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The “3Hs” (Habitats, Habits, Co-in-Habitants) of the Biocultural Ethic: A “Philosophical Lens” to Address Global Changes in the Anthropocene

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Global Changes

Part of the book series: Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment ((ETHICSSCI,volume 46))

Abstract

Global culture, forms of governance, economic and development models have become drastically dissociated from biological and cultural diversity and their interrelationships. Global society is exposed to globally homogeneously governed life habits that tend to build globally homogeneous technological and urban habitats in the heterogeneous regions of the planet. Concurrently, these globally homogeneous habitats reinforce globally homogeneous life habits. These feedbacks between globalized habits and habitats generate processes of biocultural homogenization, which represents an overlooked dimension of global changes in the Anthropocene. Biocultural homogenization is both driver and product of complex and pervasive losses of biological and cultural diversity. We maintain that it is technically necessary and ethically imperative to reverse these losses. Toward this aim, we present the “3Hs” (Habitats, Habits, co-in-Habitants) conceptual framework of the biocultural ethic, which values the vital links among the diversity of life habits of distinct (human and other-than-human) co-in-habitants that share a common habitat. We offer this philosophical framework as a heuristic model for: (1) better understanding multidimensional and multi-scale processes involved in global changes; (2) designing policies that integrate biocultural diversity into ethical, political, and environmental dimensions of the contemporary technological world; and (3) orienting decision-making processes that can better assess the consequences that development policies might have for the conservation or degradation of habitats, life habits, and welfare of co-inhabitants. In this way, the 3Hs “philosophical lens” of the biocultural ethic can contribute to re-orienting global society toward sustainable forms of co-inhabitation amidst the rapidly changing socio-environmental scenarios of the Anthropocene.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To mark the beginning of the geological era of the Anthropocene, different authors have proposed dates as dissimilar as the origin and expansion of agriculture about 3000 years ago or the so-called Great Acceleration that has escalated since the mid-twentieth century (Leis and Maslin 2015; Zalisiewics et al. 2015; Waters et al. 2016). We agree with the date identified by Zalasiewics et al. (2015) as a distinct moment for the Anthropocene’s start: the end of the Second World War (Rozzi 2015a).

  2. 2.

    The one-dimensional man portrayed by Herbert Marcuse in the 1960s has come to dominate. As Marcuse (1991) argued, one-dimensional linear thinking is a form of social control, which oppresses diversity.

  3. 3.

    This biocultural conservation approach is supported by the work of ecological economists, scientists, and historians of the global south, such as Martínez-Alier (2003), Shiva (1991), and Guha (1997) who have defended the value of local economies based on consuetudinary land tenure and conservation of biodiversity.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB) through the grant AFB170008 (CONICYT, Chile). This chapter is a contribution to the Sub-Antarctic Biocultural Conservation Program coordinated by IEB and the University of Magallanes in Chile, and by the University of North Texas in the US.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas, Denton, USA

    Ricardo Rozzi

  2. University of Magallanes, Puerto Williams, Chile

    Ricardo Rozzi & Francisca Massardo

  3. Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Puerto Williams, Chile

    Ricardo Rozzi, Francisca Massardo & Alexandria Poole

  4. Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, USA

    Alexandria Poole

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  1. Ricardo Rozzi
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  3. Alexandria Poole
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Correspondence to Ricardo Rozzi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Bioethics and Department of Philosophy, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Luca Valera

  2. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, and Center for Bioethics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Juan Carlos Castilla

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Rozzi, R., Massardo, F., Poole, A. (2020). The “3Hs” (Habitats, Habits, Co-in-Habitants) of the Biocultural Ethic: A “Philosophical Lens” to Address Global Changes in the Anthropocene. In: Valera, L., Castilla, J. (eds) Global Changes. Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment, vol 46. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29443-4_14

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