Anthropocentric Worldview Research Articles

Eco-consciousness in Andrew Marvell’s The Garden

This paper explores ecological and environmental issues in Andrew Marvell’s poem, “The Garden.” The purpose of this paper is to subvert the anthropocentric world view by juxtaposing the Eco-centric world which provides ultimate pleasure to human beings. This paper employs qualitative and interpretative method to analyze the poem. The researcher has examined the poem from the perspective of Eco-criticism. Distancing himself from the anthropocentric world-view, Marvell highlights the Eco-centric world in order to valorize the beauty and serenity of nature. Marvell glorifies nature and natural beauty by using metaphysical conceits. The poem displays superiority of nature over trivial human culture. In addition, it shows eternity of nature by contrasting it with the transitory nature of human world. The garden is a place for refreshment and nourishment; it stands for innocence, solitude and recreation. Mistaken by the temptation of the material world, the poet seeks peace and pleasure in the human company. However; he finds such blissful states in the lap of nature. Marvell’s critique of anthropocentric and glorification of bio centrism opens an avenue for the critiques who are interested in integrating literary texts with the Environmental Studies. Thus; the present reading of the poem unveils the Eco-conscious elements of the poem from the lens of Eco-criticism.

Between continuous presents and disruptive futures: Identifying the ideological backbones of global environmental scenarios

Despite the great relevance of global environmental scenarios for the study of environmental change and sustainability transitions, they have rarely been the object of analysis for scholars of the social sciences. In this article, we analyze the ideological assumptions of 993 global environmental scenarios contained in 243 academic works. By developing a new categorization of environmental scenarios, we investigate the economic and governance organization reflected in the scenarios, as well as the portrayed human-nature relationships. We find that global environmental scenarios developed and used by the scientific community largely reproduce rather than break with dominant power structures in the economic, governance and cultural domain. The majority of scenarios reflects an anthropocentric worldview and assumes that the logic of global capitalism and of the Westphalian state-based governance system will not change radically during the 21st century. The implicit solution of sustainability problems dominating these scenarios is a combination of continuous economic growth, rapid technological progress and an international (environmental) agreement. ‘Alternative scenarios’ are scarce, often only problematize one dimension of the social structure of world society and frequently lack explicit drivers of change or pathways to desirable futures. To increase the diversity of scenarios, future research should focus on refining and quantifying existing post-capitalist, post-state-centric and/or ecocentric scenarios, and on developing a range of scenarios whose storyline systematically problematize or even break with current power structures.

Ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews: are they incompatible?

The dialectic between ecocentrism and anthropocentrism has become the central discussion around the growing ecological crisis we live and the purpose of environmental education. This study seeks to clarify the compatibility between these two worldviews and reflect on the extent to which they are in opposing camps on the concern about the ecological crisis. The New Ecological Paradigm Scale was applied to two independent samples of Portuguese students (9th grade and higher education students’) with which subscales for ecocentrism and anthropocentrism worldviews were selected through factor analysis. Our results show that more than 40% of those that agree with ecocentrism does not rejects anthropocentrism, being mostly neutral to that worldview and some even agreeing with it. In face of this, we purpose further studies on the different anthropocentric facets to selected those that may be included in environmental education effort to help, together with ecocentrism, to fight back ecological crisis.

Expansions of the Real

This article explores the challenges posed by the Anthropocene and climate change to human perceptions of reality and the need to revise traditional notions of the real. The article examines Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island as an attempt by Ghosh to break free from the anthropocentric limitations in the realist tradition that he identifies in his critical work in The Great Derangement in order to give shape to a new climate change realism capable of representing larger than human realities. The article studies the literary strategies Ghosh uses in Gun Island to cause a post-anthropocentric reality to emerge from beneath its concealment by anthropocentric worldviews: from uncanny animations of settings by nonhuman agencies to a metafictional blurring of fiction, imagination, perception and more-than-human realities, which, the article argues, inspires new ways of reading the real and quite concretely performs some of literature’s affordances in the cultural struggle against climate change.

