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For some biocentric individualists, who believe that individual organisms deserve moral respect in light of their own individual lives, the view that biological organisms have their own purposes is seen as grounding their moral value. Thus, Paul Taylor has argued that an individual organism is “a teleological center of life, striving to preserve itself and realize its good in its own way.” 1 Elements of this view can be traced to Aristotle, who defined eudaimonia, or flourishing, in terms of the exercise of the functions or purposes of the organism. As such, biological functions as a source of, or at least as helping us ascribe, moral value have been endorsed also outside the debates constituting environmental ethics. 2 In contemporary philosophy, where teleology is recognized to be a problematic concept, we may well wonder if we can make sense of, and be able to fully identify, the goals that make up a life. The most compelling