In these sections, The Ethics of Reverence of Life and The Land Ethic, two different, yet similar, views are contrasted and compared to understand the true meaning of biocentrism - the idea that life itself has meaning and valuable. Albert Schweitzer developed ethics of reverence for life. According to his ethic, each individual life has meaning and it is the task of our life to show other lives the reverence that we would wish to be shown to ourselves. Schweitzer abhorred killing of any kind and believed that it was up to every person to recognize the bad he or she had caused and work to stop it from happening again.
Aldo Leopold formed a different view on life and gave a different shade to biocentrism. Leopold developed The Land Ethic, which states that humans must look at the world as a mountain would. This viewpoint leads one to see the mutuality and interconnectedness of life - each of us need the other to live cohesively and successfully on this earth. While Schweitzer calls for each life to be cherished, Leopold sees the necessity for death to keep the balance of life in order. Leopold did not see any reason why his theory could be in conflict with Schweitzer's - they operated on two different levels: Schweitzer's looks at the beauty of each individual life, while Leopold looks to preserve the balance of life as a whole.
I find both viewpoints or explanations of biocentrism to be interesting and fascinating in their own right. While I agree with the idea that each life is sacred, I also see that death is necessary to keep overall life in balance. Where I disagree with this statement is in the fact that Kohak points to ending/limiting human life to preserve balance on earth. Human life I believe is most sacred and anything that would try to limit or end a human life is fundamentally wrong.
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