ABSTRACT
It is often taken for granted that it is only human beings who bring values into the world; that without us, the world would be comprised of ‘brute facts’, i.e. valueless facts. Though this view has been challenged by ‘deep ecology’, the challenge easily (though not inevitably) slips over into a kind of neo-paganism: submission to a powerful but finite deity with ends indifferent to our own. I find such views (e.g. certain versions of the ‘Gaia hypothesis’)1 incredible and dangerous; I intend to argue for values existing independently of us, in terms which make no assumptions either for or against any theology, whether neopagan or Judaeo-Christian, though I shall refer to theological positions from time to time.
