Paper 2 Ideology · 2021 · 24 marks
To what extent is ecologism a clear rejection of anthropocentrism? (24 marks)
Non-Core Ideologies: Ecologism
Mark scheme: agreement
AO1 Deep ecologists and social ecologists reject anthropocentrism in all its forms.
AO2 Deep ecologists (Leopold) and social ecologists (Bookchin) reject anthropocentrism in all its forms.
[IJ] We can form a judgement that deep ecologism and social ecologism is a clear rejection of anthropocentrism.
AO1 All ecologists reject the anthropocentric view associated with mainstream ideologies that man is outside of and above nature.
AO2 Ecologists reject the anthropocentric view that man is outside of and above nature.
[IJ] We can conclude there is a clear rejection of anthropocentrism associated with mainstream ideas.
AO1 All ecologists reject the anthropocentric view that nature is simply a commodity that humanity can exploit for its own purposes.
AO2 All ecologists reject this view, opposing the mechanical world view and reductionism that underpins this understanding of nature.
[IJ] We can reach the judgement that ecologists reject the view that nature can be exploited by humanity for its own purposes.
Mark scheme: disagreement
AO1 Whilst shallow ecologists support enlightened anthropocentrism, this is rejected outright by deep greens.
AO2 Shallow greens (Carson) support an enlightened anthropocentric view that humanity is part of nature and steward of nature; this is rejected by deep ecologists who favour an ecocentric view, as expressed in the Land ethic (Leopold).
[IJ] We can form a judgment that there is clear disagreement between shallow and deep greens over anthropocentrism.
AO1 Social ecology rejects both the anthropocentric view and the ecocentric view, putting it at odds with shallow and deep greens.
AO2 Social ecology rejects the anthropocentrist view as the domination of nature and ecocentrism as half-baked nonsense that is deeply misanthropic, in turn favouring the end of relationships of domination between humans in order to discover humanity's true relationship to nature.
[IJ] We can conclude that social ecologists reject the views of both deep and shallow greens.
AO1 Deep greens see nature as having value in its own right, independent of humans, whilst the enlightened anthropocentrism of shallow greens gives nature instrumental value.
AO2 Deep greens reject any form of anthropocentrism which tries to value nature in terms of its use to humanity, favouring the view that nature has intrinsic value. This leads to a radical transformation in humanity's relationship to nature whilst shallow green enlightened anthropocentrism is only reformist.
[IJ] We can come to the judgement that there is a clear disagreement over how to allocate value to nature.