for all in the family (Mitakuye Oyasin)

It almost seems that all efforts to eliminate the subjective and/or normative elements from science and thus from “enlightened” decision-making were ultimately in vain. If we are all simultaneously both individuals and parts of individual systems whose mode of operation, boundaries and purpose hardly any of us can fully understand with our intellects, then this means that:

  1. No impartial analysis can spare us either as individuals or as a society from the decision on how much resources we will claim for ourselves as individuals and for our society, and how we justify that decision.
  2. From a purely formal perspective, the claims of all individuals against the system must initially be viewed as equivalent. Albert Schweitzer called this “life in the midst of life” in relation to the biosphere, for example. Martin Buber saw it as “I in Thou” and Arne Naess used the term “idenTity” in his texts on deep ecology.

The fundamental equality of the individual and systemic perspectives requires an analysis and a decision-making mechanism that can allow a wide range of consideration processes while simultaneously demonstrating the criteria for decision-making in a transparent manner.