生物分类学沙文主义,不可再如此!——来自休谟、达尔文和生物文化伦理的解药

Taxonomic chauvinism, no more!Antidotes from Hume, Darwin, and biocultural ethics

全球社会的文化通常将动物一词与脊椎动物联系起来。矛盾的是,大多数动物多样性都是由小型生物组成,而人们却对这些小型生物视若无睹,它们在哲学、科学和教育中的代表性严重不足。21世纪的科学研究表明,许多无脊椎动物具有意识和感受疼痛的能力。这些发现敦促动物伦理学家变得更具包容性,并重新评估无脊椎动物在道德共同体中的地位。关于这些小型动物等共栖者正在第六次大规模灭绝中消失,科学界也提出了警示。这种“无形的灭绝”迫使环境哲学家将无脊椎动物凸显出来,它们不仅对于生物多样性和人类社会赖以生存的生态系统的功能而言十分重要,其自身的存在也非常宝贵。通过整合生物多样性之生物物理维度和文化维度的生物文化方法,笔者研究了分类学沙文主义的根源,它不仅关联着无脊椎动物在现代哲学和科学中的代表性不足,也关联着无脊椎动物的从属地位。坏消息是在动物意象中发现了明显的椎骨主义。

The culture of global society commonly associates the word animal with vertebrates.Paradoxically, most of animal diversity is composed of small organisms that remain invisible in the global culture and are underrepresented in philosophy, science, and education. Twenty-first century science has revealed that many invertebrates have consciousness and the capacity to feel pain.These discoveries urge animal ethicists to be more inclusive and to reevaluate the participation of invertebrates in the moral community. Science also has warned of the disappearance of small animal co-inhabitants that is occurring in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. This “invisible extinction” compels environmental philosophers to make visible invertebrates, whose existence is precious in itself and for the functioning of ecosystems on which biodiversity and human societies depend. With a biocultural approach that integrates the biophysical and cultural dimensions of biodiversity, I investigate the roots of taxonomic chauvinism associated with the under-representation and subordination of invertebrates in modern philosophy and science.