Much of the recent debate about the environment has centered on the extent to which human Well-being should factor into environmental concerns. Two approaches have dominated the response, one based on traditional market-oriented evaluation of Well-being, and a second that denies the validity of Well-being as the basis of decision making, and instead insists on recognition of the intrinsic value of non-human entities. However, showing that natural entities have intrinsic values does not, in itself, entail any obligation on the part of humans, but at the same time, intrinsic value is not necessarily incompatible with a concern for human Well-being. Both of these approaches should be rejected in favor of an Aristotelian conception of Well-being based on the objective goods that a person may possess.
