Research on the Environmental Philosophy of China's Environmental Crime Legislation from the Perspective of Ecological Civilization Construction

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 13;20(2):1517. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021517.

Abstract

Modern environmental philosophy is a new type of philosophy for humans re-examining the relationship between man and nature and provides the value guidance for modern environmental law. China's environmental crime legislation has gone through the exploration period, establishment period, and optimization period. The environmental philosophy behind this is worth discussing and determines the direction China will take environmental crime in the future and whether China's environmental strategy can really be implemented. At present, the disputes about the environmental philosophy of environmental crime in China are mainly reflected in the contention between anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and eco-anthropocentrism. There are radical risks of pure human centrism or pure ecological centrism, and these two theories struggle to serve as a value basis for environmental crime legislation. Although eco-anthropocentrism seems to be comprehensive, it is actually ambiguous, and it is still difficult to deal with the conflict between people and nature. In recent years, China has continuously emphasized the construction of ecological civilization construction and written this into the constitution. Therefore, in the environmental philosophy issues of environmental crimes in China, we should consider absorbing the advantages of anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, and eco-anthropocentrism, while taking the original Chinese ecological civilization philosophy as the value foundation.

Keywords: anthropocentrism; ecocentrism; ecological civilization; environmental crime; environmental philosophy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Civilization*
  • Crime
  • Humans
  • Philosophy*

Grants and funding

This research is funded by the National Social Science Fund of China named “Research on the Interests Measurement of Vulnerable Groups in Judicial Practice under the Perspective of Reverse Discrimination” [Grant No. 22BFX115].