Abstract
This chapter introduces the two main philosophical questions that are raised by the prospect of extinct species being brought back from the dead—namely, the ‘Authenticity Question’ and the ‘Ethical Question’. It distinguishes different types of de-extinction, and different methods by which de-extinction can be accomplished. Finally, it examines the aims of wildlife conservation with a view to whether they are compatible with de-extinction, or not.
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Notes
- 1.
Unmanaged de-extinctions closely correspond to what Sandler (2013) instead terms ‘deep de-extinctions’.
- 2.
We characterize ‘pristineness’ only in terms of the impacts of modern human civilization, not in terms of all human impacts, because if the protracted and far-reaching ecological impacts of our Palaeolithic and Neolithic forebears were factored into consideration then much of the native flora and fauna of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and the Americas would count as having little pristineness.
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Campbell, D.I., Whittle, P.M. (2017). Conservation in a Brave New World. In: Resurrecting Extinct Species. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69578-5_1
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