Biocentric Approach Research Articles

No immediate attentional bias towards or choice bias for male secondary sexual characteristics in Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus).

Primate faces provide information about a range of variant and invariant traits, including some that are relevant for mate choice. For example, faces of males may convey information about their health or genetic quality through symmetry or facial masculinity. Because perceiving and processing such information may have bearing on the reproductive success of an individual, cognitive systems are expected to be sensitive to facial cues of mate quality. However, few studies have investigated this topic in non-human primate species. Orang-utans are an interesting species to test mate-relevant cognitive biases, because they are characterised by male bimaturism: some adult males are fully developed and bear conspicuous flanges on the side of their face, while other males look relatively similar to females. Here, we describe two non-invasive computerised experiments with Bornean orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus), testing (i) immediate attention towards large flanges and symmetrical faces using a dot-probe task (N = 3 individuals; 2F) and (ii) choice bias for pictures of flanged males over unflanged males using a preference test (N = 6 individuals; 4F). In contrast with our expectations, we found no immediate attentional bias towards either large flanges or symmetrical faces. In addition, individuals did not show a choice bias for stimuli of flanged males. We did find exploratory evidence for a colour bias and energy efficiency trade-offs in the preference task. We discuss our null results and exploratory results in the context of the evolutionary history of Bornean orang-utans, and provide suggestions for a more biocentric approach to the study oforang-utan cognition.

‘The Trio-Model’

In light of the United Nations’ aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and recognizing that the international community is nowhere near to achieving this aim, this paper argues for a change in practice and perspective regarding animals used for food, particularly those animals used in the industrial animal agriculture industry, and consequently calls for a transformative change in human-animal relationships. Using the global practice of factory farming as a case study, the paper aims to show that the interests of humans, nonhumans, and the environment overlap considerably and that the current anthropocentric stance, that provides the ethical framework for the SDGs, undermines itself in its attempt to meet the needs of present and future human beings whilst considering human interests only as of direct moral concern. Drawing on the concepts of “one health” and “doughnut economics”, the paper concludes with an urgent call for a more inclusive biocentric approach to global environmental problems, health, and disease. Such an approach should recognize the good of other than human beings in and of itself, and be guided by relevant anti-speciesist egalitarian principles and practices. This framework of biocentrism, doughnut economics, and one health the authors term the ‘trio-model’, for short.

Alleviating the burden of malaria with gene drive technologies? A biocentric analysis of the moral permissibility of modifying malaria mosquitoes

Gene drive technologies (GDTs) have been proposed as a potential new way to alleviate the burden of malaria, yet have also raised ethical questions. A central ethical question regarding GDTs...

Deep Ecological Consciousness and Interconnectedness between Humans and Nature in Thoreau’s Poems

Deep ecological criticism emphasizes the biocentric approach to analyze the literary texts, whereas the anthropocentric approach is human-centric. Therefore, the major purpose of this study is to bring balance to the ecosystem between humans and nature by analyzing Thoreau’s poetry from a biocentric point of view. It relooks radically the relationship between humans and nature on deeper level because the extreme human-centric development has been inviting many ecological crises. Therefore, this paper critically discusses, analyzes, and interprets Henry David Thoreau’s selected poems from a deep ecological perspective to explore the deep ecological consciousness and interconnectedness between humans and nature. Deep ecology is a new perception against anthropocentric ideas, which proposes a new solution and visualizes the inexorable current ecological challenges. Thoreau is a transcendentalist poet, his poetry expresses the profound interconnectedness between humans and nature which is unexplored, yet richly found in his poems. His poems express the wisdom of humans’ inner experience with nature and longing for harmony with nature. Consequently, the present paper will contribute to strengthening the relationship among all biospheres, thereby raising human ecological consciousness and increasing climate resilience.

