Anthropocentric
I was just thinking about my previous post and wondering what criticisms of my position would be. The truth of the matter is that what I said is really nothing remotely new however issues surrounding animal rights seem to get the biggest response on this blog as become apparent when I was blogging on vegetarianism.
I guess the argument against my position is that it is anthropocentric. As I constantly say, social and ecological justice are two inseparable parts of the same whole. I guess I’ve never really thought about it and just always assumed that this is an ecocentric position. It’s not – it has to be anthropocentric almost by definition.
I always try to break down this humanity/nature dualism in terms of justice. Ultimately this is justice for humans. Humans are custodians of the earth. We need to look after the flora and fauna on this planet, preserve biodiversity, and reduce our ecological footprint. The ‘nature’ side of things will greatly benefit from this which is a necessary and intended outcome. But ultimately I’m arguing for the greater good of humans, otherwise I wouldn’t be arguing that it is ok to experiment on animals as each of those animals would have the same intrinsic value as a human.
