nature, other species, etc. have instrumental value for us not just as a means for achieving what we already value, but also as having the potential to change these values. Thereby giving us the opportunity to value different things (that hopefully are more worthy of our preferences), or to value more things. Nature or different species therefore has instrumental value according to Norton not just by satisfying existing preferences but also by supplying us with new ones.

Melin agrees with Norton that there are other values in nature that do not appear at first sight. He does not approve of the concept of transformational value, however. He does not agree that this is a special type of value that nature has due to its ability to change our preferences. Instead, what happens according to Melin is that we change our preferences, which in turn increases the value of nature.148

I beg to disagree with Melin on this point, however. I believe that in many cases of changed preferences it is not something we choose to do but something that happens to us – imposed on us from the outside by the experiences that nature (for instance) causes us to have. Even when we want to change our

146 Norton 1987 pp.9ff

147 Norton 1987 pp.10f

148 Melin 2001 p.142

preferences, we often need some kind of input from the outside for the change to happen. It is probably rare that someone manages to change his preferences just as an act of will. In order to make a genuine change we seem to need some kind of imprinting experience. I therefore think it is appropriate to talk about things that can help us with this transformation as having transformative value.

Another possible objection to Norton’s idea is that if we can show that a transformation is for the better, then we should not need to take a detour via an experience. We could use the proof directly. If we cannot show that the transformation is for the better, then we do not know if the transformative value is positive or negative.

Let us again look at Norton’s examples. According to Norton, the transformation in the first example was for the better and in the second example it was for the worse. If we can know that a taste for classical music is good, then why is this not enough to adopt this taste? Why did she have to actually listen to a concert in order for the transformation to take place?

I believe that the main answer to this objection is the same as the answer I presented in relation to Melin’s objection above. I.e. it is in general not enough to show theoretically that a transformation would be for the better – in most cases we need to be exposed to some kind of emotional experience to really change our preferences. I believe, in fact, that our attitudes towards the environment are an excellent example of this.

There is, however, also another problem. In the objection above I assumed that we can know whether a transformation is for the better. It is not quite clear what this means. According to Norton the transformation in the first example above is better because it promotes a value that is objectively better, while the transformation in the second example is negative because it promotes a value that is objectively worse. He fails, however, to give a satisfying answer to why the transformation in the first story is objectively better while the transformation in the second story is objectively worse. Melin makes an attempt by interpreting Norton’s notion of objectively better values to mean values that are considered felt values and not just felt values, and therefore fits better with the general worldview including other preferences of the person who has the value.149 Negative transformational value is thus presumably transformations that create felt values that fit less well with the worldview of the valuer. This seems like a plausible interpretation. It also has the advantage that we do not have to resign to objective values, or to meta-values.

I would also like to suggest two more specific ways in which a transformation can be for the better.150 They are based on two distinctions that are easier to make than a general distinction between positive and negative transformative value, but they are none the less important for our investigation.

First I would like to distinguish between ‘less-intrusive transformative value’, and ‘more-intrusive transformative value’. I will let the former term refer to transformations where the new set of preferences is overall less intrusive than the

149 Melin 2001 p.142

150 I do not believe that these suggestions contradict Melin’s suggestion.

set of preferences held before the transformation. For instance because a new preference is formed that is of a kind that is non-intrusive, or at least has a low degree of intrusiveness, or because more intrusive preferences are transformed into less intrusive preferences. By the ‘more-intrusive transformative value’ I will mean a transformation in the opposite direction. The idea is that demand values that are less intrusive on other demand values – including the demand values of others – are better than more intrusive demand values. This can be defended from a utilitarian standpoint since they allow more value to exist simultaneously and thereby maximises the sum of good. It can also be defended from a deontological standpoint since non-intrusive values break fewer rights.

For us it means that a species has a less-intrusive transformative value if experiencing the species inspires people to enjoy its non-destructive values rather than its destructive values, something that seems rather plausible.