Competition and integration in the search for a new paradigm for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem stability

Modern researchers in the humanities and natural sciences hold different and sometimes opposite views on the status of natural objects. The anthropocentric point of view prevails, considering man as the center of the universe and the goal of nature, which originates in the traditions of the Renaissance and the Christian Middle Ages about the transcendence of man and domination over nature. In modern versions of anthropocentrism, human needs and interests have an independent value, and people are regarded as exceptional beings with reason and morality. However, anthropocentrism is negatively perceived in many environmental and ethical discussions, as it has led to an ecological crisis, attributing instrumental value to nature. The biocentric approach, which gives moral status to all living beings, is becoming increasingly common in environmental ethics, and it is based on the principle of "reverence for life". With this approach, nature becomes a goal, not just a means, and all living organisms are considered the highest value. The ecocentric approach recognizes the moral status of ecosystems as a whole, denying the privileged status of people and emphasizing the responsibility of people for a responsible and careful attitude to the world around them.

Cognition of the manatee: past research and future developments.

In this paper, we present a review of the current knowledge related to the cognitive abilities of the manatee, with a focus on the Antillean manatee in situ and ex situ. Following a biocentric approach, we consider the animals' ecology, perception and sociality and we introduce future perspectives on their cognition. Scientific literature on the cognitive abilities of Antillean manatees' is limited and mainly linked to medical training and veterinary manipulations. To perceive and to interact with their social and natural environment (e.g. social interactions, foraging and traveling), manatees use visual, acoustic and tactile modalities that may be involved in a large range of cognitive abilities. Research on stimuli perception in manatees is scarce; however, these animals demonstrate abilities to learn and appear to show long-term memory. For example, to mate and/or to forage manatees travel at medium and large geographical scales; without doubt their movements entail the use of a set of stimuli and learning processes. Furthermore, their social skills (e.g. social organization, tactile and acoustic communications) are also poorly understood although their social interactions appear to be more complex than previously thought. Finally, as for many animals, temperament/personality may play a key role during their interactions with conspecifics and the environment. These aspects on manatee behavior and cognition are important for management and conservation purposes and help us understand the evolution of these marine mammals.

Financial and Mental Health Concerns of Impoverished Urban-Dwelling Bangladeshi People During COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the physical, mental and financial health of many individuals. Individuals living in impoverished crowded settings may be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19-related stressors. How substantially marginalized groups like impoverished urban-dwelling individuals have been impacted during this pandemic is poorly understood. The present study aimed to investigate the associated factors of financial concerns and symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the COVID-19 pandemic among impoverished urban-dwelling individuals residing in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between August and September 2020 using face-to-face interviews in six disadvantaged neighborhoods (“slums”) in Dhaka. Individuals were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of questions assessing socio-demographics, lifestyle, financial well-being relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, depression, and PTSD.Results: Four-hundred-and-thirty-five individuals (male = 54.7%; mean age = 45.0 ± 12.0 years; age range = 18–85 years) participated. Most (96.3%) reported that their household income decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors associated with decreased household incomes included female gender, primary education, joblessness, food scarcity and depression. Depression symptoms were linked to female gender, joblessness, divorce, living in a joint family, excessive sleep and smoking. Low incomes, excessive sleep, joblessness and food scarcity were positively associated with PTSD symptoms. In contrast, less sleep appeared protective against PTSD.Conclusions: Public health initiatives, in particular mental health services that target stress and biocentric approaches that consider how humans interact with multiple facets of nature, should be introduced to mitigate against potential financial and psychological effects of the pandemic on impoverished urban-dwelling individuals in Bangladesh.

Islam and Environmental Ethics

The present paper deals with Islamic moral teachings of the environment from a Qur’ānic perspective. It attempts to correlate some familiar Qur’ānic terms with human moral responsibility towards the natural world. The paper investigates whether the Islamic view of the natural world supports the anthropocentric and bio-centric approach to environmental ethics or not. In so doing, the paper aims to present an Islamic balancing approach to the environment, show why such a unique approach is necessary to address the present environmental degradation, and how it can work for environmental sustainability.

