Witti-Buch2 2001.qxd - Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

Environmental Holistic Ethics: Leopold and Callicot
continue staying near human houses, expecting to be fed, and they would starve and -
most probably - die out in winter. Therefore, from the point of view of holistic ethic, it is
most reasonable to take care of domesticated animals /as in fact man has done for
thousands of years!/ and let wild animals live their own life, with as little human
interference as possible under given circumstances.
Holistic ethic does not agree with the /neo/utilitarian theory according to which life is
the better the less suffering appears within its course /Callicot, 32-3/. From the point of
view of such ethic the conviction that every suffering /pain/ is bad is unreasonable,
because pain is unseparable from life as such, it simply serves as an indication of a
condition in which a given organism is. It should also not be forgotten that nature is so
constructed that some organisms live at the expense of other organisms. Only plants are
able to assimilate solar energy, therefore herbivorous animals eat plants and
carnivorous animals eat herbivorous ones in order to get energy for living. Writes
Callicot: "To live...is to feel pain and pleasure in a fitting mixture, and sooner or later to
die. That is the way the system works"./33/ He stresses the fact that everyone who
would like to disturb the natural order of nature in such ways as to maximize pleasure
and minimize pain would lead to catastrophic changes in the world, thus threatening the
existence of all beings, human beings including. The best the contemporary man can do
is to accept the biological limitations imposed by nature and learn himself to live in
harmony with her, aiming at achieving a healthy human individual, healthy society, and
all this immersed in healthy environment. The adherents of holistic ethic do not accept
commercial traffic in wildlife, zoos, etc. But very reasonably so they allow deer or wolves
culling, especially when the amount of animals increases and upsets the ecological
equilibrium.
Conclusions
When one compares the so far existing Western ethics with the holistic ethic, formulated
by Leopold and developed by Callicot, one notices immediately that such ethic shifts
emphasis: firstly - from parts /individuals/ to wholes /communities/; secondly - from
human beings /anthropocentrism/ to nature /ecocentrism, biocentrism/. Such ethic has
certainly both advantages and disadvantages. In view of what has been presented so
far, I think, it is certainly reasonable to take care of endangered species and quite
unreasonable not to do so. It is rational to assume that man does not know all the
intricaties of the web of life and is unable to foresee what effects the dissapearance of a
given species could have upon the biosphere, of which he is a part. It is a good thing to
pay greater attention to biotopic communities, than the traditional ethics do, but it does
not mean that one can neglect individuals. According to me, one of the greatest
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