Gandhi

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"Call me a Gandhist by all means. Gandhi is one of the people who has influenced me the most," writes Norway's leading philosopher, Arne Næss, in this book. Arne Næss has worked with Mahatma Gandhi's ideas since he was eighteen - in other words, for more than seventy years.The book contains a short biography of Gandhi's fascinating life history, but Næss's main emphasis is on Gandhi's ideas. "What can we learn from Gandhi today?" asks the author. His reply: that we must try harder to understand other people. If we communicate well, it is more difficult to dismiss others' way of life as incomprehensible or inferior. If we see them in a more open and generous life, there will always be something we can learn from them. Better communication with our fellow human beings in the most important prerequisite for solving problems large or small. Nowadays, most conflicts are actually resolved non-violently, whether in private life or in the economic sphere. Arne Næss demonstrates this and uses it to show how Gandhi is a thinker for our time, for the individual and for the communities we belong to. The book also provides an outline of Gandhi's political ethics, and places him in context with other thinkers like Luther, Hobbes, Nietzsche and Tolstoy. This is a fascinating presentation of one of the most central philosophers of our time.