The Philosophic Mind

Not every leader is a philosopher, but each leader shall cultivate such philosophic mindset.

Due to the digital new normal such as complexity and uncertainty, the philosophic mind is in high demand to provide abstract thinking for reducing the complexity; and providing multi-dimensional lenses to navigate through uncertainty. And the philosophic mind can make a questioning reflection about knowledge, the value of philosophic thinking is in the questions, and the value of scientific thinking is in the answers.

Philosophy can ask questions that other sciences cannot even think about. Philosophy can talk about the nature of being human. Philosophy can talk about the status of other sciences. Philosophy can allow us to see the culture that manipulates our lives. It is true to say that philosophy cannot build houses or make a toaster, but it can pose the most important question that can be asked; question that lies well beyond the bounds of any other science.

Philosophy should always see beyond all positive sciences. Philosophy is the only science able to talk about the totality of human experience. That does not mean that philosophers have to come up with new scientific paradigms, but they should give the freedom of thought that make the paradigm changes possible; that is, they should stop scientists from ever thinking that they know or can know, but allow them to move forward and not get stuck in neo-scolacism.

 The philosophic mind is not only to solve the problems but to dissolve them. Philosophical disagreements can usually be reduced to confusions of language. You should first understand that thought depends on language and language which is based on grammar and rules. So when you discover the grammatical mistakes of the language, then you can understand that even the most important philosophical problems are not problems, but they are grammatical mistakes that you try to solve. Therefore by philosophy, you dissolve and not solve the problems because it's probably that there would not be a problem to be solved at all.

The philosophical mind can set guideline to solve the problems in other ways. You have to define a problem, and then, try to solve it. For this purpose, you must use rational arguments. And you have to read philosophy because it helps to see the reasoning in action. And then, when you have seen the reasoning in action, you've got an example of what's philosophy: a problem, and logical argumentation.

Pragmatists frequently argue that the very point of philosophy should be to solve problems in other domains (like science, mathematics, etc). So, knowledge is absolute, but only within your own reality and only at the moment of its discovery. There are then other types of knowledge, philosophy as a separate domain, disconnected from these others, certainly takes on problems of knowing and knowledge, but perhaps its greatest strength is in its ability to "solve" problems elsewhere.

Paradoxical Thinking: The leaders with philosophical intelligence can evoke what we call the paradoxical thinking process, which is defined as a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact. To put in a more logical way, today’s leaders always have to see the both sides of the coin at a multi-dimensional angle before making any strategic decisions.

Philosophy should make no claims of absolute, but philosophy is able to understand the limits to knowledge and so it can point these out to other fields when they become deluded and believe that they have access to things beyond their scope. A philosophic mind is abstract to converge the divergent information and bridge the gap with commonality, and a philosophic mind perceives the circular vision to see things holistically.

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor but without folly.   -Jim Rohn

Posted in: Mindshift