We are becoming a world full of information wars; information coming to us from established sources
are now shown to be tainted by ulterior motives of the sponsors of such information. Independent
media sources often lack professionalism and reference checking. Nowadays it is important for the
individual to be able to assess credibility themselves, in an increasingly complex world.
If we look to philosophy for examples of how to process information we learn that emotional
attachments can cause errors in judgement and reasoning. For example, how can we convince someone
of the merit of a certain political or philosophical view, if there are emotional and social factors
associated with such views? It becomes difficult to discuss ideological differences with each other when
a change of opinion has potentially disastrous consequences emotionally and socially.
Furthermore, the ideological similarities then become overshadowed by emotional and social
distractions.
David Bohm, a well-respected physicist and philosopher, takes the challenges of interpersonal
communication a step further and postulates that human communication is for the most part,
ineffectual, meaning that generally speaking, when we express ourselves, we are attempting to satisfy a
personal need rather than convey information.
Philosophers, who are lovers of wisdom, and as such wish to learn about and understand fundamental
and complex topics of life and the universe, generally realize that in order to properly assess an idea, it is
important to remain uncommitted. This non-committal attitude better allows one to freely entertain
and compare competing theories or ideas, and develop points of view based on reason rather than form
an opinion based on sentiment or bias.
In order for society to properly function in an ever increasingly complex world, we need to become more
complex ourselves. Don’t think of a philosopher as a university professor in a suit and tie lecturing on
ideologically irrelevant and abstruse topics; consider a philosopher to be defined as a person who loves
wisdom, and this will help take away any reservations of thinking of yourself as a philosopher.
