Among us unfeared Zweibeinerngelten, over-manned birds as a bad role model, and this for 2,000 years. So Pliny Elder already amused himself in natural history about "silliness" DerStraußenvögel, which consists in "that y are already concealed in such a high growth of rest of body, if y have only ir neck in Gebüschversteckt".

This prejudice continues to this day: those who act as ostrich-bouquet-principles, operate bird-ostrich-politics or Garversucht to solve a computer problem by a bird-ostrich-algorithm, is suspected of not wanting to see truth in eye. He sticks his proverbial head into sand and hopes that problem of political, or computer deadlock, will be resolved by KonsequentesIgnorieren in good pleasure. It is a behavior that nurkleine children or stupid, flightless birds. Or?

The sensory organs with Savannah sand clogged

On closer examination, ostriches – as well as people acting according to ir example – 's in best philosophical society. They proceed according to DenGrundsätzen of radical sensualism, as ir most famous representative is DerPhilosoph and ologian George Berkeley. In his 1710 ErschienenenHauptwerk ATreatise concerning principles of human knowledge, later Bischofvon Cloyne argued against strong materialism of his time, "that re is keineandere substance as mind or what perceives": What Not seen , heard, tasted, smelled or felt, existiertdemzufolge not. Everything we know about material world owes wirunseren sense impressions – Conversely, sensual perception of arrangements. Esse Estpercipi, is Dieberühmte formula to which Irish scholar brought this thought: his istWahrgenommen.

The illustration of Andreas Potter is taken from Florian Werner's book "The Wisdom of Guillemot". (copyright) Andreas Potter

With regard to concrete acceptable beings, such a radical-sensualistische attitude may seem strange to outside: Derviel summoned tree in forest is almost certainly re even if no stroller is nearby to look at it. And HungrigeLeopard does not simply dissolve into air, just because attackierteStrauß of it is clogging its sensory organs with Savannah sand. With regard to Abstraktadürfte, bird-ostrich principle, on or hand, is a good way to make it disappear. Emotional states such as xenophobia, Angstoder mistrust, for example, owe ir existence exclusively to fact that Sieempfunden are: y have no autonomous existence beyond einesBewusstseins that registers m. And: They are, like a undomesticated cat, dependent on immerneue sensory nourishment; On images of terror, violence and danger, to steady buzzing of social networks and menacing noise desBlätterwalds. Feelings, especially such negative kind, want to be fed. Anyone who puts m on a diet from time to time can at least keep m slender.

A zoomed Fata Morgana

In or words: In view of Massean reports of crises, attacks and catastrophes that make our TV screens UndTouchscreens to glow like sun's desert sand, such a – let's call it Latin name for genus of ostriches: struthionisches – Behave only sensible. Just briefly sink your head in cooler layers of nießen, close your eyes, clog your ears and soothing darkness and style. Then, very slowly and cautiously again from sinking auftauchenund check wher images of approaching endangering actually were predators of flesh and blood – or rar a mirage magnified by DasFlimmern of screens. Acting according to DemVogel-Strauss principle does not mean ignoring outside world. It just means that you occasionally close doors of consciousness to keep your head cool.

PS: The bad news: ostrich birds do not even put ir heads in sand – on contrary, if consult feel threatened, y run away with seventy kilometers or teilenmit ir clawed feet such powerful kicks that even leopards Pull tail. If ostriches stretch ir miniature skull in RichtungBoden, n eir to sort with beak of ir clutch or, quite profanely, to eat. The impression that you are sinking your head in Savannah floor is an optical illusion.

PPS: The good news: if Manden sentence of Bishop Berkeley takes seriously, that every esse owes itself to a percipi, so every truth is dasResultat of a perception – n re is talk of bird-ostrich-Prinzipdoch. When people have been observing se animals for millennia, like boiling ir heads in sand, y are doing so too.

TheText is an excerpt from book "The Wisdom of Guillemot. What we can learn from animals "VonFlorian Werner, with numerous illustrations by Andreas Potter, ca. 200Seiten, will be published on 12 March 2018 at Blessing Verlag, 18 euro

Date Of Update: 08 March 2018, 12:03