Environmentalism
LO: What are the arguments to support
anthropocentric environmentalism?

What would
Bentham say
about the
mining?

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:
 Libertarian extensionists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:
 Libertarian extensionists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:
 Libertarian extensionists:
 Ecological extensionists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:  Only interested in
conserving the
environment because it
will benefit humans
 Libertarian extensionists:
 Ecological extensionists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:  Only interested in
conserving the
environment because it
will benefit humans
 Libertarian extensionists:
 ‘Rights’ should be
extended to aspects of
the natural world
 Ecological extensionists:

Alan Marshall’s 3 categories
 Conservationists:  Only interested in
conserving the
environment because it
will benefit humans
 Libertarian extensionists:
 ‘Rights’ should be
extended to aspects of
the natural world
 Ecological extensionists:
 You should give value to
an ecosystem

Knowledge is
power
“Father of Modern Science”
the only knowledge of importance to
man - empirically rooted in the natural
world - a clear system of scientific
enquiry would assure human progress
Francis Bacon was the main instigator of the scientific approach, which
suggested that the earth is ours to be exploited. It was applied first to
Francis Bacon
astronomy and physics, then to human behaviour, society and
consciousness.
(1561-1626)

Human-centred (anthropomorphic)
environmentalism
 “Progress” - earth’s natural resources and non-human habitats
- exploited for human advancement
 Capitalism (18th century) - emphasis on the individual
 Human behaviour - individuals pursuing their interests
 How could it ever be sensible for an individual to act in what
might appear to be an interest other than one’s own?
 Genesis has been interpreted to support the view that humans
have a God-given right to control nature

Then God said, “And now
we will make human beings;
they will be like us and
resemble us. They will have
power over the fish, the
birds, and all the animals,
domestic and wild, large and
small ... [He] blessed them,
and said, “Have many
children, so that your
descendants will live over
the earth and bring it under
their control.. I am putting
you in charge of the fish, the Genesis 1: 26, 28
birds, and all the wild
animals.”

“through being cruel to
animals one becomes cruel to
human beings ... injury to an
animal leads to the temporal
hurt of man”
Summa Contra Gentiles (c. 1260)
Instrumental or intrinsic?
Do you agree?
St Thomas Aquinas

Kant suggested that cruelty towards
a dog might encourage a person to
develop a character that would be
desensitized to cruelty towards
humans.
‘Duties to Animals and Spirits’,
Lectures on Ethics (1770)
Instrumental or intrinsic?
Do you agree?
Immanuel Kant

An abandoned classroom after the explosion at Chernobyl
Our pursuit of power and energy

Complete the sentences
 Anthropocentrism means ...
 One argument for anthropocentric
environmentalism is ...
 A conservationist would say that Chernobyl ...
 One challenge to human-centred environmentalism
might be ...