The Value of Nature and the Duty of Human Beings

The value of nature is regarded as theoretical foundation of eco-ethic s. According to traditional concepts, nature only has extrinsic value; however e co-ethics has given a redefinition to the value of nature. On the one hand, eco- ethics extends the concept of extrinsic values by understanding human dependence upon nature instead of the conflicts between the two; on the other hand, it r ecognizes the intrinsic value of nature in the teleological and integral p erspectives. The comprehensive affirmation of the value of nature in eco-ethics extends human duty to later generations in the historical dimension of time with moral considerations between man and nature in the spatial dimension.