Reception of the “Dostoevsky myth” in the philosophical works of N.A. Berdyaev and V.I. Ivanova

INTRODUCTION. The work is devoted to the consideration of the characteristics of the artistic anthropology reception by F.M. Dostoevsky in the philosophical works of thinkers of the “Russian religious renaissance”. The relevance of this issue formulation lies in the broad research interest in the interdisciplinary study of Dostoevsky’s work at the intersection of literary studies, philosophy, and culturology; in the active appeal of modern literary scholars and philosophers to the issues of Dostoevsky’s “presence” in the culture of the 20th century; as well as the significance of the philosophical discoveries of N.A/ Berdyaev and V.I. Ivanov for the study of Dostoevsky’s artistic philosophy. The scientific problem lies in the very depth of the influence of Dostoevsky’s philosophical worldview on the literature and philosophy of the subsequent century, which has not yet been fully clarified. The purpose of the study is to identify and characterize the main features of the reception of Dostoevsky’s artistic anthropology in the philosophical works of N.A. Berdyaev and V.I. Ivanov.MATERIALS AND METHODS. We turn to the object of study – the philosophical work of N. Berdyaev and V. Ivanov, inscribed in the context of the reception of the “Dostoevsky myth”, relying on intertextual and historical-genetic methods in the context of a general hermeneutic approach.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. F.M. Dostoevsky with all his artistic and journalistic creativity made a shift in the understanding of human, in his works a new approach to artistic anthropology was implemented, which assigned a very special place to human. As we can see, in his anthropocentric worldview, Dostoevsky provides a philosophical synthesis of the absoluteness of the individual personality and the prin-ciple of the spiritual unity of all people. The era of the Russian religious renaissance played a unique role in the history of the reception of Dostoevsky’s artistic discoveries and philosophical intuitions.CONCLUSION. F.M. Dostoevsky was, as N.A. Berdyaev, A.F. Losev, D.S. Merezhkovsky believed, the spiritual primary source of thought of the entire Silver Age, which rose “under the sign” of Dostoevsky, since it was he who forcefully actualized the world of apocalyptic self-division of human. Anthropodicy of N.A. Berdyaev is immersed in a special eschatological atmosphere, in which the philosopher turns to the writer’s work. In the interpretation of V.I. Ivanov Dostoevsky’s mystical realism reveals the eternal “tragedy of the spirit” playing out between the divine and created principles in human.

Middle school students’ perception of marine and coastal environments

ABSTRACT The marine environment has undergone transformations and degradations that are, in many cases, irreversible. Knowing and valuing this environment is the first step in the conservation process. We aimed to analyse the initial perception of Brazilian students from secondary school level about marine environments and their relationship with their daily lives. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire with three open questions. The answers were grouped by similarity, and then by categories. Most students were unable to relate their daily lives to the marine environment, with the most cited justification being the physical distance from the sea. When asked about their knowledge, most students mentioned subjects related to geography, while only a few cited ocean biodiversity. Another notable aspect was the prevalence of an anthropocentric worldview, in which the environment is seen as a collection of natural resources that are available for human use. To reverse this scenario, we advocate teaching practices through Environmental Education to expand students’ knowledge about marine ecosystems, their preservation, and their impact on people’s quality of life, even for those who live far from coastal areas.

Tales of Becoming: Borders and Posthuman Anxieties in Daisy Johnson’s "Starver" (2016)

This article aims at examining Daisy Johnson’s collection of short stories Fen (2014) and, most particularly, its opening piece “Starver”, through the lens of posthuman feminism by arguing that Johnson’s collection poses forward a relational ontology which refuses to consider human subjectivity as exclusively restricted to the confines of human bodies by blurring traditional boundaries as constitutive of oppositions such as nature/culture, human/non-human, male/female which have traditionally articulated anthropocentric worldviews. Johnson’s focus on the English Fenlands as a borderline, liminal topology mirrors contemporary preoccupations with the porosity and instability of allegedly firm borders and, by extension, of identity. Johnson’s collection ultimately interrogates the relationship between individuals and their environment, radically distressed by human intervention and capitalist consumerism, thus heading to the “sixth extinction” of the Anthropocene.

