生态危机、人类中心主义和人的天性

Ecological Crisis,Anthropocentrism, and Human Nature

L·怀特在他的著名论文《我们的生态危机的历史根源》中,断言我们当代社会的生态危机根源于世界上已知的最为人类中心主义的基督教,因为基督教在人与自然的关系上强调:自然除了服务于人之外便没有任何存在的理由。怀特认为解决生态危机的唯一出路,就是采取一种谦逊的、而非异端的人与自然友好的宗教观,以取代那种人类中心主义的基督教信仰。然而,包括基督教在内的所有宗教,它们对自然环境的影响仅仅是表面意义的,因为,我们在自然以及与它的关系上所形成的态度,本质上是与我们的天性深刻地联系在一起的。这就是说,生态危机包括人类中心主义的基督教教义有一个共同的生物学上的根源,即人类天生渴望占有他们想要占有的一切东西,而基督教的教义和人类中心主义不过是对人的这种不愿受到任何限制的天性的一种强烈的自我意识和观念化。

Lynn White asserts in his well - known essay ＂The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis＂ that the ecological crisis in our present society is deeply grounded in Christianity, which is the most anthropocentric religion that the world has ever seen, because in terms of man＇ s relationship to nature it emphasizes that nature has no reason for existence save to serve human beings. According to Lynn White, the only way to get out of our ecological crisis is to adopt a modest, hut non - heretical, and man - and - nature - friendly religious view, which is supposed to replace the anthropocentric Christian beliefs. However, all forms of religion, including Christianity, merely exert an external influence upon natural environments, because our established attitudes towards nature and towards man＇ s relationship to nature arejn essence deeply connected with our own nature. That is to say, our ecological crisis and the anthropocentric Christian axiom both share a biological root： human beings by nature desire to possess whatever they want to possess, hut the Christian dogma and anthropocentric view are no more than a strong self - consciousness and conceptualization of that distinctive human nature that man is not willing to be restricted by anything.