When the Uniting Church formed in 1977, its Basis of Union envisaged a final reconciliation and renewal for all creation, not just humans. It did, nonetheless, reflect the anthropocentric assumptions of its day, as did other official documents released in the first decade of the Uniting Church’s life. Anthropocentrism assumes that human beings alone are created in the image of God, charged with dominion over Earth, and responsible for the fallenness of creation, though not necessarily through the actions of a literal Adam and Eve. This basic framework did not shift in the first decade, even though Earth began to be talked about not as an inanimate resource for human consumption, but something good and valuable in and of itself. In 1990 this anthropocentric paradigm began to be challenged, and during 2000-2002 two quite irreconcilable understandings of the relationship between God and Earth, and thus humans and other animals existed side by side in Uniting Church worship resources. Having listened carefully to the story of life as told by ecological and evolutionary scientists, I conclude that the traditional anthropocentric paradigm is no longer tenable. Instead I propose that all of life is the image of God, in its evolutionary past, ecological present and unknown future. All of life is in direct relationship with God, and exercises dominion of Earth. Evidence traditionally used as evidence of the fallenness of creation is instead affirmed as an essential part of life, though life on Earth has experienced a number of significant “falls” in biodiversity. Even the more biocentric thought in recent Uniting Church resources is inadequate, because its language implies that life is simple, static, benign, and to some extent designed by God. In order to be adequately consonant with the life sciences, theology must be able to accept that finitude (pain, suffering and death) is a good part of creation, for without it there could be no life. This is an emphasis of ecofeminism, which I extend to affirm not only individual death, but the extinction of whole species, including humans. I argue that the purpose of creation was not the evolution of humans, but to make possible God’s desire for richness of experience, primarily mediated through relationships. Whilst this idea is well established in process theology, it must be purged of its individualistic and consciousness-centric biases to be adequately consonant with the scientific story of life. The resulting biocentric paradigm has several implications for our understanding of Jesus. I argue that he offers salvation from the overwhelming fear of finitude, rather than finitude itself. Against the trend in ecotheology, I propose that this saving work is directed in the first instance to humans only. I tentatively propose that it is directed to only some humans. This, paradoxically, is more affirming of God’s relationship with the rest of creation than most ecotheology, which proclaims Jesus as a global or universal saviour. Salvation for some humans, and all non human creatures, happens only in a secondary sense, because this is the only sense in which they need saving. I then speculate on whether and how it might be possible for a Christian biocentric community to live out its salvation. Finally, I revisit the Basis of Union and argue that although the biocentric theology I have proposed goes well beyond the Basis, it is not at odds with the Basis’ directions and intentions. Biocentric theology is, rather, an extension of the trajectories already contained within the Basis, with its trust in the eventual reconciliation and renewal of all creation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate young people’s environmental attitudes in India. The study had a special focus on the factor of exposure to nature and nature degradation in environmental attitudes formation. Attitudes are of a great importance in education. The investigation was conducted using a qualitative method based on observations and in depth interviews. The subjects were selected from a village in northern India and from Delhi, which is the capital of India. The subjects from the village area were exposed to nature and nature degradation in their daily lives and were expected to have biocentric or eco-centric environmental attitudes (to view humans as part of nature). In addition, Indian traditions and religions were expected to be more preserved in this area compared to Delhi. Hinduism, which is the dominant religion in India, is considered biocentric. In contrast, the subjects from Delhi were not exposed to nature and nature degradation daily and were expected to have anthropocentric or late anthropocentric environmental attitudes (to view humans as separated from nature). Also, these subjects were greatly influenced by industrialization and western influences. Western religions and cultures are considered anthropocentric. The results indicated a difference in environmental attitudes between the subjects in the village area who were exposed to nature and nature degradation and the subjects in Delhi, who were not. The subjects in the village area tended to have a biocentric or eco-centric view on nature and the subjects from Delhi tended to have a late anthropocentric view. This thesis argues for a biocentric view in environmental education and suggests establishing a positive relationship to nature as a part of environmental education, mainly through outdoor environmental education.

<p>The starting point of this paper is an ecofeminist claim, namely anthropocentrism has been androcentric. My purpose will be to discuss and explain this statement.</p>

The starting point of this paper is an ecofeminist claim, namely anthropocentrism has been androcentric. My purpose will be to discuss and explain this statement.

