Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism (
Greek άνθρωπος,
anthropos, "man, human being", κέντρον,
kentron, "center") is the idea that
human beings are the central element of the universe, and that all things should be judged in their relationship to human experience and livelihood. According to anthropocentrism,
anthropos (the term, like "human", refers to both men and women) must be considered, looked after and cared for, above all other real or imaginary beings.
Anthropocentrism has been posited by some
environmentalists, in such books as
Confessions of an Eco-Warrior by
Dave Foreman and
Green Rage by
Christopher Manes, as the underlying if unstated reason why humanity dominates and sees the need to "develop" most of the Earth. Anthropocentrism views
civilization rather than
wilderness as the real world, and sets aside small wilderness preserves in the midst of large areas dominated by human activities instead of the other way around. In this sense, anthropocentrism has been identified by these writers and others as a root cause of the
ecological crisis, human
overpopulation, and
extinctions of many non-human species.
Anthropocentrism, or human-centredness, is widely acknowledged as a central problematic concept in environmental philosophy, where it is used to draw attention to a systematic bias in traditional Western attitudes to the non-human world (Naess 1973). Val Plumwood (1993, 1996) has argued that anthropocentrism plays an analogous role in green theory to
androcentrism in feminist theory and
ethnocentrism in anti-racist theory. Plumwood calls human-centredness "anthrocentrism" to emphasise this parallel.
Some
evangelical Christians have also been critical, viewing a human-centered
worldview, rather than a
Christ-centered or
God-centered worldview, as a core societal problem. According to this viewpoint, a fallen humanity placing its own desires ahead of the teachings of Christ leads to rampant selfishness and behavior viewed as sinful.
Biocentrism (the belief that all life, or even the whole universe living or otherwise taken as a whole, is equally valid and humanity is not the center of existence) has been proposed as an
antonym of anthropocentrism.
*
Anthropic principle*
Anthropocentric embodied energy analysis*
Gynocentrism*
Androcentrism*
Deep Ecology*
Speciesism*
Human exceptionalism*
Great Ape personhood
