The Skill You Can't Afford To Overlook

In an age of 'Fake News', we badly need Philosophy. Dear God, what would Descartes have made of President Donald Trump? The mind itself goes numb at the thought. “I think, therefore I am” may well have been good enough for the 18th Century godfather of modern philosophy, though these days we are sadly doing a lot more being than thinking.

But isn’t that what we are supposed to do? We are human beings, after all. In today’s world though, how do we ‘be’? For sure, we certainly exist. We prove it to ourselves every day. Through 350,000 Tweets on Twitter, 2.5m likes on Instagram, 400 hours of video uploads to YouTube, and 936,000 status updates on Facebook every minute of the day, we repeatedly reaffirm our existence in the world.

Now, although many of these technologies have incredible uses, the picture is becoming clearer with regard to how this is affecting the human side of our 'being'. With the technology to connect in ways that can unify and create revolutions by transferring ideas from one part of the globe to the next, we have at the same time created the greatest amount of disconnect with those that sit right next to us.

In the social and economic arena, the situation is on a downward trajectory. Depression amongst millenials is on the rise, those with money and well paying jobs are beginning to question their meaning and purpose in the world, and those without money are questioning whether they will have a job in the near future at all. With the latest report published recently by PwC, it is becoming clearer which positions are most likely to be defunct as more automation rolls out into the workplace – and it’s not just blue collar jobs at risk.?

In the political sphere, the world is becoming more polarized. Whether you are on the right or the left, a humanist or religionist, the world’s problems are being categorized in an increasingly black or white colour scheme. However, the reality of problems in the world are rarely this binary.

So how is the study of abstract philosophical theories of people, many of whom have been dead for hundreds of years, going to help??

For starters, it is imperative to understand that the economic, social, scientific, legal, political, and religious institutions that make up today’s world, are the product of the ideas and influence of these long dead thinkers of various kinds across the span of history. As Sir Jonathan Sacks writes in his book ‘The Dignity of Difference’, the very way we think and live today is very much in the shadow of ‘Plato’s Ghost’, the idea that if I am right then you must be wrong.

But perhaps there are actually two right answers in the spectrum of grey between the black and the white. This is most certainly the case throughout decision making in the dynamic environment of technology.

Philosophy is clearly the ultimate transferable skill.

Indeed, it is vital to know that our world today, no matter how progressive and advanced it seems as we stand at the dawn of Auto-Drive Cars and the Internet of Things, has a practical intellectual history. If we fail to understand where it comes from and how it works then we could be heading to an unsettling dystopia. We badly need deep thinkers.

The search term, 'how to destress', shows an ever escalating trend of interest as more of us look for ways to cope with the speedy rate of change in our world.

The greatest virtue of Philosophy is that it teaches us not what to think but how to think. Its adherents are well trained in how to ask the right questions. Many believe that Philosophy does not have any answers, and they would partly be right. But they would also be missing the point. It is not about the answers but about the questions and, in today’s fast paced world of technology innovation, business leaders are increasingly looking for people that can ask the right questions. There are many people who can program a line of world-changing code, there are not many people who have strong communication, critical reasoning and problem solving abilities.?

Philosophers know how to argue, and in business if you can argue, you can sell.

Whether it’s Plato or Marx, the study of Philosophy encourages its readers to be able to grasp abstract concepts and sift through large amounts of information while holding multiple ideas in their mind simultaneously. They value flexible and independent critical thought, which in today’s practical world translates into being able to?scrutinize the arguments heard in the media and from politicians. In the business world, Philosophy teaches and demands?the ability to communicate clearly, both in speech and in writing. Furthermore, philosophers know how to argue, and in business if you can argue, you can sell.

Interestingly, when searching the nearly 400,000 philosophy graduates on LinkedIn (see below chart), we can see hiring managers at IBM, Microsoft, PwC, Deloitte and Google have noticed this new angle, as each have hundreds of Philosophy graduates amongst their ranks. Philosophy is clearly the ultimate transferable skill.

With each advance in technology, the pace of time and change seems to run ahead of us at an increasily faster rate, At the end of the 20th Century, consumerism became the new religion. In the 21st, we are seeing the backlash. As we break through new frontiers in an ever changing world, our ability to think will be the only faculty to keep us grounded. Failure to do so will result in a lack of control, an even more unstable world and deeper anxieties about our existence within it. It is most defnitely time to stop and think, and encourage those who are yet to pick up the baton to do likewise.

So, the next time someone makes a philosophical joke about how many Marxists it takes take to change a light-bulb, the answer may not be that the light-bulb contains the seeds of its own revolution, but rather the modern day revolution lies in Philosophy itself.

Thankyou for reading,.It would be great to hear your thoughts on this topic too. For an illustrative example of how the questions we ask impact the way we create future technology, feel free to check out this video.