ABSTRACT

Ecocentrism is an ethical worldview based on an interconnected web of dynamic relationships among living entities and systems that include land and climate as well as animate individuals, species, and the ecological processes that link them. Ecocentrism is not unique to the contemporary environmental movement; ethical systems that see humanity as enmeshed within the multilayered realms of the natural world are contained within many indigenous worldviews. Early proponents and critics of ecocentric theory conversed primarily within the philosophical discipline of environmental ethics. Current debates employ ecocentric frameworks on both moral issues and policy fronts. Commentators have offered a range of criticisms. First, some charge that ecocentrism’s holistic egalitarianism is misanthropic and that this worldview promotes eco-authoritarianism rather than green democracy. Second, critics contend that ecocentrism relies on a false dichotomy based on an erroneously harsh definition of anthropocentrism.