Conclusion
- Values, Advocacy, and Conservation Biology

IV. Conclusion.

In this essay, I have attempted to clarify the normative nature of conservation biology. I have argued that conservation biology is value-laden. There are both constitutive and contextual values that arise in the science from individual scientists, the scientific collective, and from the public at large. I have offered an account of what an advocate is in conservation biology and have claimed that they should be advocates in the requisite sense. However, there are important qualifications that arise insofar as the reason for such preservation changes from instrumentalist arguments to noninstrumentalist arguments especially of interest to environmental philosophers. However, even such arguments should be offered when the public expects scientists to speak on matters beyond the narrowly scientific.

Acknowledgments

I thank Marc Ereshefsky, Brad Stewart, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on this essay.