or better the nature of the human individual as a "deficient being" in
Ghelen's words – is paradoxically the explanation of the anthropocentrism
and its overcoming?
Laura
2010/5/2 Pier Luigi Capucci <plc@noemalab.org>
> Dear Francesco,
>
> 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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> > --
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> --
> Pier Luigi Capucci
> e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
> web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
> skype: plcapucci
>
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--
Laura Gemini
Dip. Scienze della Comunicazione.
Media, linguaggi, spettacolo
Lab. LaRiCA - Facoltà di Sociologia
Un. degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo"
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