anthropiques

Anthropiques is the plural form of the French adjective anthropique, which denotes relations to humans or to human activity. The root comes from the Greek anthropos, meaning human, with the usual adjectival suffix -ique. Anthropique is used to qualify phenomena, processes, or concepts that are influenced by humans, and the plural anthropiques agrees with a plural noun (par exemple, facteurs anthropiques, effets anthropiques).

In the sciences of the environment and geography, the term is widespread. The expression facteurs anthropiques groups human actions such as urbanization, deforestation, agriculture, and industrial emissions that alter ecosystems, climate, soils, and landscapes. The phrase changements climatiques d'origine anthropique is commonly used to distinguish human-caused change from natural variability. Geographie anthropique refers to the study of the spatial distribution of human activities and their interactions with the environment.

Anthropique also appears in social sciences and philosophy. In sociology or anthropology, it highlights the human dimension of social structures, cultures, and practices. In philosophy and cosmology, the related noun phrase principe anthropique, or principes anthropiques, addresses questions about the conditions necessary for the existence of observers, life, or consciousness in the universe. In everyday scientific writing, distinctions are sometimes made between anthropique and anthropogène, the latter emphasizing origin or causation by humans.

Overall, anthropique and its plural form anthropiques function as broad, technical descriptors used across disciplines to mark human influence or characteristics, as opposed to natural or non-human factors.