Blog 5-Biocentric and Ecocentric Ethics

In this last reading section of The Green Halo, Kohak has introduced to us to many other scholars and their arguments regarding nature and environmental ethics. It can be said that the arguments of biocentric and ecocentric ethics go hand in hand. Biocentric is "Reverence for Life" while Ecocentric is looking at the ecological systems as a whole instead of focusing on individual plants and animals. It is difficult to distinguish between the two because they coincide with each other so much. However, they are different.

Biocentric ethics focuses only on life itself and the preservation of it. That all means of destruction of life, animal experimentation, factory farming, and forest destruction, should be eliminated. That humans themselves should learn to respect and honor each others life instead of taking life from others. Everything on earth has the "right" to live regardless of whether they are beneficial to humans or not. And that all beings should live a full, meaningful life. Scholars mentioned such as Schweitzer and Taylor hold these views.

Ecocentric ethics deals with the ecological systems as a whole. That the preservation of nature itself is more important than individual lives themselves. That morals should be formed in order to preserve ecological systems and all that dwells in them rather than destroying them. It is difficult to preserve all life just because death is a part of nature, but to preserve ecological systems would preserve the world as a whole.

I agree with both ethics in that life is important and that all beings have a "right" to live. However, death is a part of nature as well, who is to prevent one animal from killing another. Therefore, what should be done is to develop morals where humans help preserve ecosystems and to respect other animals place in the world instead of subjecting them to senseless killing. Some may still be killed as food, but should be treated with respect.