This thesis considers the movement away from anthropocentrism towards mythocentrism in Russell Hoban's later fiction. An analysis of the nature and results of the juxtapositions of myth, science, collective history and personal crisis in the following novels exemplifies this, his essentially revisionist, philosophy: Riddley Walker(1980), Pilgermann(1983) and The Medusa Freguency(1987). In turn, these novels bring Celtic/Christian, Judea-Islamic and Greco-Roman myth to bear upon various rational scientific societies and characters. In all cases transcendent moments edify the principal characters, whilst alienating them from their societies; in some instances social harmony is restored. This multicultural comparison reveals in Hoban's method a growing concern for (collective and individual) moral and spiritual refinement. As the characters become less anthropocentric and more myth-centred, their transformations towards sexual maturity parallel similar changes in their attitude to myth. They move from destructive behaviour to creative. The observed spiritual growth, from fear and resignation, through faith and liberation, to baptised imagination, provides the structure for the analysis and interpretation of the three novels. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Like few other concepts in the history of science, Darwinian evolution prompted humans to question their most basic assumptions about themselves. Among the theory's most controversial implications, the principle of common descent insisted that humans were kin to other species. As such, common descent challenged the previously unquestioned tradition of anthropocentrism, which held that humans were distinct from and superior to other species. In order to discern common descent's impact on anthropocentrism, I will examine three court cases from an eighty-year span of American history, where resistance to common descent was especially virulent. Courtrooms provided the nation's leading critics of common descent an arena in which to protest the theory's most egregious offenses. As common descent garnered increasing support from scientists and educators, however, anthropocentrists modified their position accordingly. Initially, they stigmatized monkeys and apes precisely because those animals were the most genealogically proximate to humans. As common descent became more accepted, however, this position became increasingly difficult to defend. Accordingly, many anthropocentrists abandoned their obsession with primates and instead engaged the entire tree of life, including its mysterious origin. By the turn of the millennium, even as some anthropocentrists increasingly accepted humanity's kinship to other species, many continued to cite human intelligence as legitimate grounds for anthropocentric behavior. Thus, while anthropocentrism survived the threat of common descent, it had to accommodate the Darwinian onslaught in order to do so. / Master of Arts

In this paper I present, and offer a solution to, a heretofore unacknowledged textual puzzle that arises from Margaret Cavendish's use of inconceivability to make claims about what is metaphysically impossible. On the one hand, Cavendish asserts that objects or events she cannot conceive of are impossible in nature (i.e., inconceivability entails impossibility in nature). On the other hand, she writes that there are some things that exist or occur in nature that are inconceivable to humans (i.e., inconceivability does not entail impossibility in nature). Put simply, Cavendish seemingly contradicts herself. This textual puzzle not only threatens to undermine Cavendish's philosophical method; it also calls her opposition to human exceptionalism into question. By asserting that what is inconceivable to her is impossible in nature, Cavendish implies by contraposition that she can conceive of everything that is metaphysically possible. In so doing, she seems to make an exception at least for herself: though she believes that other parts of nature cannot conceive of everything in nature, she implies that she can. Ultimately, I argue that Cavendish thinks we can sometimes tell why something is inconceivable. In some cases, something is inconceivable because it lies beyond the limits of humans' mental capacities. In other cases, something is inconceivable because it is contradictory. This interpretation solves the textual puzzle, as it is consistent for Cavendish to maintain that some objects and events in nature are beyond our mental limits and that we can derive the impossibility of some object or event in nature from its contradictoriness. My interpretation preserves Cavendish's opposition to human exceptionalism, moreover, as no part of nature can conceive of contradictions. That is, Cavendish's claim is not merely that what is inconceivable to her is impossible in nature, but rather that what is inconceivable to her and to every other part of nature is impossible in nature. / Master of Arts / Margaret Cavendish, a seventeenth century philosopher, makes two seemingly contradictory claims throughout her philosophical works. On the one hand, she implies that if something is inconceivable to her — that is, if she cannot form a mental picture of it — that thing is impossible in nature. On the other hand, she writes that there are plenty of things that exist or occur in nature which are inconceivable to humans. A textual puzzle therefore arises: Cavendish seems to simultaneously maintain (1) that something is impossible in nature if she cannot conceive of it, and (2) that something is not necessarily impossible in nature if she cannot conceive of it. In this paper, I propose that Cavendish believes humans can at least sometimes determine why something is inconceivable. That is, we can at least sometimes diagnose our inability to form a mental picture of something. In some cases, Cavendish thinks, we cannot form a mental picture of something because of our limited, human mental capacities. (We might think, for example, that this is why we cannot form a mental picture of all the colors butterflies see.) In other cases, we cannot form a mental picture of something because that thing is contradictory. (We might think, for instance, that this is why we cannot form a mental picture of an apple that is both red all over and not red all over.) I further argue that Cavendish only asserts that something is impossible in nature if it is inconceivable because it is contradictory. On my account, the textual puzzle I presented above is in fact not so puzzling. Cavendish thinks that if something is inconceivable because it is contradictory, then it is impossible in nature. She also thinks that there are plenty of things in nature that we cannot conceive of because of our limited human mental capacities. Thankfully, these two claims are not in tension.

