Solar ethics: A new paradigm for environmental ethics and education?

Abstract

This article provides grounds for a new paradigm of environmental ethics and education based on the centrality of the sun and solar system - a shift from anthropocentrism to solar systemism. The article provides some grounds for this shift from the physical sciences that considers the planet Earth as part of a wider system that is dependent upon the star at its center. The article reviews the critcisms of anthropocentrism in the literature on environmental ethics and advances a set of cosmological arguments for considering the term 'environment' to include 'beyond Earth'. Solar ethics is a frame that will help to re-position humans within nature and lead to a more sustainable world view.