ABSTRACT
Capabilities theory is a theory of human flourishing, and as such provides an alternative to market-and preference-based accounts of value. The etymology of flourishing and flowering suggests that we understand human flourishing “by analogy with similar states of other organisms, such as animals and even plants” (Hurka 1999: 44). However, capabilities theory, as we now have it, retains a focus on flourishing human capabilities with which, under some interpretations, the flourishing of other species and ecosystems is not consistently compatible.
