Learn Philosophy for Peace

Most people think of philosophy as an elite idea which is not much relevant to a common man. We teach physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, history, geography to children. But we hardly think of teaching philosophy. In fact as I explain in this blog, learning a bit of philosophy can not only make the world a better place to live but it can bring peace to individuals.

Yuval Noah Harari's book 'Sapiens' gives an excellent account of human history. It is believed that living organisms came into existence on earth some 3.8 billion years ago. Animals like human from genus (group of species) called Homo evolved in Africa some 2.5 million years ago. So in the very long history of universe, we the human creatures are relatively young. The human like animals spread out of Africa to Europe and Asia around 2 million years ago. It is also believed that brain to body size ratio in human beings increased some 70,000 years ago. That is when the human beings developed language which enabled them to communicate with each other more effectively.

Survival was the primary concern of early humans. They faced multiple threats like uncertainty of food to eat, natural calamities and encountering other organisms which were much more mightier than humans. That is where they realised importance of working and living in groups. The questions that concerned early human beings were: what is the growth pattern of plants, ?which food is nourishing, which food makes one sick, which food can be used for curing, questions related to progress of seasons, warning signs of thunderstorms, dry spells, knowledge of trees, streams, caves; how to make knife, how to lay trap, how to face avalanches, snakebites, lions and so on. These were questions concerning physical well being.

Some 12 thousand years ago, human beings learnt to grow plants. This agricultural revolution freed them from worry of food and reduced need to wander. This is when the human beings started focusing on deeper questions. They started thinking in terms of mental & social well being.?They started confronting questions like who am I? Am I a living being? Then what are non living beings?

At some point, human beings learnt that human body is made up of cells, which in turn are molecules made of atoms. Protons, neutrons & electrons comprise an atom. For quite some time this was the bottom level of knowledge beyond which we did not know. Developments in quantum physics deepened the level of knowledge and brought to our notice new elements like quarks, leptons, gluons etc. But some questions still remain unanswered like: who put neutron and proton in the nucleus of an atom, who put electron around the nucleus.

At every point in time there are questions which remain unanswered. These unanswered questions are the beginning of philosophy. Will Durant says “Philosophy deals with problems not yet open to the methods of science…philosophy leaves the fruits of victory to her daughters the sciences, and herself passes on, divinely discontent, to the uncertain and unexplored.” We tend to confuse sciences with physics, chemistry, and biology. But science simply means organised knowledge in any domain which is reliable and valid. Interest in finding answers to unaddressed questions leads to development of sciences. Once found, the answers become part of science. Hence, there is no conflict between philosophy and sciences.In fact philosophical bent of mind is an essential prerequisite to pursue research in science. For instance, why do we think what do we think (Psychology), how do we relate to others (Sociology, Politics, History etc), what is right and what is wrong (Ethics), what and why somethings give us sense of beauty & pleasure (Aesthetics).

Philosophy tries to find answers which are beyond personal experiences and beyond human senses. When an apple falls on the ground, it can be seen by eyes; one can hear sound of apple hitting the ground. Once the apple comes within reach of the person there it can be touched. One can even taste and smell it. But the reason why apple came down and did not rise up in the sky can not be picked through senses. Philosophy tries to answer questions through pure reasoning and thought experiments. Have we ever thought, why the highest degree in any domain is called PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) and not Doctor of Biology, Doctor of Chemistry, Doctor of Engineering, Doctor of Management, Doctor of Economics & so on? It might appear as if each researcher is working in a different domain and yet at deeper level there are common threads. All of them are searching for answers to unaddressed questions and reasons thereof. This is what philosophy is. A PhD in any domain aims at creating critical thinkers, those who raise questions till they reach irreducible level, where the state of knowledge stands still at given point of time. PhD is all about the process of contributing to the body of knowledge by digging deeper rather than creating subject matter experts.

But this does not mean only PhDs are engaged in philosophical pursuits. No, they are very tiny in number. The quest for answers to unaddressed questions and reasons thereof is a never ending process which should bother every human being. And this happens across geographies. Human race originated in Africa but spread at different speed in different parts of the world. But all these humans faced unanswered questions. They tried to answer those questions in their own ways, sometimes believing that there is some "higher" super power which is beyond personal sensory experiences. This was probably the dawn of religion. The unanswered questions had to be settled because lack of answer creates mental tension. Just think of the discomfort which you felt when you forgot name of someone whom you met or when you failed to remember where did you keep something.

