(Picture credits: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypercy/2018/03/09/why-your-board-needs-a-chief-philosophy-officer/?sh=4350cea342e3)
Utility value of Philiosophy of anything and everything
What is philosophy. Dictionary says, it is the study of ideas and beliefs about the meaning of life in general. It also says that it is all about a set of beliefs that tries to explain the meaning of life or give rules about how to behave in the context of choice. Literally, "philosophy" means, "love of wisdom." It is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other.
So, philosophy is very important in our life. This is because we humans are programmed to seek meanings, nurture these meanings, and develop a sense of purpose around these meanings that evolve around our life, which is finally brought down with an axe of mortality, the disappearance of our life is both sudden and gradual, making things further complicated as we age and approaching the unknown moment of death.
Philosophy of anything and everything is very important. Wikipedia is very useful for me personally because when a new concept or idea is introduced to me, the wikipedia gives me a quick tour of the reality around that, and I can quickly catch up with the philosophy of that context hidden in those descriptions.
Seeking philosophy of anything is therefore finding the lattice type of shortcut in resolving complicated maze of realities out there, which is more confusing and actually capable of leaving someone lost and discouraged.
With the advent of computers and the internet, today we have ever accelerating explosion of information, knowledge and wisdom. Philosophy is becoming not only very important, but also it has tremendous utility value to exploit around it today.
If you come from a computer or IT background like me, the word “Meta Model” is very relevant in your thought process. Since an IT professional strives to fit the computers to exploit maximum value from automating a context, the context needs to be represented in the network and design of computer hardware and software, and this representation is possible through the meta model. Therefore it becomes a habit to seek meta model of any reality, so I need to ask what is the meta model of philosophy which is akin to asking what is the philosophy of philosophy, also called as metaphilosophy.
Metaphilosophy is the investigation of the nature of philosophy. Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Therefore, metaphilosophy has the utility value of maximizing the benefit of any philosophy.
I do not want to unnecessarily complicate the thought process here to get you lost in a maze of an academic jungle. Let us simply agree that both philosophy and metaphilosophy have utility values and worthy of being applied in any context today.
I am personally amazed by the source of philosophy, which is the program inside us which makes us seek meanings, and then the meaning of meanings too. We do not stop there, thanks to our narcissism, we subject ourselves to the burden of purpose of life too.
Through the path of my life, I have intuitively become aligned to philosophy in general, and apply its discipline in any context I come across. Thanks to the recent developments in the internet, it is not only the explosion of information, knowledge and wisdom one is subjected to, but also the choices life provides now in the very “existential” journey are very much related to the exploitation of technological realities of today.
Look at me, I am approaching an important milestone, an age of sixty years. I assume that I may be left with may be only one more decade of active life ahead. While my body and mind gradually give up as I age further, this internet context fortified with various networks including the recent social network and the impending explosion of institutionalization of human expression around this amazes me further. Therefore, intuitively I feel that there is so much extra return on time and energy for the self, especially as time and energy variables becoming more precious due to aging, to invest on the “online” aspect of life than “offline” aspect of life, of course with the balance between the two, optimizing both.
Once convinced about this focus switch, I was able to make revolutionary changes in the very philosophy of my own life ahead, seeking further optimization of meanings ahead for myself. As I am making progress in this path, though I do see tremendous value of anchoring the journey of self on “narcissism”, there is so much value in balancing it against opposite forces, which is how to exploit my own narcissism against that of the rest towards extracting maximum value, which begs for coining two new words for me, the “return on time” and “return on energy”, which bring the anchors of utilitarian value of journey ahead, not only for me, reality ahead in general which includes humanity.
This is where I am very enthused to extract further utility value of philosophy and metaphilosophy. Different behavioral models can be considered here. For example, if you look at someone like Ramana Maharshi, he sought a simple life on top of a mountain, and had interested people to seek him and engage in discussions seeking for better meanings for themselves, but he anchored the discussions around the meanings he was anchoring with. Still, a level of institutionalization manifested organically around his thoughts and teachings. In contrast, if you observe someone like Jaggi Vasudev, he is rigourously institutionalizing around his knowledge, passion and expressions. If you observe someone like Satya Saibaba’s life, there was a level of institutionalization around his life when he was alive, and that institutionalization though suffers due to his death, can survive and expand beyond his lifetime.
This is my crude way of introducing an important topic called “institutionalization”. Institutionalization is the best balance for the narcissism of an individual and vice versa.
The dance of duality around the individual and institutionalization is a separate subject needing deeper philosophical expansions.
Utilitiy value of philosophy and metaphilosophy is not only for individuals, but also for the teams of individuals in different contexts, which is termed as “institutionalization” in general.
Thanks to the revolutions of computers and the internet, the institutionalization is an important opportunity for the humanity to exploit ahead. Therefore, both philosophy and metaphilosophy need to be invested right for optimum returns through simultaneous expansion of individual and institutionalization.
The limitations of the duality of our reality will be intensified further in this dual dance ahead, therefore as much we make progress in the guise of evolution, that much balm of healing we will incorporate within both the individual and institution ahead.
Time is rype now to exploit the philosophy and metaphilosophy further towards emanating maximum utility value for both the individuals and institutions. At least, my own narsissitic journey is being committed in this direction, this blog is the very first step, with the hope of benefits of “sankalpa”.
Just a few weaks back, I exploded with a clarity of exploitation of ideas for self and humanity in general, leading to an embryonic platform called “Idea Institute International” (III), established as a humble FB page.
I am doing similar thing now, launching another embryonic expression, a FB page called Philosophy of anything and everything.
Life is a continuous game of overlapping games of duality, optimization in it requires simultaneous exploitation of opposite values and also other factors (eg. Both bowling and batting in the game of cricket, fielding as additional aspect) in every games in it, and within it as an overall game.
Philosophy is the ultimate medicine for enduring the pains of duality of life, but if misapplied the medicine can become the poison too. Hence, metaphilosophy is very handy out there, reminding us to exploit both the opposite sides and the other sides around these opposite sides, seeking balance and healing in the frictions across all these.
The human expressions not relevant to our own current expression of narsissim may appear as the expression of mental asylum out there. Bear with me for opening another such mental asylum out there. I am fully aware that any good intention out there, brings its own baggage of opposite and vice versa.
Let the game of duality thrive further ahead.
Namasthe!
Nataraja Upadhya
No comments:
Post a Comment