Flying Feral: Posthuman Architectures, Enclosures and Open‐Loop Interface Designs

AbstractArchitect and advocate of speculative posthuman ecological design Steven Hutt offers new thoughts on the integration of wildlife into our architectures and cities. Awareness of the ‘feral’ as a design tool, the push and pull between indigenous and non‐indigenous species, and even old ideas of colonialism are all agents in this new posthuman landscape. There are many aspects of this often anti‐ anthropocentric worldview across a variety of scales. Might zoo animals one day be able to decide how we look at them and observe their habits?

Queer Fish: Following the Great Transgender Fish in the Book of Jonah

Abstract This paper builds both on Raymond Person’s “The Role of Non-Human Characters in Jonah” where he argues that the book of Jonah is a satire of an anthropocentric worldview and on the work of transecological notions of enmeshment. The great fish stands at the center of the text and Jonah’s transformation, but the fish itself is transformed, starting the journey as a male fish and later becoming a female fish. Queer bodies and animal bodies are often mere metaphors in literature, examples of their andro-anthropo counterparts who are the subjects of the story. By taking the fish’s transition seriously, the fish’s queer body becomes the center of the satire and cannot be dissolved as merely a device for teaching Jonah a lesson. The fish is everything that Jonah is not: a transgender or gender fluid being with a nurturing nature and a fierce obedience to God.

Gestalt therapy, anthropocentrism, and the family of things

In the context of the world’s numerous ecological crises, in this article we consider how Gestalt theory can help or hinder the change from an anthropocentric to an ecocentric perspective in and for therapy. In particular, we examine some of the theoretical entanglements of Gestalt therapy in the very anthropocentric worldview that lies at the root of our current ecological crises. In response to this, we argue that Gestalt therapy could both expand and decentre self by drawing on ideas and methods that position humans as but one member of a vast ecological ‘family of things’. Keywords Gestalt therapy, self, organism, contact cycle, anthropocentrism, field theory, more-than-human world, climate change

포스트-휴머니즘적 접근과 회집체로서의 학습체계, 그리고 포스트-평생학습론 사유

Lifelong learning research is continuously influenced by new scientific trends. The posthumanist approach that has recently moved into the mainstream is also increasingly influencing the understanding of lifelong learning. The posthumanist approach's 'more-than-human' perspective aligns with the attempt to understand human learning from an object-oriented and flat ontological standpoint. Posthumanism redefines ontology, offering a different perspective from the previous anthropocentric worldview, that is, the modernist worldview. In this transitional phase, we aim to address three meaningful questions:. 1. Why is it important to understand lifelong learning from the perspective of the posthumanist approach? 2. How does this shift in perspective capture the phenomenological reality of lifelong learning? 3. What new dimension does this approach uncover? The posthumanist approach has liberated lifelong learning from the constraints of educational 'essentialism'. In early models of lifelong learning research, humans were depicted as subjective beings, yet they were often confined to reproducing a predetermined world and essence. Although humans have been portrayed as self-directed learners, the actual learning process has always been tied to curriculums, competencies, and fixed outcomes. A truly Copernican shift in learning starts with relocating lifelong learning to an object-oriented perspective. Post-humanism rejects human pretentious subjectivity and reduces the burden of knowledge imposed upon them by the world. The traditional subject-centered learning theory was reinterpreted as object-oriented in this paper. The essence of the post-lifelong learning concept we are discussing is to move away from understanding learning as the accumulation of individual knowledge by Cartesian individuals. Instead, it is about viewing learning in terms of 'extension performed by activity systems'. In this paper, the researchers, first, redefined the concept of learning within the context of the 'more-than-human' dimension. Second, the learning process was redefined as an activity within a learning system that transcends the object-centeredness of learning and encompasses a systematic level including human-material-desire-movement. Third, the learning system was conceptualized based on the idea of assemblage or assemblage ontology. The combination and movement within the system are described as a process of 'becoming' that emerges from and is produced within the system's elements. Fourth, this lifelong learning phenomenon centered around the 'learning system' was differentiated from the previous learning ontology, which was based on isomorphism. We define this new framework as 3.0, that is, post-lifelong learning, marking it as distinct from the previous lifelong learning concepts of 1.0 or 2.0.

