Biocentrism, is the belief that nature does not exist to serve humans. Rather,
humans are part of nature, one species among many. All species have a right to
exist for their own sake, regardless of their usefulness to humans. And
biodiversity is a value in itself, essential for the flourishing of both human and
nonhuman life.
One of the first people to articulate the need to cultivate biocentrism was the farmer,
philosopher and poet, L.H. Bailey in 1914. He described it as 'the brotherhood
relation', as follows.
"A constructive and careful handling of the resources of the earth is impossible except on a basis
of large co-operation and of association for mutual welfare. The great inventions and discoveries
of recent time have extensive social significance.
Yet we have other relations than with the physical and static materials. We are parts in a living
sensitive creation. The theme of evolution has overturned our attitude toward this creation. The
living creation is not exclusively man-centred: it is bio-centric. We perceive the essential
continuity in nature, arising from within rather than from without, the forms of life proceeding
upwardly and onwardly in something very like a mighty plan of sequence, man being one part in
the process. We have genetic relation with all living things, and our aristocracy is the aristocracy
of nature. We can claim no gross superiority and no isolated self-importance. The creation, and
not man, is the norm. Even now do we begin to guide our practises and our speech by our studies
of what we still call the lower creation. We gain a good perspective on ourselves.
If we are parts in the evolution, and if the universe, or even the earth, is not made merely as a
footstool, or as a theatre for man, so do we lose our cosmic selfishness and we find our place in
the plan of things. We are emancipated from ignorance and superstition and small philosophies.
The present widespread growth of the feeling of brotherhood would have been impossible in a self-
centred creation: the way has been prepared by the discussion of evolution, which is the major
biological contribution to human welfare and progress. This is the philosophy of the oneness in
nature and the unity in living things"
.
Today's biocentric conscience, which is an important part of the recovery of a
sense of kinship between man and nature, may be traced to a reaction against
the Christian ethic of domination over nature. Darwin was the most important
spokesperson for the biocentric attitude as he wrote in his
Notebooks on Transmutation:
If we choose to let conjecture run wild, then animals, our fellow brethren in pain, diseases, death,
suffering and famine - our slaves in the most laborious works, our companions in our
amusement - they may partake of our origin in one common ancestor - we may be all netted
together.
Another thread of biocentrism comes from ethnographic studies of human species-
specific taboos. This is an important contribution to the concept of the 'sacred',
derived from the idea of 'sacred ecology' developed from studies on traditional
environmental management of native peoples.
Bailey, L.H. (1915) The Holy Earth G.Scribner's Sons, New York
