Leopold's land ethic advances four key claims (stated here roughly as Leopold stated them): (1) the moral community should include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or, what Leopold calls, collectively, “the land” (Leopold 1949 [1977]: 204); (2) the role of homo sapiens should be changed from conqueror to plain member of the land community (204); (3) we can be moral only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, respect, admire, or otherwise have faith in (214, 223, 225); and (4) “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise” (224–225), what some regard as Leopold's ultimate moral maxim.