Understanding biodiversity from a relational viewpoint

Biodiversity is commonly acknowledged as a universal value in different disciplines. It indicates the heterogeneity of properties that characterizes the biological world. Despite its common use, however, a critical analysis of the philosophical literature shows a difficulty in its conceptualization given by an apparent dichotomy between the normative and the descriptive features of the term itself. In this paper we argue that, in order to overcome such tension, the relational aspect of the biodiversity concept should be acknowledged. That is, any difference in the natural world, which is defined in terms of biodiversity, conceptually and explanatory entails the intrinsic relationship between what is in common and what is specific among entities, to be a value. This makes of biodiversity an explanatory concept in its own right. Through a relational account of biodiversity it is also possible to acknowledge the multi-dimensionality of the notion of biodiversity, which has shown to be really useful in different contexts and better characterized in terms of the “richness” that biodiversity concept entails.