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14
NONVIOLENCE
uel Kant pointed out, the worid is an arena, on which nature has provided every thing necessary for our temporal welfare; and we are nature's guests. We all have an equal right to the good things, which nature has provided. God has left man to share out the good things of Nature. Therefore, every one of us in enjoying the good things of life, must have regard to the happiness of others; others have no equal right and ought not to be deprived of it. Recognising, therefore, that providence is universal, man is placed under an obigation to restrict his own consumption and to bear in mind that nature's presentations are made for all of us. This is the course of the obligation to the beneficience of nature.”
Kant maintains that the very character of nature places us under obligation to share nature's beneficience equitably. When this is done, there is no violence among men. Violence occurs when there is no such sharing, and so violence on man's part is contraary to nature. Nature is a gift. The natural world is not something we have created. We did not bring it about. We are simply born into it. We find nature presented to us. Since nature is a pre-existent given, we can have only duties towards her for we can have no prerogatives over anything which is prior to us and not created by us. We stand in a relation of custodianship to Nature.
One characteristic of nature is its goodness. That goodness demands of us, as its custodians, that each one of us should limit his consumption to the extent of his needs; that every one should have equal access to nature to satisfy his needs, and that violence not
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