Is Ecological Sustainability Consonant or Dissonant with Human Rights? Identifying Theoretical Issues in Peace Education

Overview & Synopsis

During the twentieth century, there were increasing concerns about forms of violence and, also, increased interest in peace education. There are various approaches of peace education. And, since all the approaches aim at the same goal--peacemaking--the basic assumptions of the different approaches must agree, otherwise there will be internal inconsistencies in peace education theory. This article examines different concepts, perspectives and implications of the key terms of "anthropomorphic" and "ecocentric" in the context of peace education. These are identified as two perspectives underlying certain inconsistencies between the views of human rights education and of environmental education, being two important perspectives in peace education. Over the past decades, much educational effort has been made to improve human rights education and, also, education to help save the earth from environmental deterioration. Nevertheless, there are still problems in the process of promotion both for human rights and environmental preservation. Theoretically, the problem of whether human rights are compatible with ecological sustainability results from the conceptual conflict between different worldviews: anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. This article takes a philosophical perspective in exploring the meaning of these worldviews and suggests that the matter of incompatibility can be resolved by reconceptualising human rights from the view of ecocentrism rather than anthropocentrism. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)