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A comprehensive proposal for recognition of cognitive prerequisites of environmental ethics is offered. The author argues that the cognitive approach makes it possible to discuss contents of the minds in non-human organisms, and then he goes on to show that this observation supports an important claim in the scope of environmental philosophy that we can assign to these organisms the power of making unconscious evaluations. By way of analogy the author then holds that human organisms frequently make unconscious evaluations, too, and as a result of that they are prone to form unconscious representations of values. This procedure is supported by an analysis of similarities between the patterns of processing information in the mind and the course of the evolution of biological systems. From this discussion the author draws the conclusion that it is justifiable to contend that nature, conceived generally, has the power of making evaluations.