The rights of nature in a relational society: reflections on a new environmental ethic

• Autor(a) principal: Barbosa, Lívia
• Data de Publicação: 1994
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/1987

Biocentrism, one of the newest tendencies of the ecological movement, proposes that natural rights should be extended to all elements of nature, and that a radical ethic position should be taken before all living beings and even lifeless material, thoroughly altering relations between mankind and nature. Roderick Nash, in his book The rights of nature, interprets biocentrism as a consequence of liberalism. Considering its continuity with the anglo-saxon tradition, it wouldn't even be a revolutionary tendency. The article contains a critical discussion of biocentrism proposals concerning relations between men and nature, as well as of its implications for a society with little or no liberal tradition at all, sociologically defined as a relational one.