Philosophers

Time to tell us what’s next 

For the purpose of this post, we define the philosopher as one who pursues ideas disciplined towards the search of truths. Historically, these truths have been irrelevant in achieving the immediate goals of society, rather they have been significant distractions. No amount of pondering the mind-body problem contributes to a productive irrigation. As much as intellectual pursuits are distraction from solving the problems of sustainability, the problems have now become a distraction from the progress of our species. They are a necessary distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.

Over the next few decades, our species will continue to encounter many such necessary distractions: famine, drought, war, injustice, etc. The philosopher should identify these fundamental concerns as distractions, and determine solution concepts which not only resolve the immediate problems, but also propel the human race forwards.

At the moment, and as I anticipate in the future, what we know will not be much. A belief to the contrary will only cloud our judgement — the illusion of certainty leads to the dismissal of unfamiliar possibilities and stifles the creative faculty. Philosophical discussion, destroys this certainty. By asking questions we face the magnitude of what we do not know and free our thoughts from the shackles of the customary. By humbling ourselves in this manner we shake our confidence and introduce uncomfortable doubts to our mind.

What emerges from this destruction is invaluable: a sense of wonder which creates the ability to see the familiar in a new light. This plants the seed of innovation: the act of creating novelty from the familiar, the introduction of nuance to the mundane, the ability to defy the frontier of conventional possibility. The destructive power of philosophical discussion is not limited to certainty — the search for truth, as Bertrand Russel explains in his essay The Value of Philosophy, dismantles the institution of partiality. When rigorously questioning the nature of reality, one’s preconceptions no longer carry bearing. Our narrow desires, hopes, fears, projects and attitudes tremble and fall before the vastness which occupies our contemplation. This is a dismissal of the most fundamental false dichotomy — that between our local experience and the world as a whole. As before, from this destruction emerges a liberating force. The devaluation of our local experience frees us from small mindedness and enables us to comprehend the problems of society from a detatched perspective.

More concretely, this detachment is the impetus for the creative application of technology. The advent of the digital age has made massive amounts of information available for mathematical analysis, producing insights into nearly every sphere of human existence. From the practice of philosophy (i.e. through rigorous thought), one can apply these insights to building new models of understanding from first principles. From the results of philosophy, we know which models are useful to build — models are designed to answer questions, and philosophical discussion reveals which questions are interesting to answer.

Thus far we have proposed that a philosophical approach is useful to identifying problems and applying the results of the information age to building solutions. From this it would seem that the philosopher is highly useful in resolving the aforementioned distractions.

This begs the question: what is not a distraction? What constitutes “propelling the human race forwards?” My intuition is that given the phenomenal intricacies of the human mind there is a far greater potential for our species than what we have done for the past few millennia: tool building for survival. Given the rate of technological and social progress, I believe the 21st century will eliminate survival as a problem of humanity. But what then? Thus far, all our local experiences are in the pursuit of survival, and everything else (culture, society, industry, etc.) emerges ex-post.

The responsibility of the philosopher is to take the information of the modern age and develop models which solve problems of survival in a framework which allows for answers to the question of what’s next.