Martin Balluch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Balluch (2019)
Balluch at a lecture in Heidelberg (2008)

Martin Balluch (born October 12, 1964 in Vienna ) is an Austrian animal ethicist and animal rights activist with a scientific background who, as chairman of the Association against Animal Factories, campaigns for animal protection and animal rights. In addition, he ran in the 2019 National Council election as an independent top candidate for Jetzt - Liste Pilz in Lower Austria.

Scientific career

Martin Balluch studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Vienna . He then obtained his doctorate in physics at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in 1989. From 1990 to 1997 he worked as a university assistant alongside Stephen Hawking in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at Cambridge University . The second doctorate in philosophy took place in 2005 in the field of animal ethics .

Between 1986 and 1997 Balluch published 14 papers in the fields of physics and astronomy.

Commitment to animal welfare

Martin Balluch started his animal rights commitment in 1985 while studying in Vienna, where he organized panel discussions on animal experiments. He then continued his involvement in the active animal welfare scene in Cambridge. He has been vegan since 1989 . In 1997 he returned to Vienna to coordinate the campaigns of the Verein gegen Tierfabriken (VGT). In 1999 he was one of the co-founders of the Vegan Society of Austria. Since 2002 he has been the chairman of the VGT. Balluch was involved in long-term campaigns by the VGT. Martin Balluch works as an animal welfare teacher at secondary schools. He gives international lectures on the topics of animal ethics and activism, takes part in panel discussions and was nominated by the Greens as an independent candidate for the 2008 National Council elections. In addition to guest contributions in other media, he regularly writes as editor-in-chief of the VGT Tierschutz magazine and moderates the weekly animal rights radio on Radio Orange .

In 2007 Balluch drew attention to himself with unusual legal proceedings: by applying for guardianship for the chimpanzee "Hiasl", he wanted to have a monkey declared a legal person. In the event of success, animals would have - depending on their degree of relationship to humans - certain subjective and political rights such as As social assistance, health insurance, legal aid , etc., inheritance and property rights. can claim. Since the lawsuits fundamentally called into question the special legal situation of humans and property law for animals, the international media coverage was enormous. The district court in the first instance rejected the lawsuit. Balluch's appeal was dismissed by the regional court on the grounds that the person concerned was neither mentally handicapped nor mentally ill, and that there was no imminent danger, so there was no factual requirement for guardianship. The Supreme Court also rejected the extraordinary appeal on appeal due to the applicant's lack of legal remedies. The case now lies with the European Court of Human Rights . Due to the “judicial restraint”, it is not intended that a court should extend rights against the intention of the legislature.

The philosopher Peter Singer sees Balluch as "one of the leading spokesmen for the worldwide animal rights movement for a non-violent, democratic path to reform."

On May 21, 2008, Martin Balluch was taken into custody for over three months as one of ten activists from various organizations in the course of the so-called " Tierschutzcausa " on charges of forming a criminal organization under the pseudonym Animal Liberation Front . The arrest led to massive protests around the world. Together with 12 other animal rights activists, he stood on trial at the regional court in Wiener Neustadt from March 2, 2010 to May 2, 2011. The peculiarity of the proceedings was that Martin Balluch and some other defendants were not accused of any specific criminal offenses, but merely of indirectly promoting and supporting unknown offenders through legal animal welfare work. An undercover agent, who was denied by the authorities until the defense could prove her existence, stated in court in December 2010 that she had not found any trace of criminal activity in her 16-month activity at the VGT. With the verdict of May 2, 2011, all 13 defendants were acquitted of all allegations on all points. Because the costs resulting from this procedure ruined him financially, he brought an action for damages against the Republic of Austria. This was rejected on the grounds that the limitation period had already been exceeded, since the court set the period from his arrest. He was able to appeal this judgment through donations that were collected through his own solidarity account. On September 16, 2014, Martin Balluch published excerpts from his letter of appeal in his blog, in which he stated, among other things, that it would violate human rights if it were necessary to initiate related civil proceedings during ongoing criminal proceedings because it would make it impossible to exercise one's right to remain silent. Martin Balluch wrote the book about his experiences in connection with this criminal case: Tierschützer. Enemy of the State - In the clutches of the police and the judiciary. written.

Positions

Spanish demonstrators protest against the imprisonment of Martin Balluch and the other activists

Balluch takes a scientific and deontological approach to animal rights. He argues based on the ethical paradigms of universality , freedom from dogmas , contextual relevance of the justification of demands and consistency . If basic rights are demanded for an individual because of certain characteristics, then the same rights must be demanded for all individuals with the same conditions. He sees the prerequisite for basic rights (life, freedom and integrity) in awareness , as this presupposes the ability to pursue personal interests. Because fundamental rights are necessary for the realization of interests in general, it is at least the implicit interest of all conscious beings to have fundamental rights. He sees the fact that some animals have interests confirmed by modern behavioral research. He attributes the fact that consciousness cannot be artificially simulated by powerful computers, for example, to Godel's incompleteness . A similar argument was made and criticized by Lucas for human rights in the 1960s .

