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Arne Næss

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Arne Dekke Eide Næss (born January 27, 1912) is widely regarded as the foremost Norwegian philosopher of the 20th century, and is the founder of deep ecology. His philosophical work focused on Spinoza, Buddhism and Gandhi. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo. Næss, himself an avid mountaineer, is also known as the uncle of mountaineer and businessman Arne Næss Jr. (1937–2004) and the younger brother of shipowner Erling Dekke Næss.

Næss cited Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring as being a key influence in his vision of deep ecology. Næss also engaged in direct action. In 1970, together with a large number of demonstrators, he chained himself to rocks in front of Mardalsfossen a waterfall in a Norwegian fjord and refused to descend until plans to build a dam were dropped; Though the demonstrators were carried away by police, the demonstration was eventually successful. The above episode is shown in 'Kampen om Mardøla' , which is a Norwegian documentary film from 1972 about the Mardøla demonstration in the summer of 1970. Wednesday, 26 August 1970 5 a.m. The police take action. At the Mardøla Falls, the police ask the demonstrators to be removed with the philosophers Arne Næss and Sigmund Kvaløy in the vanguard. The first tent had been pitched on Sunday, 26 July 1970. Next day, the site workers were met by the plackards stating «Stop excavations until the court case is over» , «Stop: Mardøla must continue to run through Eikesdalen» «Stop: concerns only excavating machines»

Philosophy

The advantages of this conceptualisation of interpretation are various. It enables systematic demonstration of possible interpretation, making possible evaluation of which are the more and less "reasonable interpretations". It is a logical instrument for demonstrating language vagueness, undue generalisation, conflation, pseudo-agreement and effective communication.

Næss developed a simplified, practical textbook embodying these advantages, entitled Communication and Argument, which became a valued introduction to this pragmatics or "language logic", and was used over many decades as a sine qua non for the preparatory examination at the University of Oslo, later known as "Examen Philosophicum" ("Exphil").

Recommendations for public discussion

Communication and Argument included his recommendations for civilized public discussions. Næss argued for abstaining from the following to make discussions as fruitful and pleasant as possible:

  1. Avoiding tendentious irrelevance
    Examples: Personal attacks, claims of opponents' motivation, explaining reasons for an argument.
  2. Avoiding tendentious reciting
    Reproductions should be neutral regarding the subject of the debate.
  3. Avoiding tendentious ambiguity
    Ambiguous arguments may be easily adopted to suit criticisim.
  4. Avoiding tendentious use of straw men
    Assigning views to the opponent that he or she does not hold.
  5. Avoiding tendentious original research
    Information put forward should never be untrue or incomplete, and one should not withhold any relevant information.
  6. Avoiding tendentious tone of voice
    Examples: irony, sarcasm, pejoratives, exaggeration, subtle (or open) threats.

For many years these points were part of the two compulsory courses in philosophy taught in Norwegian universities ("Exphil" and "Exfac").

Ecosophy T

Ecosophy T, as distinct from deep ecology, was originally the name of his personal philosophy. Others such as Warwick Fox have interpreted deep ecology as a commitment to ecosophy T, Næss's personal beliefs. The T referred to Tvergastein, a mountain hut where he wrote many of his books, and reflected Næss's view that everyone should develop their own philosophy.

Although a very rich and complex philosophy, Næss' ecosophy can be summed up as having Self-realization as its core. According to Næss, every being, whether human, animal or vegetable has an equal right to live and to blossom. But this is not simple ego- or self-realization; it is the realization of the Self. Through this capitalized Self, Næss emphasizes, in distinction to realization of man’s narrow selves, the realization of our selves as part of an ecospheric whole. It is in this whole that our true ecological Self can be realized. Practically Self-realization for Naess means that, if one does not know how the outcomes of one's actions will affect other beings, one should not act, similar to the liberal harm principle.

References

  1. "Kagge Forlag". Retrieved 2006-04-29.
  2. J. Seed, J. Macy, P. Flemming, A. Naess, Thinking like a mountain: towards a council of all beings, Heritic Books (1988), ISBN 0946097-26-7, ISBN 0-86571-133-X.
  3. Murray Bookchin, Graham Purchace, Brian Morris, Rodney Aitchtey, Robert Hart, Chris Wilbert, Deep Ecology and Anarchism, Freedom Press (1993) ISBN 0-900384-67-0.
  4. Næss, Arne (1989). Ecology, community and lifestyle. Cambridge University Press. pp. 164-165
  5. ibid, p. 168
  6. ibid, pp. 174-175

Further reading

  • Harold Glasser (ed), ed. (2005). The Selected Works of Arne Naess, Volumes 1-10. Springer. ISBN 1-4020-3727-9. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help) (review)

External links

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