2.2 Anthropocentrism: The general understanding
Philosophically, anthropocentrism may be understood in epistemological, ontological and ethical positions. In its epistemological sense, anthropocentrism is deemed as a tautology; all human values are human values including the intrinsic value that non-anthropocentrism ascribe to nature. Ontologically, it is the position which distinguishes humanity as being the center of the universe or the ends of creation. Lastly, as an ethical stance, anthropocentrism signifies the explicitly stated assertion that only human beings have intrinsic value whereas non-human entities have instrumental value, and therefore human interests should always be valued over the interests of other entities. It must be
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This chapter now examines these terms so to ensure that there is clarity in the paper. The first term is ‘anthropomorphism’ which refers to the technique of assigning uniquely human characteristics to non-human entities. An example of this is seen in different novels and animation films where certain animal characters are often given human attributes and traits. Whilst second and last term is ‘anthropogenic’ which basically means “human-caused”. For instance. climate change can be called anthropogenic when it is human-caused rather than when it is caused by natural …show more content…
This position is deemed as unique and enlightened since it claims that we ought to protect nature from too much human violation since it believes that the destruction of nature is likely to bring about serious repercussions on humankind as well. Enlightened anthropocentrism is similar to traditional (circular) anthropocentrism in such a way that they are both motivated by using nature as a resource for humans’ well-being. However, these two accounts differ when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions; traditional anthropocentrism ignores the importance of valuing the future and non-destructive human interests but only focuses on the satisfaction of immediate preferences. On the other hand, enlightened anthropocentrism takes seriously the interests of future generations and recognizes the both intangible and concrete benefits of nature world (e.g. cancer cures and spiritual enrichment) including its aesthetic value. Another significant different is enlightened anthropocentrism fully addresses the criticism and problems of traditional
The frightening notion of the rapid expendability of resources in an environmentally rich region created a civilization that was quickly unsustainable. This unsustainable style of existence needs to exist as a lesson for our contemporary society, as our own expendability of nature has only recently been recognized. Kennecott has shown that one viewpoint must be understood to successfully coexist and
Sarah K. Castle, in her scientific fiction “The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek” develops the story to tell the nature-culture hybrids and its effect on human-kind and other creatures. The story sets in one location called “Horn Creek” and the main character “Sue” a park ranger and a narrator of the story. The author shows the effect of human meddling with natures at the very beginning of the story. A “Grand Canyon” which is the story plays had been mined and it starts to be closed for visitors and Horn Creek was one of them. In this fiction author is more about to say that human kind intervention in nature is the reason for the natural world disaster.
I strongly side with the act of changing our habitats for the sake of helping the environment. I insist on helping our environment not because you achieve “a sense of personal virtue” (89). Too many times does one aim to create a monumental change without thinking, realistically, that our intentions are no better than those of someone who has no intent to change. Pollan begins to analyze when being environmentally aware of your actions became virtuous, noting writers from the Wall Street Journal to the New Yorker. He questions how doing the right thing in accordance to the environment’s well-being has now been labeled as a “mark of liberal soft-headedness”(89)
The concept of environmental justice was first introduced in South Africa at the Earthlife 1992 conference (Cock 2004, p.6). Defined as the ‘fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies’ (U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2012), environmental justice aims to shift the world towards environmentally friendly development and eradicate exploitation of natural resources and indigenous communities. Most importantly, it deals mainly with the environmental injustices of these relationships, and the ways and means of rectifying these wrongs and/or avoiding them in the future
As time passes the connection between humans and nature is drastically decreasing; humans have developed the idea of being the most powerful form of life on earth. In the passage, Hidden Lessons, by David Suzuki, readers can perceive and understand the author’s message clearly through the use of purpose and form. The purposes of Suzuki’s passage is to educate the readers about the severity of humans losing connection with nature, raise awareness towards this issue, and he uses the form of persuasiveness to prove his point.
