Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss is dead

Norwegian philosopher, writer and mountaineer Arne Næss, best known for launching the concept of Deep Ecology has died at the age of 96. The deep ecology concept is promoting the idea that Earth as a planet has as much right as its inhabitants, such as humans, to survive and flourish.

His philosophical work focused on Spinoza, Buddhism and Gandhi. He earned a doctorate at the University of Oslo at age 27 and was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo.

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").

I first became aware of Arne Næss during the Mardøla protest in 1970 and through his activity in "Fremtiden i våre hender" and his book "Økologi, samfunn og Livsstil" (1974).

I will recommend his book Life's philosophy: reason and feeling in a deeper world where he in his preface states:

The book (text found her at Google), is based upon his Norwegian version from 1998, the year of my transplantations. This book "Livsfilosofi" meant a lot for me in my recovery process.

Parts of the book is written at his cabin Tverrgastein under Hallingskarvet and I visited this beautiful place (seen uphills behind me) in 2002.