패스모어의 인간중심적 환경철학에 관한 고찰

Abstract

This paper examines the environmental philosophy of John Passmore, who is mentioned as a representative of the so-called anthropocentric environmental philosophy. In 1964, American historian Lynn White pointed to the roots of the Earth's ecological crisis in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and pointed to Western civilization and science and technology that grew on that roots since medieval age as the direct cause of the ecological crisis. Furthermore, White emphasized the need for a new religion, new ethics, and a new world view to overcome the ecological crisis of the earth. Passmore, who was the first to respond philosophically to White's provocative claims representing the claims of environmentalists at the time, points out the narrowness and fallacy of White's historical interpretation of the roots of environmental problems, and emphasizes the diversity and flexibility of Western traditions and ideas. He argues that in the Western tradition, two more can be found besides the concept of man as a tyrant over nature pointed out by White. And based on these human understandings, it is argued that the way to solve ecological problems is to eliminate the widespread ignorance among us through the expansion and diffusion of science and knowledge. Passmore sees that environmental problems are real problems that can be solved ‘only by the joint efforts’ of everyone, including scientists, technologists, economists, statesmen and administrators, but not abstract problems that can be solved by changing religious beliefs or metaphysics. And he argues that it is a philosopher's task to remove ‘some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge’, i.e. the ignorance and obscurity that blocks our way to the solution of ecological problems. In this context, his environmental philosophy can be said to be ‘enlightened’ anthropocentrism.