Environmental ethics

Environmental ethics raises the question of the legitimacy of Western anthropocentrism in the construction of standards for the exploitation and management of species and natural systems. According to a non-anthropocentric vision, every living being is a “teleological centre of life” and must, as such, be considered as an end in itself, a necessary and sufficient condition for it to be recognized as having an intrinsic value that makes it a subject of moral consideration. It is in this context that a philosophical cleavage has emerged between several postures, in particular between “biocentrism” which defends the living, all living things, at the individual level and “ecocentrism” which advocates the integrity of the biotic community, a complex ecological system that includes all the organisms that compose it, including humans. Ecocentrism is currently a preferred option for thinking about the relationships between human societies and natural systems.