Anthropocentrism: what it is, characteristics and historical development

During the Middle Ages a doctrine known as theocentrism prevailed, which established that the entire universe had been created by a deity, but this perspective was being relegated to the background by those who followed a doctrine that had emerged at the beginning of the Modern Age, the anthropocentrism.

Anthropocentrism is a philosophical doctrine that gives special prominence to the human being, placing it in the center of the universe, so that everything else is subject to the needs and interests of the humanity.

We'll see now what is anthropocentrism and what are its fundamental characteristics.

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What is anthropocentrism?

Anthropocentrism consists of a philosophical doctrine that places human beings at the center of interest in reality and, therefore, it has an ethical and moral conception that always puts people's interests over any other matter.

In this sense, other living beings are subordinated to the needs, benefits and well-being of the human being. Likewise, anthropocentrism places human beings as the

point of reference and measure of all things in the realm of epistemology.

A great proliferation of universities is attributed to this philosophical current in order to be able to teach their thinking from a humanist intellectual model and, in this way, expand it.

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The main characteristics of anthropocentrism

This section will briefly explain some of the main characteristics of anthropocentrism as a doctrine.

1. Reason versus faith

From the point of view of anthropocentrism, rationality takes on a special role, being applied in the study of all kinds of subjects. From reason, the objective is to understand the world through an analytical perspective based on observation and studies in this regard.

This anthropocentric perspective, based on reason, was opposed to the theological approaches of theocentrism.

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2. Great importance of science

From the anthropocentric perspective, science takes on special value, so that Different scientific branches emerged such as biology, physics, anatomy, astronomy, etc.

In addition, the increase in the number of universities allowed the expansion of the knowledge transmitted in the different scientific branches.

3. Location of the human being at the center of the universe

As mentioned previously, under the prism of anthropocentrism, the human being is placed in the universal center, leaving aside the ideas of theocentrism that placed in that position a God.

Therefore, from the viewpoint of anthropocentrism, the human being is conceived with the ability to transform and dominate nature, so that you have a blind confidence in everything that is the result of the invention human.

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4. Great interest in knowledge and discovery

As we can see, at this time this desire for learn more about the world from different perspectives. For this reason, science regains great importance, universities proliferate and the desire to discover new territories, which was an impetus for commercial relations and economy.

5. Rejection of beliefs related to the divine or supernatural

From the anthropocentric doctrine there are a rejection of everything that cannot be empirically studied and contrasted, so everything that belongs to a theological approach is set aside.

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6. Importance to social prestige

In anthropocentrism, much relevance is given to power, fame and wealth, which together give a social prestige to the person who possesses them above those who are in a lower social rank.

7. Classicism movement

With anthropocentrism and humanism, the Greco-Roman tradition is taken up by the hand of philosophers of the Ancient Greece such as Plato, Aristotle, and classical writers such as Tacitus, Ovid, Virgil and Homer, among others.

This wealth of classical authors led to an epistemological relativism, so that it was no longer considered that there was a single and universal knowledge, but now different currents of thought and knowledge were taken into account.

The return of Greco-Roman classicism also had a great impact on art, where the theme of the Catholic religion was replaced by Greco-Latin, being a clear example of this, the painting of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, which is known as “The Birth of Venus".

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8. Boost of art

During the time when anthropocentrism emerged there were also an artistic explosion supported by patronage by families and people with great power and wealth who were interested in collecting works of art, such as the case of the Medici family in Florence or Ludovico Sforza, who is known to be the patron of Leonardo da Vinci.

9. Different way of seeing life

Anthropocentrism has a different way of looking at life than theocentrism. Anthropocentrism conceives of earthly life as a place of passage where every opportunity must be seized and tried enjoy every moment as far as possible.

10. Relationship with humanism

This intellectual movement and the doctrine of anthropocentrism are based on a series of common premises, such as, consider the human being as the center of the universe, so that his actions allow him to dominate nature and build his own destiny. Man is considered the owner of his own destiny by possessing some fundamental qualities for it, which are the following: reason, freedom and will.

Other common aspects are that humanism and anthropocentrism take up the classicism of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.

For all this and more aspects that they have in common, it could be said that humanism and anthropocentrism go hand in hand.

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Brief history of its development

What is known as anthropocentrism has its origin in the early Modern Age (s. XVI). The passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age also meant a change in doctrinal perspective, being prevalent in the Middle Ages that of theocentrism, which had a philosophical prism that considers a deity as the center of all the universe; on the other hand, the emergence of anthropocentrism entails a shift of power towards the human being.

This change in doctrinal perspective, brought about by the emergence of anthropocentrism, had repercussions at different levels: moral, ethical, philosophical, social and judicial.

It is also important to note that, although the human being was considered the center of the universe, religion was not completely left out, being proof of it that it continues without being abandoned in our days.

1. Renaissance

The Renaissance era marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age. It is a cultural movement that emerged in Italy in the 15th century that influenced various artistic modalities such as architecture, painting and art. sculpture, and whose name is given by having taken up the Greco-Roman style in the works belonging to the time in which this movement.

Following a classical Greco-Roman theme, the artists paid special care to the proportions of the figures represented and gave a special prominence to the representation of the human body, so a vision was followed anthropocentric.

2. Humanism

It is an intellectual movement that emerged in Italy during the 14th century, being developed in different disciplines (philosophy, theology, literature and history), and that It is also linked to the cultural movement of the Renaissance and the doctrine of the anthropocentrism.

The strength that anthropocentrism had acquired at that time, when rescuing the Greco-Roman tradition, carried with it the fact of focusing primarily on studying the human being.

Criticisms of anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism has not been free of criticism, the main one being the fact that consider that everything on earth is at a lower level of the hierarchy than that in which the human being is, so that nature and other living beings must be at your disposal.

On the contrary, those who oppose the main idea of ​​anthropocentrism, regarding the human being is the center of the universe, is because they consider that human beings should not be considered above other beings, defending that all living beings should have an equality of Rights.

There are other movements that do not agree on the fact that human beings can make use of resources of the environment at will for some personal benefit, considering that he is fully entitled to do it.

It is because of that in the 70s of the last century a movement known as biocentrism emerged, who considers that all living beings deserve to have moral respect, without being considered any being alive above another, considering as a primary value the right to life of all beings.

With all this, it should be noted that not everything should be black or white, but there are also intermediate terms in which the different movements have common aspects, for which all They have contributed many useful values ​​and knowledge that persist to this day and, therefore, they have made it possible for us to have an incalculable cultural, scientific and cultural wealth. biodiversity.