- Compare and contrast the ways in which Mark Sagoff (“Zuckerman’s Dilemma”) and Holmes Rolston (“Intrinsic Values on Earth”) distinguish between “intrinsic” and “instrumental” value, and their reasons for valuing nature intrinsically rather than just instrumentally.
Your task is to make sense of an author’s position and reasoning. What are they saying
and why would they have thought that? To make sense of an author’s position, it doesn’t
help to portray them as foolish, however wrong or misguided you personally consider
them to be.
Nor does it help to take an author’s position and reasoning for granted, as if there is no
explanation required. Go to as much trouble to make sense of positions and lines of
reasoning that you agree with as you would to make sense of positions you disagree
with.In making sense of the authors in question, it may help to imagine that you’re
addressing an audience that is not already familiar with the subject matter. Imagine, for
example, that you’re addressing some of your peers who are interested to hear what
your class is about, what sorts of things you’re discussing. You have to be a bit of a
teacher to make the authors’ viewpoints and reasoning understandable to such an
audience.