Arne Næss

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For the Norwegian politician, see Arne Næss (politician). For the Norwegian actor and director, see Arne Lindtner Næss.
Arne Dekke Eide Næss
Arnenass28aug2003.jpg
Born (1912-01-27)27 January 1912
Slemdal, Oslo, Norway[1][2]
Died 12 January 2009(2009-01-12) (aged 96)
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Deep Ecology
Main interests Environmental ethics
Philosophy of science
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2009)

Arne Dekke Eide Næss (English pronunciation: /ˈɑrnə ˈnæs/; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term Deep Ecology and was an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the Environmental movement of the late twentieth century.[6]

Næss averred that while western environmental groups of the early post-war period had raised public awareness of the environmental issues of the time they had largely failed to have insight into and address the underlying cultural and philosophical background to these problems. Naess believed that the environmental crisis of the twentieth century had arisen due to certain unspoken philosophical presuppositions and attitudes within modern western developed societies which remained unaddressed. He thereby distinguished between what he called deep and shallow ecological thinking. In contrast to the prevailing utilitarian pragmatism of western businesses and governments he advocated that a true understanding of nature would give rise to a point of view that appreciates the value of biological diversity understanding that each living thing is dependent on the existence of other creatures in the complex web of interrelationships that is the natural world.[7]

Næss cited Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring as being a key influence in his vision of deep ecology. Næss combined his ecological vision with Gandhian nonviolence and on several occasions participated 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 and the dam was eventually built, the demonstration launched a more activist phase of Norwegian environmentalism.[8] In 1958, Arne Næss founded the interdisciplinary journal of philosophy Inquiry.[9]

Næss had been a minor political candidate for the Norwegian Green Party[10] and in 1939 he was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo and the only professor of philosophy in the country at the time.[11]

Næss was a noted mountaineer, who in 1950 led the expedition that made the first ascent of Tirich Mir (7,708 m). The Tvergastein hut in the Hallingskarvet massif played an important role in Ecosophy T, as "T" is said to represent his mountain hut Tvergastein.[12]

In 1996, he won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, known as the 'little Nobel'. In 2005 he was decorated as a Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for socially useful work.

Contents

Philosophy[edit]

Arne Næss' main philosophical work from the 1950s was entitled "Interpretation and Preciseness". This was an application of set theory to the problems of language interpretation, extending the work of semanticists such as Charles Kay Ogden in The Meaning of Meaning. A simple way of explaining it is that any given utterance (word, phrase, or sentence) can be considered as having different potential interpretations, depending on prevailing language norms, the characteristics of particular persons or groups of users, and the language situation in which the utterance occurred. These differing interpretations are to be formulated in more precise language represented as subsets of the original utterance. Each subset can, in its turn, have further subsets (theoretically ad infinitum). 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.[13]

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").[14]

Recommendations for public debate[edit]

Communication and Argument included his recommendations for objective public debate. Næss argued for adhering to the following rules to make discussions as fruitful and pleasant as possible:

  1. Avoid tendentious irrelevance
    Examples: Personal attacks, claims of opponents' motivation, explaining reasons for an argument.
  2. Avoid tendentious quoting
    Quotes should not be edited regarding the subject of the debate.
  3. Avoid tendentious ambiguity
    Ambiguity can be exploited to support criticism.
  4. Avoid tendentious use of straw men
    Assigning views to the opponent that he or she does not hold.
  5. Avoid tendentious statements of fact
    Information put forward should never be untrue or incomplete, and one should not withhold relevant information.
  6. Avoid tendentious tone of presentation
    Examples: irony, sarcasm, pejoratives, exaggeration, subtle (or open) threats.[15]

For many years these points were part of two compulsory courses in philosophy taught in Norwegian universities ("Examen philosophicum" and "Examen facultatum").

