Abstract

GUDYNAS, Eduardo. The biocentric path: intrinsic values, nature rights and ecological justice. Tabula Rasa [online]. 2010, n.13, pp.45-71. ISSN 1794-2489.

The main conceptual approaches and social and political practices advocating for Nature as a subject of rights are reviewed here, in opposition to conventional approaches understanding Nature as a mere human-being-dependent object of appraisal. Contributions on environment intrinsic values are analysed here, as well as its expression on biocentric postures and the contrasts with the anthropocentrism inherent to Modernity. Its concrete expressions in Latin America, particularly in the new Ecuador's Constitution, are considered. Further, two approaches to justice are distinguished: an environmental one, based on human rights to a safe environment and a better quality of life, and an ecological one, for the rights corresponding to Nature. Involvements in different redefinitions of a community of justice are reviewed, as applied to non-human living beings. A warning -these are different attempts to overcome the fence built by the anthropocentrism characteristic of Modernity.

Keywords : Nature rights; intrinsic values; biocentrism; anthropocentrism; Modernity; environmental justice; ecological justice.

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