Why Every Road Leads to Philosophy
And Why It Matters
In times of the metacrisis, it seems like everything has become a philosophical question. The metacrisis is and umbrella term and encompasses multiple crises such as global warming, social inequalities, scarcity of resources, species extinction, ocean acidification, increasing rates of depression, unpredictable technologies, post-truth rivalries, as well as an increasing divide within society. All these crises are characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity and can be understood as wicked problems.
The challenge of wicked problems is that they have no clearcut solutions. Traditional approaches that focus on “outer transformation” such as technologies, policies, or infrastructures, have their limitations because they ignore the deeper philosophical underpinnings of the problems. Some argue that the way we address the crisis is the crisis.
“The way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis.” Bayo Akomolafe
There is a game demonstrating that all roads lead to philosophy. When clicking on the first link in the main text of an English Wikipedia article and repeating the process for subsequent articles, you are eventually led to the Philosophy article. In February 2016, this pattern held true for 97% of all Wikipedia articles, an increase from 94.52% in…
