It’s finally here: Election Day. After an international pandemic, two ongoing wars overseas, back-to-back political assassination attempts, and dozens of weather and climate disasters, it feels like the U.S. has faced a lifetime of crises since the last presidential election.
Candidates Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are in a tight race, and it is entirely possible that we will not know the results today or possibly anytime in the near future.
So what now?
Doom scrolling on social media and gluing your eyes to cable news will get exhausting, especially if the results are not imminent. Expect employee distraction, disorientation in schools, market volatility, and personal anxiety. Furthermore, with all this pending uncertainty, leaders can lose their confidence.
No matter your role, you need a pause; life still needs to be lived.
This is why I suggest turning to philosophy, which can offer a saving grace to this madness. Take it from Socrates, the forefather of Western philosophy, who tells his fellow Athenians, “if I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago and done no good either to you or to myself.”
But why, you may ask, does Socrates believe he would fail at engaging with politics? He would answer that his participation must be Just, but to be Just first requires the knowledge of what Justice is. You might respond that Justice is about doing what’s right, but Socrates isn’t too convinced. What is right and how do you do it? Any continuation of this conversation will veer far off from the triviality of Socrates’s political beliefs.
This mini pseudo-platonic dialogue is proof of philosophy’s power. A superficial train of thought about particulars is replaced by a dialogue surrounding essential aspects of universal concepts. In other words, philosophy can alter a tedious and tiring conversation into a fresh and stimulating one.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger investigates this power in his book Discourse on Thinking. The book is made up of a speech and another piece of his writing, which expands on the speech years later. Together, they claim that doing philosophy requires removing yourself from daily mundane tasks; the ones you can do with your eyes closed, or ‘without a second thought.’ Philosophizing necessities a whole different kind of thinking.
To detail how this may be done, Heidegger begins as any good philosopher would, with a distinction. On one side is what he deems “calculative thinking.” This is a goal-oriented, active way of thinking. Some terms he uses to define it are calculating, planning, investigating, and serving a specific purpose. Calculative thinking “races from one aspect to the next.”
This is undoubtedly the kind of thinking we prioritize, always looking to take the next step in our career-oriented lives. But according to Heidegger, it promotes a “growing thoughtlessness.” He continues, “It is always on the move…we take in everything in the quickest and cheapest way, only to forget it just as quickly, instantly.”
It is a sterile way of thinking. It is solely results-focused and does not stop to consider the inherent meaning of anything. In other words, it is a person hooked on social media and cable news.
Calculative thinking is opposed to meditative thinking (Gelassenheit), a central concept for Heidegger throughout his later life. Some terms he uses to define this way of thinking is ponder, observe, and to awake without action. Importantly, meditative thinking does not promote a detachment from reality. Instead, it brings an awareness of the “shackles” put on us by calculative thinking. Then, by becoming conscious of these chains, we become free.
Calculative thinking is moving in the world, continuously acting towards what’s next. Meditative thinking is to step back and observe your relationship with the world. With meditative thinking and philosophy, you can turn the ordinary into something extra. Will you use it?
You are bound to experience a firehose of constant calculative conversations about current events. Next time, bring in some philosophy and make it meditative.