摘要：One of the four questions which PhilosophicB has asked contributors to address runs as follows: "Can biocentrism be justified without accepting B priori that all living beings deserve moral consideration?" Now on one understanding, biocentrism consists precisely in the claim that all living beings are morally considerable; indeed Richard Sylvan has criticized George Sessions and Bill Devall for adhering to biocentrism in this very sense.1 There again, the theorist who uses 'biocentrism' of his own position, Paul W. Taylor, certainly includes the belief that all living beings have moral standing as an element in that position,2 and, unless I mistake him, as an B priori belief at that. On the other hand Taylor's biocentrism, as will be seen, has other (less acceptable) implications.
