CAPITALIST ENVIRONMENTAL EXPLOITATION AND BIOCENTRIC SPIRITUALITY: COUNTERPOINTS

Abstract

The capitalist model based on the relationship between production and consumption contributes to accentuating the global ecological crisis. As a result, there is a growing need to generate moral principles that support the preservation of the environment. Biocentric ethics and spirituality are principles that represent a counterpoint to the anthropocentric model created by capitalism. This article discusses how the biocentric conception relates to a form of religiosity capable of helping to minimize the harmful effects of the hegemonic economic system that exploits nature's resources on a large scale. Against the unbridled use of the environment, it is necessary to emerge conceptions that project a harmonious relationship between humans and ecosystems, overcoming the logic of the objectification of environmental resources. This documentary research was based on a collection of bibliographic data whose central elements are found in the works of Leonardo Boff. The author points to a model of spirituality capable of promoting in humans a sense of preservation of all forms of life, as opposed to the model of exploitation of nature projected by capitalism.