The other distinction I would like to suggest is between ‘expanding’ and

‘reducing’ transformative value. I will use the former term to mean that the valuer is transformed into valuing something she did not value before and the latter that the valuer is transformed into not valuing something she valued before.

This means that additive transformative value increases choice value while subtractive transformative value decreases choice value – not by changing anything in the world outside the valuer but by transforming the valuer. The example of the teenager who acquires a taste for classical music in addition to her previous taste for rock music seems to be an example of this kind of transformation. As we will see soon, this distinction is quite important for our use of transformative value as a basis for preservation.

By including transformative value in the realm of anthropocentric values, Norton hopes to be able to increase the use of anthropocentric arguments in favour of preservation. Others seem to believe in the opposite effect. Thomas Anderberg and Marian Radetzki do not use the terminology introduced by Norton, but they still seem to be thinking of something similar to the transformative values identified by Norton. Both Anderberg and Radetzki believe that lack of the things we value in nature will transform our preferences so that we in the end will not miss them but rather be glad that they are gone and replaced by whatever we have got instead.151 Future generations might e.g.

according to Radetzki acquire a taste for the barren artificial environments they may have to live in and eventually even come to prefer that type of environment to the natural environment. In order to support his assumption, he points out that many people today prefer swimming pools to the ocean even at seaside resorts, despite the water in the ocean being as clean as the water in the pool.152 One might also add that the number of people who spend their time off at a shopping mall is much larger than the number of people who spend it in the nearest public wilderness area.

151 Anderberg 1994 pp.41, 111, 115, 120, 122f, Anderberg 1995 p.48, Radetzki 1990 p.55, Radetzki 2001 p.79

152 Radetzki 1990 p.55, Radetzki 2001 p.79

I am not convinced that this really grants the conclusion, however. The facts seem undisputable but the logic is not convincing.153 Even if many people today actually prefer the barren monocultures of a modern city, they might, in the same way be able to learn to appreciate a richer environment with larger biodiversity if they became exposed to it in a proper way and were provided with the basic understanding of biology that makes it possible to get more pleasure from the experience. This is in fact parallel to Norton’s example: Most young people today would not freely go to a classical music concert, but if they were exposed to it and got to learn about it, many of them might acquire a taste for this kind of music and as a result have a wider selection of music to enjoy. The thing is that if you start appreciating other species, you do not have to stop enjoying the pleasures of modern civilisation. In the same way, by getting access to the latter, you do not have to give up the former. By learning to appreciate both, you will rather have more things to appreciate. We therefore have a case of what I above chose to call ‘expanding transformative value’.

Anderberg’s and Radetzki’s argument seems to rest on the assumption that we can transform away preferences and, so to speak, “get over” things we do not have access to anymore. It therefore seems to be a typical example of ‘reducing transformative value’. Both directions are probably possible also in the case of biodiversity, but Norton’s direction seems more enriching while Anderberg’s and Radetzki’s seem to make our lives less rich. Even if we learn to appreciate what we have got, it seems quite clear that it would be even better if we got more to appreciate.

All in all it seems clear that with more diversity we can learn to appreciate more things and therefore have a richer life, as with the teenage girl in Norton’s example who learned to appreciate both rock and classical music. Anderberg’s and Radetzki’s reasoning might be of some comfort if we lose diversity, but Norton’s reasoning shows us that more diversity is still better. This ought reasonably to count for biological diversity as well as for diversity in musical styles.

Both the expanding transformation and the less-intrusive transformation is something that increases value. We can therefore conclude that if species have the ability to transform our preferences in these directions, they have a kind of instrumental value that is quite important and that has to be added to the other forms of instrumental value that we have listed. That species have the ability to transform our sets of preferences in an expanding direction as well as in a less-intrusive direction seems to me very plausible.

153 Kenneth Hermele (Hermele 1995 p.72) is not convinced about the facts either. He believes that the reason why people prefer the artificial environments is that the natural environments have been polluted or otherwise degraded by the economic activities that made it possible to build the artificial environments.

He undoubtedly has a point in this though the point of transformation still stands.