Balluch criticizes preference utilitarian approaches with regard to their use to establish basic rights. Preferences are always subjective, because they can only be determined in relation to a system of preferences. An objective determination of an evaluation of an action is not possible due to the lack of an objective system of preferences.

Martin Balluch has been writing an article on his blog twice a week on average since February 2010, in which he not only discusses current events in his animal welfare work, but where he often also expresses his thoughts on nature and environmental protection. He usually depicts this in the context of his hikes through the most untouched landscapes possible, which he undertakes with his dog friend Habakuk (short: Kuksi). The experiences with this dog in particular often give him an opportunity to carry out ethical considerations about his vision of a multi-species society. In 2014 he published his own book The Dog and His Philosopher - Plea for Autonomy and Animal Rights in which he combines such descriptions into a single work. This book can therefore also be used as a more accessible presentation of his arguments from his doctoral thesis on Philosophy The Continuity of Consciousness. The scientific argument for animal rights. be understood.

method

With regard to the question, which is much discussed in animal rights circles, to what extent pragmatic concessions should be made to allegedly speciesist attitudes in society, Balluch strives for pragmatic approaches for gradual improvements. Scientific and philosophical arguments are necessary for the movement, but on the other hand they are often too difficult to understand for people outside the animal rights movement. A distinction should be made between internal specialist discourses and external statements. Communication suitable for the public should present animal suffering as a problem and show ways out of it that seem realistically achievable. Ethical arguments that are still beyond the social consensus would only cause alienation in conversations with people beyond the animal rights movement. This would lead to a prejudice against people advocating animal ethics and thus hinder any further development in the interests of animals.

He argues that improvements in animal welfare are not only much easier to achieve than understanding the arguments of animal rights activists, but that public awareness of the problem grows along with animal welfare regulations. A society in which animal products are not the most convenient norm, but rather hardly available goods, is a prerequisite for meaningful discussions about basic vegan attitudes.

criticism

Animal rights abolitionists like Lee Hall or Gary L. Francione , on the other hand, criticize the fact that animal welfare is contrary to animal rights . Animal welfare demands would confirm the keeping of livestock because they only criticize bad conditions, but would accept the use itself as a given. Protective provisions for current problems could not bring about a sustainable improvement in ethical principles. Abolitionists further argue that animal welfare laws would even encourage animal use. Minimal concessions by those responsible to the needs of the animals concerned would replace a serious commitment to animal rights and veganism , since with the elimination of the most frightening conditions in intensive animal husbandry there would no longer be any obvious need for changes.

Political career

Martin Balluch ran for the National Council elections in 2008 as an independent candidate on the federal list of the Greens . Although he was in a lower position on the list that had no realistic chance of actually taking up a position, Balluch's line-up was a daring political statement by the Greens. At that time Balluch was namely as Erstangeklagtem in Wiener Neustadt animal rights trial accused of being a member of a criminal organization for animal welfare. His innocence on all counts was not judged until years later.

Eleven years later, Balluch ran again as an independent candidate in the 2019 National Council elections . This time as first place in Lower Austria for NOW - Pilz list . This would mean that he would have entered parliament if the party had won the election. In his preferential voting campaign, he focused on the issues of animal welfare and climate protection. But the list NOW could not overcome the four percent hurdle for entry into parliament. Martin Balluch did not take up any function in the National Council. In an interview on the occasion of the outcome of the National Council election, he was appalled by the election success of the ÖVP, which, in his opinion, stands in the way of animal welfare efforts.

Honors - awards

  • 2012 Prix ​​Mychkine / category “Work in progress” for his commitment in the field of animal ethics and animal rights