The Missing Post-Humanism: A Philosophical Posthuman Study of Don DeLillo’s Zero K and William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition

In the Anthropocene, humans have established an uninhabitable ecosystem. His insatiable desire for resources and possessions has led to this catastrophe. The posthuman studies critically examine the human-nonhuman divide through technology, biology, and culture. The inquiry raises ethical and ontological questions about human enhancement, artificial intelligence, and the social effects of new technologies. Posthumanism envisions a complex and interdependent world. Francesca Ferrando believes posthumanism threatens the anthropocentric worldview. Posthumanism reconsiders human identity, agency, and existence in light of emerging technologies and complex human-nonhuman relationships. It emphasises inclusivity, connectivity, and subtlety in human experience. She demonstrates post-humanism, post-anthropocentrism, and post-dualism in her seminal idea of ‘Philosophical Posthumanism’. This study analyses Don DeLillo and William Gibson's science fiction novels to reconsider “the human.” In this paper, Don DeLillo's Zero K and William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, Ferrando's ‘philosophical posthumanism’ and ‘posthumanism’ based on post-dualism, post-anthropocentrism and post-humanism views are compared. Ferrando's seminal work on 'Philosophical Posthumanism' expands on the above argument. This study seeks to investigate the absence of Ferrando's concept of post-humanism in selected literary works and the need for interdependence with other non-human species.

Viewpoint: Two more lamps. Augmenting urban planning for biodiversity

Parris et al.'s seven lamps (principles) of planning for biodiversity in the city (2018) provides a framework for achieving two objectives. Firstly, to alter the normative basis on which urban planning is predicated by integrating a concern for nonhuman inhabitants. Secondly, it argues for the greater enrolment of ecologists and the field of ecology within environmental planning. It seeks to encourage a paradigm-shift to reorient society on a more sustainable path by demonstrating that planning for more-than-human cities does not require a conceptual leap, rather it resonates with extant planning concerns. It thus takes a pragmatic approach to radical change. However, I argue that this framework as originally stated insufficiently considers the diversity of society or the field of ecology and entails an anthropocentric worldview. This undermines the lamps framework's radical agenda. I argue that this issue could be ameliorated by developing two further principles, Justice and Contact. Integrating these concerns into the lamps framework will strengthen its ability to contribute to efforts to transition society into a sustainable state.

How Western Buddhists Combine Buddhism and Climate Activism

ABSTRACT Previous research emphasises congruences between Western Buddhism and environmentalism, with both presented in juxtaposition to overconsumption, hedonic values, and anthropocentric worldviews. Nevertheless, incongruences also occur, including Buddhist tendencies for social disengagement, avoidance of conflict, and disinterest in the non-sentient world. Yet, virtually no empirical data exist on how Western Buddhist environmentalists negotiate tensions arising from combining the two elements. Here, we address this knowledge gap by exploring interview data from 13 Western Buddhist climate activists. We identify four major themes of negotiation: engagement, confrontation, Buddhist praxis and efficacy. Our findings show that Buddhist philosophy and practice often underwent biospheric reformulation, while the intentions, modes and outcomes of climate activism were often approached in terms of compassion and equanimity. Environmentalism was combined flexibly with Buddhism to justify individual emphases, ranging from solitary meditation practice to radicalised collective activism. Moreover, the negotiations were dynamic and featured unresolved tensions, demonstrating that combining the two elements involves major ongoing negotiation. The study findings have implications for understanding interrelationships between the climate crisis, religion, activism and identity work.

From the Deer to the Monkey: how the transmission of the Jātaka animal stories to medieval China enriched Chinese culture and complemented Confucianism

ABSTRACT In contrast with Chinese literary tradition and Confucianism, there was a multitude of animals and birds in the Jātaka stories, which had yet to be researched as a reference point of Confucianism. Because of Buddhism’s opposition to the use of animals as a sacrifice, its rejection of consuming animal meat, and because animals were considered as a state of the former existence of Śākyamuni Buddha, Buddhist literature gives ample room to animal images as full-fledged main characters and moral agents. A careful analysis of the use of herbivores such as deer, turtles, wild geese, and monkeys as a narrative device in the Jātaka stories demonstrates that personified animals served as a source of inspiration for humans. Turning animals into articulate moral agents render them no longer the object of human sympathy as in Confucianism nor metaphors in philosophical Daoism, but intellectually equal and ethically superior to humans. The Buddhist idea of cherishing all sentient beings was not merely based on compassion but also an egalitarian perspective that acknowledges animals’ subjectivity as autonomous emotional-moral agents. This unique dimension of Buddhism complemented the Confucian anthropocentric worldview and enriched Chinese literature and art.

