Authors : George Ohabuenyi Abah, Joseph Nnaemeka Chukwuma, Uche Miriam Okoye, Francis Okechukwu Ekwueme, Christian Onuorah Agbo, Charles Kenechukwu Okoro, Chioma Winifred Ezeanya, Gabriel Chukwuebuka Otegbulu and John Obiora Anichebe
Abstract: For some centuries past, philosophy had a sustained emphasis on human beings without a tincture of consideration stretched to nonhuman nature. This gave birth to anthropocentrism, especially, in the West where man was conceived as the "measure of all things". Within these centuries, man was not only seen as the centre of the universe but the only being in nature whose moral value deserves consideration. Other species in the environment were only considered to be instrumental to human ends.In contrast to the position of this school of thought, the Igbo culture posits that the environment is replete with intrinsic value in varied species. For this cultural group, it takes a closer study of different species in nature to arrive at a discovery of an autonomous intrinsic values in environmental species. These are activities that inhere in both living and non-living things independent of human valuation. Hence, an instrumental valuation of nature is not sufficient until an intrinsic valuation is considered. In short, the Igbos show case this sense in their local technologies such as rain-making, varied herbal healings not excluding snake-bites, scorpion-stings, fracture or bone-healing and even poisons to which they recline on what the environment gives them for solutions or interventions. In these cases, they project the values that are inherent in herbs, trees, animals, animate and inanimate components of the environment as the source of their discoveries and advancements. Aside the visible components of the environment are also, the invisible beings that assist the discovery of some of these useful components of the environment which they call their ancestors. Suffice it to say that, the extent to which Igbo technologies manifest good results is the extent to which the Igbos relate with their material and immaterial environments. This research, therefore, studies the theory of intrinsic value in environmental species to explore the assistances they offer the Igbos in one of their local technologies namely, rain-making. The result of this study shows that if, we are to value the environment intrinsically and acknowledge its immaterial components, rich values from the environment will sufficiently assist our technologies for our well-being.
George Ohabuenyi Abah, Joseph Nnaemeka Chukwuma, Uche Miriam Okoye, Francis Okechukwu Ekwueme, Christian Onuorah Agbo, Charles Kenechukwu Okoro, Chioma Winifred Ezeanya, Gabriel Chukwuebuka Otegbulu and John Obiora Anichebe, 2019. Intrinsic Value in Environmental Species Vis-a-Vis Igbo Cultural Technology. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 14: 7431-7436.