The growing global affliction of ‘inhumanism’ is shaking our surroundings. Landscapes of resource extraction, agroindustrial production, energy and information circulation, waste management and geopolitical strategies, also known as Operational Landscapes, has made it an urgent necessity to reclaim human agency and accountability to resist environmental and social collapse driven by contemporary capitalist geopolitics and biotechnologies of control. This report utilizes a rural place far north - Gállok, situated in Jokkmokk Municipality, Norrbotten County, as a case study to explore alternative methods of being present on and representing place. Site-writing, as a methodology is used to test as well as to inform the structure of this thesis and its research. Through the site-writings of Gállok a set of acts (I-V ) serves as parallel narratives to the scientific research, emphasizing the importance of each chapter of the report. Gállok was chosen as case to highlight the challenging relationship between a place and its embodiments, to the broader environmental and socio-political context as it potentially faces a completely new and challenging function, as a mining site. The research aims to explore and reveal the impacts that human-orchestrated use of space has on nature, why these impacts occur and how they can be rethought through transdisciplinary approaches. Through the design project, the layers that are part of a place are the layers that are part of Gállok, as a place, are further explored, as how disturbances affect the layers among themselves, to finally speculate on how an increased understanding of the embedded layers and their conditions can influence architecture and urban and regional planning processes. The design project, called The Air We Breathe, focuses on air and its quality as one of the most important common denominators for all life on Earth, yet a system that we, through anthropocentrism, are destroying to our own detriment.  The idea of this essay and the design project is not to provide any solutions, but rather to start a discussion in the matter. The vision is to acknowledge as much as possible given the limited time for the thesis. With a personal goal to explore alternative ways of communicating and representing the findings, this thesis is my way to practice research by design and design by research, using architecture as my main tool.

Mot bakgrund av tidigare forskning om antropocentriskt socialt arbete avser detta examensarbete att analysera hur Socialstyrelsens policytexter och dokument upprätthåller och utmanar antropocentrismen i socialt arbete. Detta kvalitativa examensarbete har med en integrerad diskursanalytisk metod analyserat diskursiva framställningar av icke-mänskliga djur i förhållande till människor i Socialstyrelsens texter. Post-antropocentrism har använts som teoretisk tolkningsram. Resultatet visar att när det icke-mänskliga djuret står i förhållande till en människa med närhet till antropos (människa med hög status) så upprätthålls antropocentrismen i socialt arbete. När ett icke-mänskligt djur är i förhållande till en människa med distans till antropos (människa med låg status) så utmanas antropocentrismen i socialt arbete. Analysen har föranlett en modell för att visualisera resultatet. Examensarbetet föreslår implikationer för framtida våldsforskning att vidare studera icke-mänskliga djur i förhållande till människor. / Drawing on previous research on human-centered social work, this thesis aims to analyze how the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) reproduces and challenges anthropocentrism in social work. Using an integrated discourse analysis as method, this qualitative thesis analyzes how non-human animals are discursively constructed in relation to humans. Post-anthropocentrism has been used as a theoretical framework. Our findings showthat when the non-human animal is depicted in relation to a human with proximity to anthropos (human with high status), anthropocentrism in social work is maintained. Conversely, when a non-human animal is depicted in relation to a human with distance from anthropos (human withlow status), anthropocentrism in social work is challenged. The analysis has led to the development of a model to visualize the results. The thesis suggests implications for future research on violence, to further study non-human animals in relation to humans.

This dissertation sets out to explore the animal presence in the novels of contemporary French writer Michel Houellebecq. Focusing on this often overlooked aspect in the growing number of publications dedicated to Houellebecq’s literary production, this study argues that the presence of animals is central to understanding how his novels are structured around borders between not only animals and humans but also between humans themselves. By pitting animals against humans the novels simultaneously show how these borders are created within the narratives only to be repeatedly broken down and/or transgressed. Whereas in previous research a posthumanvision in Houellebecq’s works has been largely attributed to the theme of a technological surpassing of the human, this study advances the idea that animals constitute an inherent part of Houellebecq’s questioning of an anthropocentric worldview. The first chapter of the thesis, which lays the foundation for the study, explores how descriptions structure two major ways in which animals are present: either as a backdrop setting where the characters, while trying to maintain the border between themselves and animals, are transformed into observers of animals in their natural habitat, or as metaphors used to describe appearances and seemingly unwanted personality traits of some of the characters. The second chapter expands on the idea of a frontier between animals and humans but contrary to the previous chapter it studies the porosity of these borders by showing how humans and animals are depicted and narrated in similar ways. Drawing on the theories of Giorgio Agamben, Dominique Lestel and Tristan Garcia the study concludes by proposing to read Houellebecq’s novels both as a form of life stories relating a common history between animals and humans and as an attempt to highlight the untenable project of maintaining an anthropocentric worldview.