Weak Anthropocentrism’s Future

This chapter suggests that the distinction between anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism has been given more importance in discussions of the foundations of environmental ethics than it warrants because a crucial ambiguity in the term anthropocentrism has gone unnoticed. There are two forms of anthropocentrism, weak and strong, and weak anthropocentrism is adequate to support an environmental ethic. Environmental ethics is, however, distinctive vis-a-vis standard British and American ethical systems because, in order to be adequate, it must be nonindividualistic. Weak anthropocentrism provides a basis for criticizing individual, consumptive needs and can provide the basis for adjudicating between these levels, thereby providing an adequate basis for environmental ethics without the questionable ontological commitments made by nonanthropocentrists in attributing intrinsic value to nature. Anthropocentrists are therefore taken to believe that every instance of value originates in a contribution to human values and that all elements of nature can, at most, have value instrumental to the satisfaction of human interests.

In the Anthropocene epoch, slow violence triggered by human-caused environmental disaster is omnipresent across the globe. By forming an alternative media-spectatorship/readership in a media-saturated, fast-changing world, ecocinema can potentially help create an ecocentric environmental ethics, allowing us to question long-held notions of anthropocentrism, speciesism, and other ecological issues. Analyzing two documentaries, A Plastic Ocean and Silent River, this paper investigates the efficacy of the narratives of ecocinema as a powerful cultural and political text in making environmental slow violence perceptible to human imagination and in taking us one step further to environmental justice activism. The study will also examine the way in which water answers back to the environmental injustice triggered by humans through retaliation and revenge, appropriating and expanding Rob Nixon’s idea of slow violence and Jane Bennett’s concept of thing-power. Closely reading the portrayal of water as a dynamic entity in these two visual texts, this paper argues how the intrinsic value and the agency of water can reveal to humans the problems connected with their strong anthropocentric environmental ethics.

Colyvan, M., S. Linquist, W. Grey, P. Griffiths, J. Odenbaugh, and H. P. Possingham. 2009. Philosophical issues in ecology: recent trends and future directions. Ecology and Society 14(2): 22. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03020-140222

Offering close exegesis of specific passages from the Hebrew Bible and a discussion of the interpretation and appropriation of these ancient texts by post-biblical Jewish writers and by other creative contributors from outside the Jewish tradition, this study explores topics in religious ethics, social justice, political ethics, reproductive ethics, economic ethics, and issues in ecology, gender and sexuality, killing and dying, and reproductive ethics. Certain goals inform all the chapters: the interest in tracing recurring themes concerning the definition of the good, and the various ways in which Jewish thinkers rely on the more ancient material and appropriate it; the links between areas in ethics explored, for example, between gender and reproductive ethics, or war-views and attitudes to political ethics and environmental ethics. Each essay, however, is a self-contained study as well. The author has carved out particular biblical texts or themes in order to explore them in depth with special interest in the meanings and messages that pertain to ancient Israelite writers’ varied presentation of matters in ethics.

Environmental Ethics of Sufism Cosmology in View of Seyeed Hossein Nasr. Sufism has unique concepts about human life. It provides the ways and methods to find the highest conscious so that the sâlikîn (the followers of sufism) can be wiser than before in any aspects, including in facing ecological crisis issues. This article tried to explore and analyze Seyeed Hossein Nars’s view on ecological ethics in sufism. Nasr’s concept derived from tawhîd (unity). Macro and micro cosmos were God’s theophany. The relation between Allah as The God and cosmos were like one face at the front of thousand mirrors. Allah is The One and there are many manifestations of his reflection. Therefore, the universe contains and accommodates the “aspects” of God. Hence, Nasr developed the concept of tawhîd became rim and axis theory. In this theory, there are similarities and likenesses with a’yan’s Mulla Sadra and al-Ghazali views. Through bashîrah (the eyes of heart), the sâlik can be khalîfah and ‘abd Allâh. Hence, damaging the cosmos also means damaging the relation with Allah.

