ANTHROPOCENTRISM AND THE EXPLOITATION OF NATURE: AN ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF JOSEPH CONRAD'S HEART OF DARKNESS

Abstract

One of the defining eras in the history of mankind is the Age of Enlightenment. While it acted as a bridge between contemporary times and the classical and the medieval epochs of mankind's existence, it ushered in new forms of challenges that the modern society is grappling with, among which the depletion of nature, occasioned by wanton exploitation, is one. Among other creeds of the Age of Enlightenment is the focus on reason as the source of authority. It is also known that the ability to reason resides with humans and humans' ability to reason, among others, account for the promotion of a human centred view of the universe, which further gave impetus to the rise and growth of science and technology. This advancement affects all other aspects of existence, including the non-human world. Thus, using the ideological postulations of ecocriticism, this paper examines how the view of humans being the point of reference of existence empowers the mind to exploit the non-human world as well as other humans. From the analysis, this paperdiscovers that by elevating human experience and values as the loci of the universe, humans assume a god-father status over the elements of nature. This depletion is made possible through the instrumentation of science and technology. This paper concludes that the anthropocentric views ushered by the Age of Enlightenment empowered humans to explore and subsequently exploit the non-human world. Due to this, there is a need to move from an anthropocentric perception of the universe to a nature oriented view of existence in a bid to save the earth both for the present and the future.