Controversially, Næss has also suggested that the earth's human population should be reduced to about 100 million.[16]

Ecosophy T[edit]

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 his own philosophy.[17]

Although a very rich and complex philosophy, Næss's 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.[18] 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 Næss means that, if one does not know how the outcomes of one's actions will affect other beings, one should not act,[19] similar to the liberal harm principle.

Family[edit]

Næss' father, Ragnar Naess, was a successful banker and Næss was the younger brother of shipowner Erling Dekke Næss.[20] Næss himself was a married father of two and was the uncle of mountaineer and businessman Arne Næss Jr. (1937–2004), who was once married to Diana Ross.[21]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Schwarz, Walter (2009-01-15). "Arne Næss". The Guardian (London). 
  2. ^ Grimes, William (2009-01-15). "Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, Dies at 96". The New York Times. 
  3. ^ Naess, Arne. Translated and edited by Rothenberg, David. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. (page 10).
  4. ^ a b http://www.noelgcharlton.info/9DeepEcology.html
  5. ^ A. Næss "Heidegger, Postmodern Theory and Deep Ecology," Trumpeter 14, no. 4 (1997).
  6. ^ Krabbe, Erik C. (2010). "Arne Næss (1912-2009)". Argumentation 24 (4): 527–30. doi:10.1007/s10503-010-9188-1. 
  7. ^ Luke, Timothy W. (Jun 2002). "Deep ecology: Living as if nature mattered". Organization & Environment 15 (2): 178–186. 
  8. ^ J. Seed, J. Macy, P. Flemming, A. Naess, Thinking like a mountain: towards a council of all beings, Heritic Books (1988), ISBN 0-946097-26-7, ISBN 0-86571-133-X
  9. ^ Krabbe, Erik C. (2010). "Arne Næss (1912-2009)". Argumentation 24 (4): 527–530. doi:10.1007/s10503-010-9188-1. 
  10. ^ Statistics Norway (2005). "Storting Election 2005. Official electoral lists, by county". Storting Election 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-07-02. Retrieved 2007-04-17. 
  11. ^ Krabbe, Erik C. (2010). "Arne Næss (1912-2009)". Argumentation 24 (4): 527–530. doi:10.1007/s10503-010-9188-1. 
  12. ^ Arne Naess 1989, Ecology Community and Lifestyle, (trans) David Rothenberg, CUP, Cambridge, p. 4
  13. ^ Eriksson, Darek (2007). "Phenomeno-semantic complexity: A proposal for an alternative notion of complexity as a foundation for the management of complexity in human affairs". Complexity and Organization 9 (1): 11–21. 
  14. ^ Krabbe, Erik C W (2010). "Arne Næss (1912-2009)". Argumentation 24 (4): 528. doi:10.1007/s10503-010-9188-. 
  15. ^ Krabbe, Erik C W (2010). "Arne Næss (1912-2009)". Argumentation 24 (4): 529. doi:10.1007/s10503-010-9188-. 
  16. ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1998). Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism. NY: New York University Press, ISBN 0-8147-3110-4
  17. ^ Murray Bookchin, Graham Purchace, Brian Morris, Rodney Aitchtey, Robert Hart, Chris Wilbert, Deep Ecology and Anarchism, Freedom Press (1993) ISBN 0-900384-67-0.
  18. ^ Næss, Arne (1989). Ecology, community and lifestyle. Cambridge University Press.  pp. 164-65
  19. ^ Luke, Timothy (June 2002). "Deep ecology: Living as if nature mattered". Organization and Environment 15 (2): 178–186. 
  20. ^ Anonymous (Jan 27 2009). "Philosopher and Mountaineer". The Gazette (Montreal, QC). 
  21. ^ Anonymous (Jan 14 2009). "Thinker behind 'deep ecology' dies.". The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, ON). 

Sources[edit]

  • Harold Glasser (ed), ed. (2005). The Selected Works of Arne Naess, Volumes 1-10. Springer. ISBN 1-4020-3727-9.  (review)

External links[edit]

Authority control
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