Environmental Performativity in Native American and Afro-American Womens Fiction: An Ecofeminist Critique of Erdrichs Tracks and Morrisons Beloved

This article, evaluating the usefulness and applicability of the ecofeminist tenets upon the environmental fiction of Erdrich and Morrison, creates a new understanding of the preservation of the environment for engendering a more egalitarian relationship between humanity and nature. It presents the critique of the ways Toni Morrison and Louise Erdrich engage with the environmental themes and motifs using the historical connections of their communities with nature as a reference point via eco-performative texts. The overall scheme of the article, therefore, denies the anthropocentric approach upheld by the Euro-American world towards the environment and glorifies the biocentric approach revered and celebrated by the Native American and AfroAmerican lifestyle, emphasizing that in the cosmic scheme of nature, not just humans but non-humans, nature and environment are equal partners. The study concludes that Morrison and Erdrich have stressed in their fiction the ecocritical recognition of the inevitable interdependence of man and nature. Their fiction asserts that considering environmental issues to be human issues can positively affect the human attitude towards nature/environment.

Building Eco-Theological and Bio-Centric Approach to Environmental Ethics: John B. Cobb’s Perspective

This paper discusses John B. Cobb’s interpretation of Christian ecological moral foundation based on his “process theological” understanding as well as his critics to traditional Christian view of human supremacy over non-human creatures. It aims to explore Cobb’s eco-theological understanding based on bio-centric environmental approach and explore why his eco-theological thought becomes significant for the ongoing discourses on environmental ethics, especially from religious perspectives. This research also describes how Cobb’s idea could be working for sustainability of environment. In so doing, this paper enriches the current discussions on environmental ethics from Christian eco-theological perspective.

Old and New Approaches to Animal Cognition: There Is Not "One Cognition".

Using the comparative approach, researchers draw inferences about the evolution of cognition. Psychologists have postulated several hypotheses to explain why certain species are cognitively more flexible than others, and these hypotheses assume that certain cognitive skills are linked together to create a generally “smart” species. However, empirical findings suggest that several animal species are highly specialized, showing exceptional skills in single cognitive domains while performing poorly in others. Although some cognitive skills may indeed overlap, we cannot a priori assume that they do across species. We argue that the term “cognition” has often been used by applying an anthropocentric viewpoint rather than a biocentric one. As a result, researchers tend to overrate cognitive skills that are human-like and assume that certain skills cluster together in other animals as they do in our own species. In this paper, we emphasize that specific physical and social environments create selection pressures that lead to the evolution of certain cognitive adaptations. Skills such as following the pointing gesture, tool-use, perspective-taking, or the ability to cooperate evolve independently from each other as a concrete result of specific selection pressures, and thus have appeared in distantly related species. Thus, there is not “one cognition”. Our argument is founded upon traditional Darwinian thinking, which—although always at the forefront of biology—has sometimes been neglected in animal cognition research. In accordance with the biocentric approach, we advocate a broader empirical perspective as we are convinced that to better understand animal minds, comparative researchers should focus much more on questions and experiments that are ecologically valid. We should investigate nonhuman cognition for its own sake, not only in comparison to the human model.

