2022/08/23 by Federica Bocchi, Alisa Bokulich, Leticia Castillo Brache +2 · 1 voice · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Neuroscience · #Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics #Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
paper · doi:10.1086/722107
In both scientific and popular circles, it is often said that we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. Although the urgency of our present environmental crises is not in doubt, such claims of a present mass extinction are highly controversial scientifically. Our aims are, first, to get to the bottom of this scientific debate by shedding philosophical light on the many conceptual and methodological challenges involved in answering this scientific question and, second, to offer new philosophical perspectives on what the value of asking this question has been—and whether that value persists today. We show that the conceptual challenges in defining ‘mass extinction’, uncertainties in past and present diversity assessments, and data incommensurabilities undermine a straightforward answer to the question of whether we are in, or entering, a sixth mass extinction today. More broadly, we argue that an excessive focus on the mass extinction framing can be misleading for present conservation efforts and may lead us to miss out on the many other valuable insights that Earth’s deep time can offer in guiding our future.