Decentering Humanity: The Anthropocene and the perils of Anthropocentricity

This chapter focuses on different philosophical and social science paradigms for understanding the fundamental character of the contemporary human and planetary condition. The point of departure is the notion of the “Anthropocene.” Loosely but quite radically, the term defines a new conceptualization of the relationship between humanity and nature. It suggests that we have entered a new geological epoch in which the human species is now the dominant Earth-shaping force. Hereby, it unsettles the philosophical, epistemological, and ontological ground on which the natural sciences as well as the social sciences/humanities have traditionally stood. The notion of the Anthropocene, however, is differently defined within scientific paradigms and, furthermore, questioned and criticized by several scholars as well as activists. Natural scientists regard the Anthropocene as a period in which people and nature are dynamically intertwined and embedded in the biosphere, placing shocks and extreme events as part of this dynamic. Social scientists and humanists generally accept that the human–nature relationship and the relation between time and space have changed, and most of these scholars also agree that human actions have caused unprecedented ecological and socioecological challenges. However, they also disagree on several issues. First, the chapter presents core characteristic of the Anthropocene concept as proposed by natural scientists. It then turns to conceptualizations of the notion within the social sciences and the humanities. The aim is to critically reflect important differences between positions and to analyze how they may legitimize different political paradigms. The chapter focuses on three selected themes: (1) the human–nature relationship; (2) the unified notion of the “Anthropos”; and (3) alternative understandings of what is driving the Anthropocene. By presenting these themes the chapter covers different notions of the epoch such as “Multiple Anthropocenes,” the “Capitalocene,” and the “Plantationocene,” and different scholarly paradigms such as neo-materialist, post-human, postmodern, critical reflexive, eco-Marxist, and degrowth.