CONSTITUCIONALISMO ECOLÓGICO EN AMÉRICA LATINA: DE LOS DERECHOS AMBIENTALES A LOS DERECHOS DE LA NATURALEZA

This research articles studies with a qualitative methodology the ecological constitucionalism in Latin America. The land is not silent and the Constitutions must give it a voice: this is the great challenge of Andean ecological constitutionalism, characterized by an original process of innovation and experimentation, found particularly in Ecuador and Bolivia, which marks the genesis of a paradigm of environmental protection alternative to the Western one, and which emblematically outlines the passage from an anthropocentric legal vision to a seductive biocentric approach. The constitutional recognition of legal personality to nature shifts the centre of gravity from environmental fears to the issue of rights themselves, and contributes to the construction of a renewed legal order that can, and must, contemplate the hypothesis of returning the soul taken from the non-human. Now, recognizing rights to entities hitherto excluded from juridical thought, allows for a radical and stimulating revision of the idea of nature and also suggests new ways of relating to Mother Earth which, far from mortifying her vital cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary dynamics, exalt the opportunity to sediment Buen Vivir’s ethical practices, which, moreover, are stimulating to promote equity, social justice and pluralism. A vision that, dismantling the obsolete assumptions of progress and the one-dimensional understanding of development and economic growth, draws possible scenarios of coexistence in which diversity is the rule, and not the exception. Latin America opens new doors, providing new keys, and assuming the creation of a global ecological rule of law, capable of shifting the objectives of sustainable development towards a more holistic dimension, capable of facing challenges, and why not, future risks as well.

(De)sign responses as response diversity

This article addresses the use of the ecological notion of ‘response diversity’ (Elmqvist et al. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1(9), 488–494, 2003) to develop a biocentric approach for natural-artificial continuums through the practice of design. The article elaborates upon examples from the project Dispersal machines, part of my postdoctoral research entitled Symbiotic tactics. Dispersal machines proposed two complementary artificial systems that were conceived to minimize the damages by a moth (Spodoptera frugiperda) on crops (corn and soy predominantly) in the agroecosystems of Cordoba, Argentina. The proposals were ideated to biologically control this species by interventions that disseminate and/or host species that predate or parasitize the moth at different stages of its life cycle: a diurnal response, based on the dissemination of parasitized eggs of the moth by a minute wasp (Telenomus remus), as well as a nocturnal response, based on the placement of refuges for bats that feed on the adult moth. Considering these design interventions through the notion of ‘semethic interaction’ (Hoffmeyer 2008) as it relates to the more general term, ‘semiosphere’, the article reflects upon (de)sign as a signifying activity and design’s ‘response-ability’ (Haraway 2016), to speculate upon ways to devise and acknowledge inter-species co-adaptive possibilities.

Training Transdisciplinary Educators: Intercultural Learning and Regenerative Practices in Ecuador

The main goal of this article is to explain the transdisciplinary training model developed at the National University of Education (UNAE) in Ecuador, based on the ancestral worldviews of Buen Vivir (Good Living). Good Living is a philosophical and political concept of the Kichwa indigenous peoples in the Andean Region, where human beings are interconnected with planet Earth and the whole cosmos. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to recognize the Rights of Nature in its Constitution, in order to face climate change and to restore the ecological footprint. This article first unifies scientific knowledge with ancestral wisdom, creating an inter-epistemological dialogue using a transdisciplinary approach. Second, the article explores the epistemological notions of transdisciplinary education: self-training, hetero-training, eco-training, and onto-training. Third, the article argues that as a result, Educational Sciences of Good Living emerged to (re)design regenerative cultures that face socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene age. In sum, the article argues that training transdisciplinary educators implies an intercultural, decolonial, and biocentric approach that promotes their inner spiritual self-awareness, among other perceptive, affective, emotional, rhetorical, poetic, epistemic, creative, artistic, cognitive, and philosophical dimensions.

SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE TO THE NEW SOCIO-CULTURAL ENVIRONMEN AND EDUCATIONAL MOTIVATION

The article gives a brief overview of the approaches to understanding the concepts of «adaptation», «social-psychological adaptation» and «motivation to study». The author tries to answer questions about what happens to the youth’s self-awareness in the process of adaptation to new living conditions and educational activity abroad, how the personality enters into the diversity of life situations of the new socio-cultural environment, how the young person achieves conformity (compatibility) with the new cultural environment, how to rethink old values and creates new ones.Student’s effectiveness of professional training first of all depends of how successful the young man is adapted for independent activity and further acceptance of himself in the new social role — «student» and actions on self-development. Possibilities of forming mechanisms of effective overcoming of problems (mechanisms of adaptation) that arise directly affect and the strength of motivation to study a student who is studying in a other cultural environment.In general, the concept of «adaptation» as well as «motivation» are universal. The existence of diverse definitions is due to the specifics of existing scientific approaches and schools. Depending on the approach and understanding of the concept, the strategy of overcoming the existing problems of adaptation and motivation to study students in a other cultural environment is solved.The main primary studies of the problem of adaptation are located in the organismcentered, population-centered, biocentric approaches, sociological, psychological. However, a purely psychological look at the problem of adaptation requires a dynamic look at the problem.The process of adapting the individual in the conditions of the other cultural environment of students is important to consider, based on all the content of its educational and scientific activities, communication, in the context of the development of its consciousness and value relationships. As a result of this aggregate of the interrelated dynamic characteristics, we obtain a certain «mirror» of the success of the social-psychological adaptation of the individual in a other cultural environment, namely the motivation to study as the main purpose of the student’s stay in this environment.For us, the motivation for learning is a combination of the causes of the sociopsychological nature that determines human behavior, its orientation and activity in learning. From the analysis of the meaning and degree of influence of the motives for the success of the training, it is said that without motives, the motives create only a potential opportunity for the professional development of a young person, the realization of which is precisely due to its activities and adaptation in a other cultural environment. Thus, the motives of learning are realized due to the goals set by the young person and the ways of achieving them in a other cultural environment.

The tendencies in the development of the system of specially protected natural territories of Siberia

An analysis is made of 100 years of development of specially protected natural territories of Siberia. Attention is centered on the characteristic features of territorial nature conservation which are determined by the dependence on the political, economic and managerial factors. The analysis revealed the periods of formation, decline, opposite trends and negative dynamics in the establishment of new protected natural territories. Using the history of reserve management and studies of Russia as an example, it is shown that most innovations were tested in Siberia, starting from the establishment of Russia’s first state zapovedniks and zakazniks and ending with the setting up of joint directorates of specially protected natural territories in recent years. It is pointed out that the approaches in substantiating the system of protected natural areas were characterized by fundamental differences: from the organization of “pristine benchmarks” of nature with the ideology of total non-interference, to “farm zapovedniks” for breeding valuable game animals and active maintenance of the population of rare species accompanied by measures to eliminate “harmful” species. The rivalry between the geographical and biocentric approaches is described: in the former case, the preservation of typical natural systems was dominant; in the latter case, the preservation of rare and endangered species was paramount. It is concluded that the unevenness of distribution of zapovedniks, zakazniks and national and natural parks depends on the degree of development and exploration of a relevant territory, the likelihood of a total disappearance of the most valuable areas, and on the existence of lands of indigenous ethnic groups. It is demonstrated that the process of development of the system of territorial nature conservation is governed by the administrative initiative, consideration for the characteristics of a region’s economic development and changeable institutional conditions as well as by the factors of the country’s foreign and internal policy.

Understanding conservationists' perspectives on the new-conservation debate.

A vibrant debate about the future direction of biodiversity conservation centers on the merits of the so‐called new conservation. Proponents of the new conservation advocate a series of positions on key conservation ideas, such as the importance of human‐dominated landscapes and conservation's engagement with capitalism. These have been fiercely contested in a debate dominated by a few high‐profile individuals, and so far there has been no empirical exploration of existing perspectives on these issues among a wider community of conservationists. We used Q methodology to examine empirically perspectives on the new conservation held by attendees at the 2015 International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB). Although we identified a consensus on several key issues, 3 distinct positions emerged: in favor of conservation to benefit people but opposed to links with capitalism and corporations, in favor of biocentric approaches but with less emphasis on wilderness protection than prominent opponents of new conservation, and in favor of the published new conservation perspective but with less emphasis on increasing human well‐being as a goal of conservation. Our results revealed differences between the debate on the new conservation in the literature and views held within a wider, but still limited, conservation community and demonstrated the existence of at least one viewpoint (in favor of conservation to benefit people but opposed to links with capitalism and corporations) that is almost absent from the published debate. We hope the fuller understanding we present of the variety of views that exist but have not yet been heard, will improve the quality and tone of debates on the subject.