While sciences like physics, chemistry, biology etc have been developed to seek answers, they are not capable of ruling out uncertainty completely. For instance, while two units of hydrogen and one unit of oxygen combine to produce water, one can not be sure that hearts of two people with similar physique having similar level of blockages in their coronary artery will behave in exactly the same way. Phenomenon in social world, where almost infinite number of variables interact, suffer far greater uncertainty. Hence it is not surprising that economic forecasts or results of political opinion polls are mostly off the mark.

But in its quest to relieve tension human mind never stops yearning for certainty. When all other methods fail, or sometimes even otherwise, human beings attribute unexplained occurrences to higher super power. This super power is given different names by different people in different parts of the world. Because they believed that it is some super power which does certain things (like who puts electron, proton and neutron in an atom), some of them started worshipping it. Each clan developed its own style of connecting to this higher super power. Once we realise this, we can see that irrespective of the name one gives to that super power and respective religion, the quest is same. Desire to be at peace with uncertainties of life drives this quest. If that is so, is there any reason for human beings to fight with each other to prove which religion is superior?

There was probably another reason for looking at a higher super power. This reason predated the agricultural revolution. As human beings had to work in groups, somebody had to assume role of coordinating acts of everyone and at times to make members fall in line and cooperate with each other. This is where human beings started using idea of "us" (the group) and found a common chord that bound all members. But in doing so they started othering which eventually led to pitting "us" against "them". This was probably the beginning of modern day social groups in terms of nations, religions, communities and so on. Idea of higher super power helped to bind the members together and also in motivating them to cooperate sometimes through carrot and at other times through stick.

Almost all religions and societies make claim that their ancestors knew the truth much before modern scientific discoveries took place. For instance, literature in many religions and countries is often quoted as proof that idea of gravity was discovered in their religion / country much before Issac Newton spoke about it. If we look at this from the perspective of philosophy, we realise that each generation in different era faced questions that were unanswered. Some of them tried to answer, some of them speculated, some of them succeeded and some documented it. But that does not mean raising questions or answering those questions was done in a modern scientific way. That also does not mean such issues were raised only by certain social groups. In all probability similar questions were being probed simultaneously in different parts of the world. But because there was limited communication across the geographies and social groups, each group might believe that only they thought about such issues. This realisation and acceptance is important because it leads to development of new knowledge and ultimately results into social progress. If every social group starts believing that everything that was to be known, was known to their ancestors, the progress will stop. Beauty of science is that it never considers anything as final. Even the work of most celebrated scientist like Einstein is open to examination. Importantly, even if some day some theories are proven wrong, it is considered as an essential part of a never ending process of search. In fact this is the core of philosophy.

Understanding of philosophy brings about change in perspective at least in three important ways. As Will Duarnt says "Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt - particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas...there is no real philosophy until the mind turns around and examines itself." Its worth reminding what legendary Socrates said "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing." In that sense philosophical pursuits are humbling processes.

Philosophy also makes us realise that what we consider as realities are of two types. Objective and Subjective. For instance, when a fruit breaks off a tree, it falls down and does not rise up in the sky. This is because of gravity. But a question like 'is live-in relationship a better alternative to formal marriage?' can have different answers. Even in case of question of fruit, explanation in terms of gravity appeared much later than the time first fruit broke off and fell down. It is worth remembering that before Copernicus, dominant view was that earth is at the centre of universe and sun revolves around it. Copernicus escaped the persecution for telling the world that reality was other wise because he died shortly after airing his view. But Galileo, did face the persecution for stating the same.

Once we realise that realities can also be what human beings agree it to be, we become more tolerant. We then do not insist that there is only one truth. There can be multiple answers to a question and each can be right in its own way. Besides, once we realise that it is our curiosity to seek answers coupled with our inability to do so, we think of a higher super power. We attribute everything uncontrollable to that higher super power. This idea of higher super power helps us to release tension caused by unaddressed questions. The higher super power provides soothing effect in the midst of uncertainties. It provides hope. Unfortunately, instead of thinking of higher super power as a means of relieving tension and enjoying peace, some people use it as a means of one-upmanship. A little bit of exposure to Philosophy in early student days can make the world a better place.