Publications

  • In the Underground - An animal rights novel based on real events . Promedia, Vienna 2018. ISBN 978-3-85371-445-4
  • The Dog and his Philosopher - A Call for Autonomy and Animal Rights . Books on Demand, Vienna 2017. ISBN 978-3-7448-9642-9
  • The dog and its philosopher - plea for autonomy and animal rights . Promedia, Vienna 2014. ISBN 978-3-85371-377-8
  • Animal rights activists. Enemy of the State - In the clutches of the police and the judiciary . Promedia, Vienna 2011. ISBN 978-3-85371-331-0
  • Resistance in Democracy - Civil Disobedience and Confrontational Campaigns . Promedia, Vienna 2009. ISBN 978-3-85371-304-4 .
  • The continuity of consciousness. The scientific argument for animal rights . Guthmann-Peterson, Vienna 2005. ISBN 3-900782-48-2 . (Submitted as a doctoral thesis in philosophy.)
  • Martin Balluch: Animals have a right to life . In: ALTEX . 23, No. 4, 2006, ISSN  1868-596X , pp. 281-293.
  • Martin Balluch, Eberhart Theuer: Trial on personhood for chimp "Hiasl" . In: ALTEX . 24, No. 4, 2007, ISSN  1868-596X , pp. 335-342.
  • Quantification of lower stratospheric mixing processes using aircraft data . Balluch, M., and Haynes, PH: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, accepted, 1997.
  • Refraction and Atmospheric Photochemistry . Balluch, M., and Lary, DJ: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, accepted, 1997.
  • A new numerical model to compute photolysis rates and solar heating with anisotropic scattering in spherical geometry . Annales Geophysicae, 14, 80-97, 1996.
  • Adaptive Numerical Advection. The co-ordinate transformation method . In Comp. Phys. Comm., Thematical Issue on Numerical Methods in Astrophysical Hydrodynamics, ed. WJ Duschl and WM Tscharnuter, 89, no. 1-3, 91-117, 1995.
  • Reply to the comments on 'solar heating rates: the importance of spherical geometry' . Balluch, M., and Lary, DJ: J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 3-15, 1994.
  • Solar heating rates: the importance of spherical geometry . Lary, DJ, and Balluch: M., J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 3983-3993, 1993.
  • Stability of protostellar accretion currents . Doctoral thesis in physics, Heidelberg University, 1989.
  • Solar heating after a volcanic eruption: the importance of SO2 absorption . Lary, DJ, Balluch, M., and Bekki, S .: QJ Roy. Meteorol. Soc. , 120, 1683-1688,1994.
  • Protostellar evolution. I. The behavior of the Eddington factor and the accretion shock . Astronomy and Astrophysics, 200, 58-74, 1988.
  • Energy transport by radiation in protostellar shells . Diploma thesis in astronomy, University of Vienna, Austria, 1987.
  • Numerical solution of a differential equation of the first order with the method of characteristics using the example of the radiative transport equation . Diploma thesis in mathematics, University of Vienna, Austria, 1986.

Private life

Martin Balluch was born the third child of four brothers. In his free time he spends a lot of time hiking in the mountains. He has been vegan since 1989 and lives with his daughter, who was born in 2018, and his dog friend Kuksi in a forest hut in the mountains of Upper Styria.

Web links

Commons : Martin Balluch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Balluch, Martin. Published work , Curriculum vitae , Cambridge 1997.
  2. ↑ VGT success list . VGT website. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  3. ↑ Presentation of the VGT team . VGT website. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  4. ^ Animal Liberation Workshops ( Memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) of the VGT
  5. ↑ Animal Rights Congress
  6. ↑ Kleine Zeitung Animal rights activist in custody on the Green List ( memento from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) from August 29, 2008
  7. ↑ Radio Orange series: Tierrechtsradio since 2002, every Friday from 11:00 a.m.
  8. ↑ http://diepresse.com/home/panorama/oesterreich/355552/Kein-Sachwalter-fuer-Schimpanse-Hiasl Die Presse from January 15, 2008
  9. ^ Singer, Peter: Of great apes and men In: The Guardian, July 18, 2008.
  10. ↑ Martin Balluch's blog entry on his appeal against the rejected claim for damages
  11. ↑ Lucas: Minds, Machines and Gödel Philosophy , XXXVI, 1961
    Here a literature list for criticizing the argument is kept.
  12. ↑ Balluch, Martin: Right to Autonomy Instead of Duty to Minimize Suffering - Criticism of Consequentialism and Pathocentrism ( Memento of August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Essay, March 15, 2007
  13. ↑ Balluch, Martin. Abolitionism versus Reformism VGT March 2008
  14. ^ Hall, Lee. More industry reform ... or the vegan paradigm? - Lee Hall * responds to Martin Balluch ( memento from June 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , abolitionist-online , May 2008.
    Francione, Gary L. A "Very New Approach" or Just More New Welfarism? , The Abolutionist Approach (blog), April 9, 2008.
  15. ↑ Independent candidacy with the Greens. Retrieved April 7, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Petra Tempfer: "Peter Pilz picked me up from prison". Retrieved April 7, 2020 .
  17. ↑ noe.ORF.at: Balluch: "If you want animal protection, you have to choose me". September 13, 2019, accessed April 7, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Martin Balluch: "I'm horrified!" September 29, 2019, accessed April 7, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Balluch, Martin. Personal blog , blood test after 30 years vegan! , Vienna November 18, 2019.
  20. ↑ Balluch, Martin. Personal blog , article about Kuksi , Vienna 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Balluch, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian animal rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria