I think it could be more fruitful to consider "anthropocentrisms" related to the biological existence, as some kind of "species-centrism". We put ourselves "in the center" because we have to survive, and in surviving we come first (there can be exceptions, like in the parental relations. and, I know, the idea of "surviving" can be very questionable for humans). In this perspective "anthropocentrism" could be (humanly) defined as the "egoism of life", and it is totally natural, because living implies taking and using some basic resources from the environment.
More, according to Maturana and Varela, we can't be but anthropocentric because we can't exiting our body. Our mind - and all what it means - is what it is because it is embodied in *this* body. Hence we can't, for instance, think as a rabbit or as a lion or as a serpent because we have very different bodies.
In these respects I think it is impossible to eliminate "anthropocentrism", because it is the only view we can achieve. What we, as humans, can do, and that in part we are developing, is expanding our knowledge and awareness of nature and environment and of the other species, is understanding the other species' basic needs, but always *from our viewpoint*. I think we could balance (expand) our bare anthropocentrism with a better knowledge of the environment we live in - you can call it "eco-centrism" - but in the end this is again a form of anthropocentrism (maybe we could call it "enlightened" :-). It should be stressed that all the ambientalist/green initiatives are the celebration of anthropocentrism, because, in the end, in the center they put the idea of nature and environment as best suitable for the humans' survival (but it is a normal behaviour as a species!).
So what we can do is trying to deepen the other species' understanding and awareness. Some artists are trying to experiment in cross species communication, searching for a sort of interspecies language based on the roots we can both understand and share: the body. It is, for example, the work of Louis Bec, and of Antony Hall in particular with his ENKI project (http://www.antonyhall.net/)
Best,
Pier Luigi
Il giorno 28/apr/2010, alle ore 09.44, francesco monico ha scritto:
> Dear Pier,
> as you noticed "anthropocentrism" is part of a basic human ideo-logic, as a
> cog of the mechanism of a human driven logic.
>
> I think that this vision is not merely a product of the invention of
> science, but it arise from more deep reasons, it cames from the necessity to
> put a reason, based not on experience but on revelation, in the centre of
> our human logic. In order to justify what is not explicable or what is not
> understandable, we revealed the supremacy-divinity, of the humankind that
> became, after Plato, a sort of methapyisic idea, and that became with
> Plotino the foundation of all the western methaphysics. And it would be th
> case that Heidegger was rights with is idea that "all western methaphisic,
> based on the Plotinic idea, is wrong".
>
> My proposal is that Anthropocentrism, is a metaphysically driven concept,
> not based in any experience of the Nature, but invented by man in order to
> exploit love and the sense of the world.
>
> So you're right questioning if this all imply that anthropocentrism is
> fading out? Or, better, does it imply it will/can disappear? What is to
> probe is if it would be possible to shift our anthropocentrism to
> Eco-centrism, maybe we have to disappear in order to change experience and
> reappearing in a more balanced position.
>
> What do you think?
>
> francesco
>
> 2010/4/23 Pier Luigi Capucci <plc@noemalab.org>
>
>> hello,
>>
>> sorry Francesco, Roger and all for joining this discussion late. It is
>> indeed a very intriguing topic, and, as Natasha noted, a multidimensional
>> one.
>>
>> Indeed the idea of "anthropocentrism" as some kind of ideology which puts
>> humankind at the center of the known world has been historically put in
>> discussion in a long path. 2009 was both the 400 anniversary of the
>> telescope's invention by Galileo and the 150 anniversary of the publication
>> of Darwin's "Origin of the Species" (and the 200centenary of his birth).
>> [BTW 2009 was the centenary anniversary of the Futurism avantgarde too, with
>> the central position their time's technologies had in their poetics, but
>> we'd go too far]
>>
>> With his invention Galileo gave an extraordinary push to the sky's
>> observation, to the diffusion of the heliocentric system and of Copernicus'
>> theories, also through the "scientific method" (which is often called
>> "Galilean method"). Copernicus dethroned the humankind from his central
>> position in the Universe, but, although dislocated in a remote zone the
>> humankind remained the chosen creature, the first one, the highest among the
>> living beings on the Earth. Darwin dethroned the humankind from his
>> privileged position. Like all the living beings, humankind is the result of
>> an extremely long process, of a "design without a designer". All the living
>> beings, humankind included, were not created as they are and are not steady
>> and unchangeable, but evolved starting about 3,8 billion years ago from a
>> remote group of primeval common organisms.
>>
>> Hence all the living organisms are related, and each individual, whatever
>> species it belongs, is unique but it is pervaded by the matter and the
>> processes which compose all the other living beings. The fundamental
>> processes and the control mechanisms are essentially the same in all
>> species; in our genes we have the genes of many other species, even of
>> viruses. And the difficulties and discussions in the science domain on the
>> definition of "species" and on the methodology to set the differences among
>> the species emphasize this "unitarity".
>>
>> It seems today the humankind is reaching another topic point in this
>> relativization path, since he has the chance to use sciences and
>> technologies to hugely modify some issues which deeply define the "human
>> essence", which becomes basically uncertain. But does this all imply that
>> anthropocentrism is fading out? Or, better, does it imply it will/can
>> disappear?
>>
>> More after.
>>
>> Pier Luigi
>>
>> --
>> Pier Luigi Capucci
>> e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
>> web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
>> skype: plcapucci
>>
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