It's a new year, and it's been four turns around the sun since Socratus opened doors. Way back when we promised we will become the midwives of collective wisdom. We are not there yet, but we do have a better understanding of our role in evoking the wisdom of the world.
Socratus has always used the metaphor of the Elephant to denote the wisdom of the whole that's greater than the wisdom of its parts summed together. This week's Messenger is the first in a series of essays that give an elephantine overview of Socratus, it's past, present and near future, and in doing so, we hope it's also conveys our perspective on the role of wisdom in today's world.
In one of the more famous statements of modern philosophy, the German philosopher Hegel declared the purpose of philosophy so: _philosophy is its age apprehended in thought_. Hegel's (not quite) student Marx penned an even more famous version of that claim:
The philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.
Marx's admonition to the philosopher (change the world now!) isn't that different from Hegel if you are willing to dive into the meaning of the word 'apprehend.' There's apprehend as understanding and interpretation, but there's also apprehend as in catching a criminal. And it's not too far afield to imagine Marx - in his self-imagination as much as ours - as a detective apprehending a criminal system. Either way, excitement was in the air in the early nineteenth century. It was felt that the philosopher, that ivory towered woolstocking, was a metaphysical detective. It's a romance that animates our lives at Socratus too. But the world hasn't kept still for two hundred years, has it? We have to interrogate the Hegel-Marx definitions until they give up the truth about:
1. What is being apprehended?
2. Who is doing the apprehending?
3. What is the means of apprehension?
Each one of these has important answers, some of which are radical transformations of earlier answers to these questions. Let's take them up one by one.
What is Being Apprehended?
What age are we in? Retrospectively, it's clear that we have been living in the Anthropocene all along, and therefore, the Earth and all its beings are the objects of apprehension. We have never ever had to expand our scope of apprehension to such a large category so rapidly, but here we are. It's the new task of philosophy.
Philosophy, in this age, must grapple with the profound implications of human influence on the Earth. It's no longer just about understanding the human condition in isolation; it's about apprehending the conditioned nature of all beings. This requires a radical shift in perspective, where society is not seen as distinct from the rest of the planet, but as a part of a vast, interconnected web of life.
In this context, ethical considerations expand dramatically. We must consider not just the immediate impact of our actions on our own species, but also their long-term effects on the planet and its diverse inhabitants. The Anthropocene challenges us to rethink our roles as stewards of the Earth, compelling us to develop a more holistic understanding of our relationship with the natural world.
Who is doing the apprehending?
The planet is being apprehended by every creature who inhabits it. Not just the proverbial dead white man, but in fact, the wisdom of every culture is now in the mix. But even that's not enough. We absolutely need to include nonhuman creatures into the league of philosophers. Apes, Elephants, Whales and Octopuses are the minimal expansion we can imagine, but we should be going further afield. This expanded circle of philosophers brings a revolutionary perspective to our understanding of the world. By considering the insights and lived experiences of a diverse array of species, we gain a more comprehensive view of the planet's intricate dynamics.
Elephants with their deep social bonds, birds with their complex communication systems, and trees with their networked root systems, all possess unique forms of intelligence and ways of interacting with their environments. Including these nonhuman perspectives challenges the anthropocentric biases that have long dominated philosophical thought. It urges us to recognize the inherent value in all forms of life and to consider the impact of our actions on these other beings. In this new age of philosophy, every creature has something to teach us about the planet we share.
What is the means of apprehension?
When Hegel and Marx wrote their respective words, new institutions were coming up, new organizational forms such as the nation state and political parties were becoming the norm throughout Europe, and since then, those organizational forms have spread throughout the globe. Almost every human being lives in a nation and nearly as many are entangled in the market system.
Organization forming has become commoditized; technology has made it much easier to form collectives. We even have a generic name for a temporary collective seeking sustainability - _startup_. Startups and other collectives are the new means of world apprehension, including the technology through which the collective is glued together. Computation is that technology. Its capacity to bind heterogeneous beings is unprecedented, but so is its capacity to present the worlds of other beings. Its the best technology we have to apprehend the earth and its inhabitants.
