Arne Næss

Arne Dekke Eide Næss
Era	20th Century
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Deep Ecology

Arne Dekke Eide Næss (January 27, 1912 - January 12, 2009) 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 a success.

In 1958, Arne Næss founded the interdiciplinary journal of philosophy Inquiry.

Næss has been a minor political candidate for the Norwegian Green Party.

Næss is 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 has played in important role in Næss' life.

Philosophy

Arne Næss' main philosophical work from the fifties was entitled "Interpretation and Preciseness". This was an application of set theory to the problems of language interpretation, extending the work of such logicians as Leonhard Euler, and 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.

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").

Philosophy of science

In the doctoral thesis "Erkenntnis und wissenschaftliches Verhalten" Næss gives a theoretical reasoning for the basic positivist idea that there exists only one understanding form of reality, the scientific, and that there is one form of science, the natural sciences. All form for understanding - traditional philosophy, religion - submits as "meta physics". In later writings, for example "Notes on the Foundation of Psychology as a Science" (1948), Næss goes into this position.

Since the 1960s he has been more attracted to the problematic sides of the positivist program about unified science and in "Pluralist and Possibiltist Aspect of the Scientific Enterprise" (1972) positivism is replaced with pluralism. The banner is no longer unified science, but "plurality of theory". At any time, and should, there be a numbers of competing and individually ununitable scientific theories, where any can be said to be compatible with "reality". While Næss previously perceived the "objective", positivist science as an important tool against the spread of totalitarian politic, which thought with the blood, this science has now become the ruling ideology.

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 criticism.
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 ("Examen philosophicum" and "Examen facultatum").

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 his 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.

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

• Downloadable interview with Dr. Alan Drengson about Deep Ecology and Arne Næss. June 6, 2008.
• The Trumpeter collected works on Arne Næss (2005) 2006 archive of the dead link
• "Ecosophy from T to X" - article about Arne's philosophy, by Jim Cocola, in n+1 magazine, April 2006.
• The Trumpeter Volume 9.2 (1992)
• Arne Næss: A Biographical Sketch, by Warwick Fox.
• Arne Naess - Ecophilosophy and Ecology Page from the University of Oslo. Contains basic information about Arne Næss and his publications from 1936-2005.
• Jens Bjørneboe: How Arne Næss and I conquered NATO
• Photos of Næss' arrest at Mardalsfossen (in Norwegian)
• Inquiry An Interdiciplinary Journal of Philosophy founded by Arne Næss
• http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/cross.html Crossing the Stones: A Portrait of Arne Naess
• The Call of the Mountain Documentary film on Arne Naess and the Deep Ecology Movement.
• The Call of the Mountain Excerpts of the film on YouTube.