The use of genetically modified plants in agriculture (GM crops) is controversially discussed in academic publications. Important issues are whether the release of GM crops is beneficial or harmful for the environment and therefore acceptable, and whether the modification of plants is ethically permissible per se. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the moral reasoning on the use of GM crops expressed in academic publications from 1975 to 2008. Environmental ethical aspects in the publications were investigated. Overall, 113 articles from 15 ecology, environmental ethics, and multidisciplinary science journals were systematically reviewed. Three types of moral concerns were used to structure the normative statements, moral notions, and moral issues found in the articles: concerns addressing consequences of the use of GM crops, concerns addressing the act (the technique itself), and concerns addressing the virtues of an actor. Articles addressing consequences (84%) dealt with general ecological and risk concerns or discussed specific ecological issues about the use of GM crops. Articles addressing the act (57%) dealt with the value of naturalness, the value of biotic entities, and conceptual reductionism, whereas articles addressing the actor (43%) dealt with virtues related to the handling of risks and the application of GM crops. The results of this study may help to structure the academic debate and contribute to a better understanding of moral concerns that are associated with the key aspects of the ethical theories of consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.

In this article, an ecological ethic is developed from the ethical philosophy and environmental phenomenology of the Japanese ethicist Watsuji Tetsurō. More specially, it is illustrated that reading Watsuji’s ethics and concept of fūdo (風土) in tangent and drawing out the implications of his ontology of emptiness, provides the means to overcome the ecological issue of anthropocentrism. The ecological ethic developed here also goes beyond Watsuji’s account by criticising his focus on land and advocates the importance of the sea for environmental ethics. Not only is it argued that a fully functional ecological ethic must account for all habitats, but that the sea can be seen to be more fundamental than the land in the formation of Watsuji’s concept of fūdo.

In the first part of this article the author explores the implications for justice of the wider range of parties holding moral standing that environmental ethics has recently disclosed. These implications concern the equitable treatment of future generations and nonhuman creatures, and are relevant both to policies, such as approaches to global warming, and procedures, which may need to be revised to give an equitable voice to unrepresented interests. Later the author considers some radical implications of regarding humanity as stewards of the planetary environment, a view defended in his recent book Creation, Evolution and Meaning. If all adult humans have this role, but many are prevented from discharging it by poverty and related constraints, then those who are thus disempowered need to be empowered to exercise this role. This requirement of equity would arise not from their moral patienthood but from what is involved in respecting them as moral agents. Some approaches to tackling global warming are considered in this connection.

Abstract: Climate change is now considered one of the most pressing “global issues” that humanity is addressing. In that context, there appear to be more and more sciences, including ecological philosophy, specifically studying ecological issues. Ecological philosophy, a new discipline of philosophy, dates back to the 1980s. Although it has recently emerged, ecological philosophy has proved to be a growing influence not only with its interdisciplinary nature, but also with its practicality and urgency. Based on the general theory of ecological philosophy and the recent results of ecological philosophy research in Vietnam, the article proposes a number of orientations and basic solutions for applying the results of ecological philosophy research in the current social development in Vietnam.
 Keywords: Ecological philosophy, ecological ethics, ecological social model, climate change, sustainable development.

The escalating climate crisis increasingly challenges theology to engage with ecological issues through contextual and inclusive approaches. While dominant eco-theological discourse often reflects Western paradigms, local cosmologies that embody ecological wisdom remain underrepresented. The study aimed to examine traditional beliefs as an eco-theological force for sustainability by reinterpreting Mori Keraéng, a Divine figure in Manggarai cosmology, through dialogue with Catholic eco-theology. The research employed a qualitative ethnographic method, using in-depth interviews and participant observation in historically and culturally significant villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai, involving traditional leaders, community heads, and local residents. The findings reveal that traditional practices such as ritual offerings, communal land management, and ecological taboos embody a living ecological ethic that restrains exploitation, fosters balance, and strengthens resilience against environmental degradation. These practices demonstrate that traditional spirituality functions not as a relic of the past, but as an active and transformative resource for sustaining life. The study affirms that local cosmologies, when theologically reinterpreted, can enrich Catholic ecological theology, contribute to global eco-theological discourse, and inspire sustainable practices to rebuild human-nature relations in the Anthropocene era.