Reversal of Anthropocentric Worldview in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Anthropocentric worldview is the main cause of the ecological problems that the world is confronting at present. This study explores and analyze how Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake reveals the reversal of the anthropocentric worldview as the only solution of the ecological problems caused by human centric worldview by employing eco critical insights envisioned by Lawrence Buell. The study scrutinize the way our rationality rejects the subjectivity of nature and regards it as subordinate to human beings in the novel. Therefore, there is a strong need to change our worldview. It follows qualitative research design and uses critical, analytical and interpretative methods for interpreting textual data. Critically analyzing different events and situations that highlight the ugliness and cruelty caused by human-centered activities, it emphasizes people’s indifference towards the autonomy of the natural world. Similarly, it critiques the selfish modification of natural components as per human need. Such actions have paved the path for apocalyptic events. Human beings can avoid such events by changing their anthropocentric worldview and making it more eco centric. This research exposes the way Atwood blames anthropocentric worldview as the main cause of the environmental crisis of present time. Self-centric corporate greed and uncontrolled bioengineering give birth to different ecological and biological problems. These problems lead the world to the possible apocalypse that results in the extinction of the existence of all the beings and things of the ecosphere. This study recommends immediate action to protect our ecosphere respecting the interdependence between human and natural world. Ecocentric worldview only guarantees the survival of all on this earth enjoying intrinsic values.

Symbolism of the number “four” in English and Kazakh Languages

The article considers the comparative study of the symbolism of English and Kazakh stable combinations, as well as proverbs and sayings with the numerical component “four”. The study revealed both similarities and differences in the symbolism of the number “four” in English and Kazakh languages, which is explained by the universality of the character of the symbols on the one hand and the fact that there is an ethnocultural specificity in the connotative meaning, which is reflected in the culture and language of the people. The universality of the symbolization of numbers is determined by the anthropocentric worldview and the universalsystem of human development, as well as the desire of a person to explain the structure of the world through the sacred power of numbers. At the end of the article the authors came to conclusion that the numerals with the component four as part of stable combinations in English and Kazakh Languages acquire a symbolic meaning. Stable combinations with the numeral component characterize various aspects of human life: its external qualities and internal properties, behavior, relationships with other people, as well as ideas related to the quantitative and spatial development of the world and the universe.

A “lifeline out of the COVID‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal

A “lifeline out of the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal

Defending humankind: Anthropocentric bias in the appreciation of AI art

We argue that recent advances of artificial intelligence (AI) in the domain of art (e.g., music, painting) pose a profound ontological threat to anthropocentric worldviews because they challenge one of the last frontiers of the human uniqueness narrative: artistic creativity. Four experiments (N = 1708), including a high-powered preregistered experiment, consistently reveal a pervasive bias against AI-made artworks and shed light on its psychological underpinnings. The same artwork is preferred less when labeled as AI-made (vs. human-made) because it is perceived as less creative and subsequently induces less awe, an emotional response typically associated with the aesthetic appreciation of art. These effects are more pronounced among people with stronger anthropocentric creativity beliefs (i.e., who believe that creativity is a uniquely human characteristic). Systematic depreciation of AI-made art (assignment of lower creative value, suppression of emotional reactions) appears to serve a shaken anthropocentric worldview whereby creativity is exclusively reserved for humans.

A Poetic History of the Oceans. Literature and Maritime Modernity. SørenFrankAmsterdam: Brill, 2022, 447 pp.

A Poetic History of the Oceans. Literature and Maritime Modernity. SørenFrankAmsterdam: Brill, 2022, 447 pp.