Γενετικά τροποποιημένες καλλιέργειες εναντίον βιοποικιλότητας; Επιστημονικές και φιλοσοφικές προκλήσεις

Regarding the issue of balance between environmental sustainability and the inherent ecological interventions of agricultural biotechnology, multiannual studies substantiate that loss of biodiversity, due to the use of GM crops, is globally less important than several other practices. Thus, what explains this diametrically extreme confrontation, from part of the scientific community? I presume, that the controversy is a philosophical one, and is expressed mainly by two contrasting materialistic approaches; the so called reductionist (or molecularist) view and the opposing holistic (or organismic) view, both of which, in their comparative analysis, prove, in my view, their incapability in definitely resolving such dilemmas.The first, as an anthropocentric approach, seems unsuccessful in building any concept of ecosystem integrity on the basis of moral duty while the second, as a biocentric approach, does not take into consideration the effects in human populations, and provides limited guidance with respect to the environments in which agriculture has already replaced the natural order. Norton’s concept provides a new perspective, since it recognizes the human duty to conduct agriculture, in a manner that supports survival for the people on this planet, while simultaneously it maintains the ecological dynamics that sustain life. Based on Norton’s “weak anthropocentrism”, we can be easily led to the “convergence” of policies, through a “contextualized” hierarchy of moral choices for the issues of agricultural biotechnology.

Cruel Consciousness

Jeanette Samyn, “Cruel Consciousness: Louis Figuier, John Ruskin, and the Value of Insects” (pp. 89–114) This essay examines two opposing theories of consciousness and value in relation to nineteenth century entomology. In The Insect World (1868), the French popularizer of science Louis Figuier extends consciousness to aesthetically unappealing and seemingly cruel insects such as parasites by attributing to them sociality and industry. With little recourse to theological or conventional moral standards, Figuier ascribes value to parasites—on account of their consciousness, which aligns their experience with human sentience, and also because of their role as environmental mediators. In this view, he subtly paves the way for a biocentric approach to the natural world that remains controversial today. John Ruskin, meanwhile, brings up popular entomology (epitomized, he says, by Figuier’s text) as a complicated counter to his own views on labor and aesthetics in his letters to the working men and women of England, Fors Clavigera (1871–84). Questioning the contemporary “instinct” for the study of parasites—and despite recent associations of Ruskin with ecological thought—Ruskin takes pains in these letters to uphold the difference between human and nonhuman life. In his efforts to limit consciousness to the most valuable and difficult of human labors, however, he engages seriously with the implications of proto-parasitological thought for human ethics.

New Transitions from Human Rights to the Environment to the Rights of Nature

AbstractThe weaknesses of our environmental laws stem in large part from the fact that legal systems treat the natural world as property that can be exploited and degraded, rather than as an integral ecological partner with its own rights to exist and thrive. This article analyzes the recent rise of a new generation of environmental laws which reject the ‘false dogma’ of ‘humans over nature’ and instead recognize our interconnectedness with the natural world and acknowledge its rights to exist, persist, and maintain its vital cycles. The article focuses on the transition from an anthropocentric approach, denoted by the ‘right to the environment’, to a biocentric approach constructed around ‘rights of nature’. This transition is evident in various new legal instruments – the Ecuadorian Constitution, certain Bolivian laws, and numerous ordinances of the United States – which incorporate and respect rights of nature, and grant legal rights to the natural world and enforcement rights to affected communities. These instruments serve as models for legal systems which can steer us towards more robust and effective environmental laws.