Where Does Conservation Go from Here?

Date

Tue April 7th 2026, 4:00 - 5:30pm

Location

Mitchell Earth Sciences
397 Panama Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
Hartley Conference Center

Abstract: The paradigm that has guided conservation philosophy and practice for the last 40 years is oriented around limiting and remediating anthropogenic impacts in order to maintain self-sustaining ecological processes and populations. This paradigm is increasingly under stress from high-rate anthropogenic change, massive extinction risk, and rapid biotechnology innovation. This talk analyses how these factors interact with the paradigm and explores possible paths forward from a conservation philosophy perspective. It addresses issues such as whether a new conceptual repertoire is needed to develop a coherent conservation philosophy, as well as whether conservation should embrace a more creative and design-oriented relationship with other species.

Bio: Ronald Sandler is a professor of philosophy and Director of the Ethics Institute at Northeastern University. His areas of research are environmental ethics, ethics of emerging technologies, ethical theory, and Spinoza. He is author of Character and Environment (Columbia, 2007); The Ethics of Species (Cambridge 2012); Environmental Ethics: Theory in Practice (Oxford 2018); and Food Ethics (Routledge 2024). He is editor or co-editor of Environmental Virtue Ethics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005); Environmental Justice and Environmentalism (MIT, 2007); and Ethics and Emerging Technologies (Palgrave, 2014). Sandler’s research has been supported by NSF, NEH, and the Woodrow Wilson Center, among others.

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