Isn't it really important to be human? : to rehabilitate anthropocentrism

SHIBUYAMA Masao

doi:10.20593/jabedit.15.1_144

"From anthropocentrism to biocentrism" has been used as a slogan in fields of environmental thoughts and ethics such as animal rights, biospherical equality, and eco-centrism. However, must we now truly abandon the positive idea of "humanity as the center"? Isn't it really important to be human? This paper is going to confirm the idea of "the importance of being human" in order to rehabilitate the original concept of anthropocentrism. First, the issues of philosophical anthropology will be introduced. Anthropologists of the early 20th century were confronted with the new natural scientific knowledge of that time, which would result in the deterioration of the traditional view of humanity. Therefore they had to re-position humanity because of this new crisis. Their philosophical situation is very similar to the present situation in which the status of humanity has been challenged because of the serious environmental problems brought about by modern technology. Next, the argument of R. Nozick will be identified as a key to the possibility of the rehabilitation of anthropocentrism. Because his argument is based on the easy-to-understand concepts of "belonging" and "prominence", his suggestions will give powerful support to my purpose.

Isn't it really important to be human? : to rehabilitate anthropocentrism

Bibliographic Information

Search this article

Description

Journal

References(18)*help

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Export

Report a problem