What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to establish a clearer understanding of different forms of anthropocentrism and their implications for research and inquiry.

January 1, 2018

Three Types of Anthropocentrism

Key Points

The aim is to establish a clearer understanding of different forms of anthropocentrism and their implications for research and inquiry.
Conceptual analysis of anthropocentrism
Identification of three distinct paradigms within anthropocentrism
Examination of implications of each paradigm for inquiry
Defined perceptual anthropocentrism based on human sensory perception.
Outlined descriptive anthropocentrism focused on Homo sapiens as the center.
Described normative anthropocentrism, distinguishing between passive and active assumptions of human superiority.

Abstract

This paper develops a language for distinguishing more rigorously between various senses of the term ‘anthropocentrism.’ Specifically, it differentiates between:1. Perceptual anthropocentrism (which characterizes paradigms informed by sense-data from human sensory organs);2. Descriptive anthropocentrism (which characterizes paradigms that begin from, center upon, or are ordered around Homo sapiens / ‘the human’)3. Normative anthropocentrism (which characterizes paradigms that constrain inquiry in a way that somehow privileges Homo sapiens / ‘the human’ passive normative anthropocentrism; and which characterizes paradigms that make assumptions or assertions about the superiority of Homo sapiens, its capacities, the primacy of its values, its position in the universe, and/or make prescriptions based on these assertions and assumptions active normative anthropocentrism).

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Three Types of Anthropocentrism

Key Points

Abstract

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