Anthropocentrism

The word anthropocentrism—also termed humanocentrism—comes from the Greek anthropos, meaning “human,” and kentron, meaning “of the center.” In practice, anthropocentrism is generally understood as the view that the human being is the center of the world and ontologically superior to nonrational beings. Anthropocentrism is a significant concept for environmental philosophy and ethics.

Anthropocentrism is quite a common perspective of many people and is embedded in several religious traditions and cultures. In the first pages of the Bible, there are relevant texts, shared by both Jews and Christians, expressing the superiority of the humans over all other creatures on the Earth. This is expressed in Genesis 1 in the narration of the creation of the human being in the image of God and of God’s blessing to ...