If you live in Bangalore, or traveling to the city before the 25th of February, go visit Soil Stories at the Bangalore Creative Circus!
A List of Apprehenders
How exactly should we be apprehending our age? What qualities are we looking for in someone who midwifes that process? Can we be satisfied with the existing categories? We think not, but to understand why, let's scan a recent classification of six types of philosophers, by the philosopher and intellectual historian Justin E. Smith:
The curious, the sage, the ascetic, the gadfly, the mandarin, the courtier.
At its core, philosophy has always grappled with the pursuit of truth and the quest for understanding. The 'curious' philosopher embodies this relentless search, delving into the mysteries of the natural world. Their approach is empirical, analytical, often grounded in observation and experimentation. In contrast, the 'gadfly' challenges societal norms and conventions, sparking critical discourse and introspection about social constructs and human behavior. This distinction between exploring the natural versus the social realms is artificial since historical figures (say, Socrates) may not have made the same distinctions as we do, but in both the gadfly and the curious, the philosopher reveals (divines?) the structures of the world.
On the other hand, the 'sage' and the 'ascetic' focus on the existential aspects of philosophy. The sage imparts wisdom on how to live a fulfilling life, often drawing on a deep well of knowledge and experience. The ascetic, through a life of simplicity and self-denial, offers a different perspective on achieving inner peace and enlightenment. Both roles emphasize the personal, introspective journey of philosophy, guiding individuals towards self-realization and a harmonious existence.
The last two types, the 'mandarin' and the 'courtier', represent the philosopher's interaction with power structures. The mandarin acts as an advisor, using their intellectual prowess to influence policy and governance. The courtier, meanwhile, navigates the intricacies of court life, using their philosophical insights to maintain and organize the power dynamics within.If you take this classification seriously, the philosopher does one of three things:
1. Tells you truths about the world (either the natural or the social, to use a modern subdivision): i.e., the curious and the gadfly respectively.
2. Tells you how to live your life: the sage and the ascetic.
3. Is a consultant to power and its resident organizer: the mandarin and the courtier.
As you know, most people who call themselves philosophers teach in university departments. But very few of the classical types are academics! The ascetic and the sage aren't academic roles, and are mostly absent in today's society or represented poorly by snake oil salesmen. The mandarin or the courtier isn't necessarily academic either, though you might see them hanging around political party headquarters; the gadfly could be academic but is a rarity. The curious is the only one of the lot who is well represented in the university. What's missing? We think at least three potential philosopher types need to be added to the list:
The Elephant: this is the philosopher as midwife of the whole instead of its parts. Doesn't even have to be right whole! Indian philosophy has a great metaphor for error: mistaking a rope for a snake. The elephant is a professional snake whisperer; they would rather err in the direction of seeing an animal where there's none than wins if they spot a snake, even it's a rope, for at least they saw an animal. For an elephant, mistaking a donkey for a horse is better than mistaking the donkey's leg for a wooden pole. We like Elephants at Socratus. An example of our elephantine work 👇🏾:
The Architect: The philosopher as architect creates spaces that evoke our collective wisdom and with any luck, new pathways for 'changing the world' emerge from these spaces. A close cousin, the philosopher as designer prototypes new abstractions, new institutions, new products that provoke reflection and so on. Let's say you want to establish a colony on Mars and you want rules for engagement with one another, with potential lifeforms on Mars and the non-living environment there. We need someone who understands the engineering challenges of a hostile planet and can arrive at abstractions that capture the complexities of this new domain. The brave new world companion. Take a look at our work on Shaktiville to see the architect and designer at work:
The Connector: Like the infamous Celestial Emporium, you need a species of thought that connects and differentiates disparate entities, recognizing their differences when that's important, assimilating their commonalities under one umbrella on occasion, bringing new entities into the tent, drawing traces between them and so on. The most general ecology of thought. Like this essay below:
The philosopher as elephant sees the whole and communicates it to the world, as architect/designer organizes and systematizes making at the most general level and as connector systematizes mapping at the most general level.