Albert Schweitzer’s “Reverence For Life”: A Biocentric Framework for Environmental Sustainability

In the wake of the current environmental crisis and its effect on life, there is a need for ideologies that can foster a reorientation that will possibly give the care for life and environment an obligatory status. One of such ideologies that seek to wake the consciousness of humans to this plight is Albert Schweitzer’s “reverence for life.” Schweitzer developed the groundwork for an environmental ethics encompassing several interloping themes such as the intrinsic value of all life, the unity of life, individual responsibility, and contextual moral decision-making. Schweitzer considers all life (human and non-human) to be equal and should not be destroyed. He further inferred that since the environment is the natural home for all life, it ought to be cared for so that it can fulfill its function of playing a good host to all life forms. Thus, he encourages a holistic interdependence between all life and nature. In spite of the several urgent sensitizations regarding environmental issues in recent times, we still witness severe challenges in these areas due to ignorance, greed, and selfishness. This is why Schweitzer’s theory becomes unique in its ability to draw our attention to how much we can either harm or do ourselves good, to the degree that will either manage or mismanage the environment. While his inability to satisfactorily justify the equality of all life forms makes his theory run into difficult challenges, this paper seeks to evince the relevance of Schweitzer’s reverence for life towards environmental sustainability.