Prof. Dr Andreas Hetzel (Hildesheim): Respecting Diversity: An Ethics of Biodiversity

Life on our planet has diversified into an immeasurable wealth of forms that interact in complex ways. By destroying our natural environment, we are threatening the very survival of the miracle that is global biodiversity. In doing so, we overlook the fact that humanity, too, remains dependent on the productivity of those ecosystems within which life has organised itself evolutionarily. But how can one make a convincing case for the conservation of biodiversity?

Reductionist concepts play a not insignificant role in the destruction of nature; they promote a narrow understanding of nature and cause us to lose sight of its diversity and interdependencies. What alternatives, rooted in the history of theory, for reflecting on and understanding nature do we encounter in the discourses of around 1800? In what ways might they be relevant to our current discussions on environmental ethics? These are the questions explored in the lecture by Prof. Andreas Hetzel (Hildesheim).