Titre : « Environmental Stewardship and the Values of Nature »

Résumé : Common sense morality holds that we act rightly when we act as stewards of natural environment on behalf of our descendants, present and future. This view is widely rejected by the environmental ethics community for misrepresenting the values of nature. It is argued that the stewardship conception is flawed because it is (i) is anthropocentric (i.e., presumes all and only human beings possess intrinsic moral value) and (ii) subjectivist (treats nature as valuable only to the extent it satisfies subjective preferences.) I argue that both claims are false. The first rests on a category mistake. The second rests on an unduly reductivist view of the values we are warranted in assigning nature from a stewardship perspective.