Over the decades, the topic of the environment has always ended in endless arguments and debates. In Edward O. Wilson’s book The Future of Life, he satirizes two passages about stereotypes of environmentalists and people first critics. Using rhetorical questions, ad hominems, Irony, and logos, Wilson illustrates the unproductive manner of environmentalists. Using ad hominems, both passages mock each other. “Environmental wackos” frustrate Wilson because the environmentalists think they have control over the county.
Jane Goodall, a primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, explains that the greatest risk to our future is lacking enthusiasm and concern about its outcome. Considering Goodall is extremely environmentally keen, it is more than likely she is emphasizing this towards the future of the entire ecosystem, including plants and animals, rather than only the future of the human race. She explains that if the human race falls to a deficiency of caring about our environment, it can and will lead to a vast threat to the future of the world’s ecosystem. Often humans forget about the importance of the ecosystem and instead we become caught up in ourselves and our own individual needs. Goodall is stressing that if these egotistical human acts continue to occur, the future of our ecosystem is in jeopardy.
He argues that we should treat our land with care and respect as we now treat one another, for we will be ushering a new era of change the is all for the better. The second half of the essay begins with "The Ecological Conscience". Starting off by stating “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” and going on to describe how our fight for land is improving it is moving far too slow. This transforms into the
B. Thesis: The causes of global warming and climate change are because of increased emissions of greenhouse gases, and the effects of this are rising temperatures and more severe natural disasters. II. Body A. Counter Claim: Most scientist and people believe that humans are the cause of global warming because of the emissions that they put into the air, but there is a small percentage of people who think that global warming is not caused by emissions at all. Support with MLA citation
Anthropocentrism refers to human beings as the central most significant entities of the world. Mankind are superior among all species on earth whilst all other entities are subjected to exploitation for human growth. This belief forms the basis of many western religions and philosophies. A few anthropocentric philosophers argue that the earth’s resources are not limited or increase in human population will not exceed the carrying capacity of earth. They also claim that projections of human population and resource limitations are exaggerated or as time progresses new technology will be available to solve any future scarcity problems.
Do humans cause global warming or is it natural? Many researchers, scientists, and environmentalists are expressing concerns about changes in the overall climate of the `earth. Some believe that a dramatically dangerous warming is taking place in the overall global climate, a problem that is referred to as "global warming”. What is global warming? Global warming is an increase in the average temperature at Earth's surface (“global warming”).
The earth, our earth, once used to be a healthy environment, with no pollution or destruction. Not until humans began creating advanced technology and other inventions that started to affect the way we live. As humans we thought these inventions would just make life easier for us and we don’t mean to harm the planet. We are all trying to help the planet but at the same time, destroying it.
Therefore, we need to think about tomorrow with respect to every action that we take in the environment and in this case we can say that sustainable development requires slower population growth. With this in mind, we need to be educated through our cultures about the impact we caused to the environment as we continue to reproduce. The challenge of environmental ethics has led to the attempt to apply traditional ethical theories, including consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, to support contemporary environmental concerns; the preservation of biodiversity as an ethical goal; the broader concerns of some thinkers with wilderness, the built environment and the politics of poverty; the ethics of sustainability and climate change, and some directions for possible future developments of the discipline [ CITATION And15 \l 1033 ]. With this multi-dimensional approach one can see that it is more of a cultural issue to think of it from its origin.
Additionally, I explain the view that was first developed by Olson known as animalism. He argues that a person is essentially an animal. Animalism is the view that to be a human person is to be an organism that belongs to the species of Homo sapiens and that is where
Introduction: Our earth is the most precious gift of the universe. It is the sustenance of ‘nature’ that is the key to the development of the future of mankind. It is the duty and responsibility of each one of us to protect nature. It is here that the understanding of the ‘environment’ comes into the picture. The degradation of our environment is linked with the development process and the ignorance of people about retaining the ecological balance.