Ecocentrism And Environmentalism - 1578 Words

Deforestation has been a prevalent problem throughout time, but especially with the exponential increase in technology over the past 50 years, it has become a more concerning issue. Then, the ethical question, apart from the impact it has on species, is whether or not ecosystems have more standing. Is it just the individuals that are sentient and have a use to humanity that have moral standing, or is there something beyond individual organisms such as their interrelatedness and contribution to the good of the whole ecosystem? Using Thoreau’s ecocentric philosophical viewpoint acquired through his time at Walden and the contemporary environmental issue of deforestation as an example will provide justification for the argument that†¦show more content†¦Contrary to a biocentrist view, an ecocentrist will assert that to be able to determine moral treatment of any being, the good it contributes to the ecosystem as a whole must be questioned. This kind of view asserted by L eopold constitutes to the main focus of ecocentrism. Regardless of acceptance of an ecocentric view, the question of whether an ecosystem has a moral standing must then be asked. In an anthropocentric view, one sees the moral duties of humans and obligations as only applicable to people. Another view extends moral norms to beyond nonhumans with the argument that the value of humans is also found in other sentient beings. In other words, if one claims that humans have moral standing because they are sentient, then any other organism considered to be sentient also has a moral standing. An additional view applies to an ecocentric view, finding ethical and moral standing beyond just individual organisms. An ecocentric view goes beyond the traditional norms that extend to plants and animals, extending to the view that every single relationship between organisms and their environments are vital components to understanding the value of an individual organism. Overall, â€Å"ecosystems have ecological identities that are reasserted overtime, and ecosystems in part help determine what is said to be for organisms and species. In this sense, ecosystems are prescriptive, selective systems that have systematic,Show MoreRelatedWhat Are The Ideologies Associated With Societal Views Of The Environment And How One Should Effectively Approach Natural Resource Conservation1536 Words   |  7 Pagespromotes human interest (Brennan, 2002). Conversely, ecocentrism sees humans as a part of the Earth’s ecosystems rather than the overseeing entity of them. This view holds intrinsic value in the environment itself and therefore asserts that humans do not possess the power to decide what portions of the planet to protect (Mazzotta, 1995). Rather, humans are seen as environmental stewards and as a part of a larger ecological system. Ecocentrism gives nonhuman entities possession of moral considerationRead MoreAnalysis Of Koyaanisqatsi And If A Tree Falls1734 Words   |  7 Pagesfor humanity’s impact on the longevity of the earth’s natural environment (Gibson 2002). From this concern, the ideology of environmentalism has emerged as a strong social movement, bent on the perusal of a viable future, through the implementation of culturally defined responsibilities towards the natural world (Gibson 2002). Through the progression of cinema, environmentalism has become an issue that has received wide publicity, resulting in the creation of countless films discussing this issue.Read MoreSpace Colonization : A New Frontier1710 Words   |  7 Pagescommon ground. An often cited article entitled â€Å"The ethical dimensions of space settlement,† written by Martyn Fogg, argues that space development is morally acceptable. To begin, Fogg defines four ethical theories: anthropocentrism, zoocentrism, ecocentrism and preservationism. Fogg shows that the anthropocentric, zoocentric and ecocentric ideologies all uphold space colonization as morally permissible because they only require that space colonization is beneficial to man (anthropocentric) and does