The Anthropocentrism of Anti-realism

The purpose of my paper is to discuss the

issue of metaphysical anti-realism and its

‘anthropocentrism’, that is, the view according to

which the species Homo sapiens is endowed with ontological

pre-eminence over reality. The standard

theory proposed by anti-realism suggests that one or

more classes of objects depend on humans. This theory

is contested by the fact – properly analyzed by

Jacob von Uexküll (von Uexküll 1985) – that other

animals perceive the same objects as we do and get

acquainted with them. The idea underlying antirealism

is that our way of perceiving reality is not

only the best one, but also the only way possible.

This incorrect belief is contested by modern science

which shows how animals play the same role as humans

in shaping the world (Darwin 1881), and furthermore,

it represents a dangerous ethical drift that

has to be firmly rejected, as I am going to affirm in

the paper to follow.