To me, value paradigms is a way of conceptualizing who or what has intrinsic value, or value in and of oneself, to humans. In anthropocentrism, only humans have intrinsic value. In biocentrism, it’s humans and individual animals. In ecocentrism, it’s humans and species and ecosystems. In geocentrism, it’s everybody: humans, individual animals, and species and ecosystems. To be clear, animals may have extrinsic value, or use value, in anthropocentrism, but that doesn’t mean they have intrinsic value.
Value paradigms is an important concept for animal studies because it gives us language to understand why people may prioritize people, animals, or species and ecosystems when making decisions about animal and environmental issues. For example, it gives us language to talk about why people support concentrated animal feeding operations even though they cause animals to suffer, or why ecologists may call for the killing of invasive animal species to protect ecosystems.
Using value paradigms to analyze the news article helped me realize that our society’s overall value paradigm is anthropocentrism. As we grow up, we’re taught to value humans over other animals and the environment. However, that doesn’t mean that anthropocentrism is the natural or correct value paradigm. What it does mean is that we as animal studies scholars need to work to address the anthropocentric norm and move our society toward geocentrism.
Stu Dent is a fictional student in the course Multispecies Imagination.
Value paradigms is an important concept for animal studies because it gives us language to understand why people may prioritize people, animals, or species and ecosystems when making decisions about animal and environmental issues. For example, it gives us language to talk about why people support concentrated animal feeding operations even though they cause animals to suffer, or why ecologists may call for the killing of invasive animal species to protect ecosystems.
Using value paradigms to analyze the news article helped me realize that our society’s overall value paradigm is anthropocentrism. As we grow up, we’re taught to value humans over other animals and the environment. However, that doesn’t mean that anthropocentrism is the natural or correct value paradigm. What it does mean is that we as animal studies scholars need to work to address the anthropocentric norm and move our society toward geocentrism.
Stu Dent is a fictional student in the course Multispecies Imagination.