Self-Realization in Mixed Communities of Human Beings , Bears , Sheep , and Wolves

PHOTO ABOVE: JØRN MOEN T his paper assumes as a general abstract norm that the specific potentialities of living beings should be fulfilled. No being has a priority in principle in the realization of its possibilities, but norms of increasing diversity or richness of potentialities put limits on the development of destructive lifestyles. Application is made to the mixed Norwegian communities of certain mammals and human beings. A kind of modus vivendi is established that is firmly based on cultural tradition. It is fairly unimportant whether the term rights (of animals) is or is not used in the fight for human peaceful coexistence with a rich fauna. In recent years academic philosophers have paid increasing attention to the relations between human beings and other living creatures. One of the reasons for this is a tragic paradox. In the industrialized states the average material standard of living (measured conventionally) has reached a fabulously high level, the highest in the history of humankind. At the same time the number of animals, especially mammals, subjected to suffering and a severely restricted lifestyle in the richest countries has increased exponentially. Never have so many highly sensitive beings been cruelly treated for such flimsy reasons. The fact that the main effort against this trend has been organized by professionals engaged in lessening the economic crisis in Scandinavia has rendered it even more difficult than usual to make an impact on the political level. It is to be Self-Realization in Mixed Communities of Human Beings, Bears, Sheep, and Wolves BY ARNE NAESS