Willingness to listen would be the first step towards coexistence with the others, which is, basically, the main goal. The problem to solve is about how to build this cohabitation when the foundation is the incomplete understanding of the others. And Morizot’s answer – and main proposal – is what he calls the interdependences diplomacy. It is one of the central aspects in the book, and personally, one of modern philosophy proposals that I find most interesting. Along the pages, Morizot spectacularly develops the internal diplomacy through a philosophical journey that rethinks Descartes classical map of the relationship between the body, the logic, and passions; and reinterprets classical oriental morals – that have traditionally used animal metaphors to showcase the “domination of the wild”, such as Plato’s charioteer and horses. Everything comes together to define a new ethic, the mesoethic, in which the diplomatic rapport with oneself should be modifying our inner life through the transformation of the habitat, instead of proper “domination”. It is with this idea as the basis that we could build politics – ethics being more individual values and politics, life as a collective – centered around this diplomacy.

The most effective diplomatic position is, according to the author, the stance in which we feel slightly treacherous to everyone. The example he uses is about wolf’s reintroduction in France, in which we have several actors – pasture, sheep, ecologists, shepherds, wolves, the mountain itself – and none of them should come out as a true champion in this conflict. As a side note, I would have liked him to develop more in depth the idea that we, as humans, are part of some of those groups, and in our aim to be diplomats, we would need to get out of that role and put ourselves at the interaction service, rather than at the actors’ service.

This diplomat or mediator role is actually very well defined and presented, and so it happens with its functions and how it should act. Its main mission is to make decisions that are not guided by each side, but by the greater good for the community of importance. The community of importance is a concept referring to the fragile connections in between living collectives, interdependent among each other, that have one thing in common: they care about the habitability of the environment they inhabit. Interdependences themselves, neglected in our current way of living, would enable much more flourishing, plural, and substantial ways of living if they were properly taken care of.

Morizot, and thus his own book, has a writing style that can only be described as wild. While he goes over memories about his tracking days, he explains his philosophical reflections about our relationship with the living world and introduces his ethical and political proposals. I hope I have made an honest translation, although it will be forcefully incomplete, about his main ideas. To try and reach the totality of the translation – knowing it’s already impossible – you will have to read the book. And to learn how to be diplomats for the living, as well. And maybe, from there, to start acting as such.

Cover image: Wolves. Photo by M L on Unsplash.com.