PHILOSOPHICAL SOCKET SET

The field of philosophy has many useful insights built up by people over the millennia resident within the study of the nature of knowledge and the self which can be applied by people to improve their introspective abilities, analytical capabilities, and sense of conscious awareness. A person’s growth in learning, and thereby increase in intelligence, usually provides new understandings of situations, events, and cultures.

Most importantly for the individual, a study of the world's philosophies and familiarity with at least some of the many philosophical technologies available to help individuals successfully negotiate through information chaos. This situation appears when people are swamped with data and must struggle to connect the dots, generating relevant information, and usable wisdom. When trying to invent new worldviews, formulate new hypotheses, or recognize non-obvious interconnections over time, space, or culture - philosophy is a prime source for innovation.

As a field that can be used to investigate information, knowledge, and wisdom, philosophy has special relevance to the era alternatively termed the Information, Knowledge, or Digital Age. As a field that includes within it the possibility of the individual growth of intelligence and understanding through a global study of beliefs and cultural heuristics, philosophy is relevant to every person. As a field that can be used to develop novel methods of existence, interaction, transaction, and innovation, philosophy has a relevance to the study and development of culture, and especially the arts of business and politics.

The following are just some of the useful techniques for increasing an individual's connection to creativity, insight, intuition, and revelation.

Paradigm Shifts – A Change in world views, observational platforms

A paradigm is a world view, a particular perspective on the nature of reality. A Paradigm Shift is the circumstance when an individual alters their worldview to include other perspectives. When a person is upset with someone else, that person can leave the room. This is an environmental paradigm shift. If a slighted person stays in the room and alters their attitude, maybe by trying to understand where the other person is coming from, that personal has undergone an emotional paradigm shift. Non-obvious interconnections of elements in differing data sets emerge when perspective is shifted to include other observational platforms. Such changes in the way things are observed sometimes produce revolutionary results. These are intellectual paradigm shifts. Einstein thought about riding on photons (that is a real big change of perspective!) and generated ideas like special (E=MC2) and general (curvature of timespace) relativity that caused massive re-orientations in the ways people thought about the world and acted upon those ideas. Paradigm shifts come in as many different sizes and shapes as you can imagine.

Multiple Perspective Generation – Seeing things from different points of view simultaneously or successively

Multiple Perspective Generation is the examination of differing viewpoints through a ‘What If” process of questioning to establish new knowledge in areas where one has little information. In this way a person can use the generation of multiple views to produce sets of differing ideas about things of which they may or may not have any direct knowledge or personal experience. If an individual can hold several different worldviews in their mind simultaneously the state called empathy can be achieved. In this state one not only considers their own perspective, but that of others as well. This is ‘putting the shoe on the other foot.’

Virtual Knowledge

Wisdom may be defined as good judgment and this relies on using the best knowledge available. Knowledge is personally usable information, generated by experience. Virtual Knowledge is how-to knowledge established conceptually and not through direct experience. This technique greatly helps good decision-making. Virtual Knowledge can fill in missing pieces to a mental puzzle without having to ‘reinvent the wheel.’ A person may know how to use a computer, but have little information on how it actually works. Consequently, a person having little information about how a computer works will have no knowledge about how to actually fix the device if it breaks down. Yet even without prior experience, a clever person may be able to read a manual and imagine how to replace their modem in the computer. This type of knowledge is imaginary, that is, not based on experience, but it is usable nonetheless. In this way one also creates new knowledge.

There are many ways to augment insufficient information or knowledge through the use on one’s imagination. In the absence of direct experience a person may imagine a variety of different scenarios, that is, imagine different paradigms based on sets of data analyzed through different perspectives. One can develop imaginary how-to knowledge about Indonesia even if that person has never been there. By clumping together information from a variety of different sources a person can begin to establish a concept about the object of study and begin to deal with that imaginary concept as if it is how-to knowledge. Virtual Knowledge may also be developed through many other methods including inductive reasoning and extrapolations based on past experience.

Occam's Razor – The simplest explanation that works well is the most useful

When dealing with organizational complexity, many overly detailed plans and explanations are developed with little relevance to the actual world. Using Occam’s Razor increases efficiency by reducing the time wasted on over-complexity and information chaos.

Primary Assumption Analysis – Real time reiteration of underlying beliefs, knowledge and attitudes

Many things that individuals expect others to understand are not really shared meanings. Being aware of the real motivations behind action, and re-evaluating core assumptions keeps one on track (collision avoidance), and able to quickly adjust for turbulence (error recovery). Without a constant awareness and re-evaluation of the primary assumptions operative in any organization or individual we act without being sure of why.

Relevancy Analysis (RAAN) – Relevancy, Accuracy, Adequacy, and Necessity Analysis

First of all, the information, knowledge, or wisdom one is working with must be relevant to the situation at hand. Hopeful one is dealing with accurate data that is adequate to the task of analysis, synthesis, or making decisions. Finally the data used must be necessary – that is, it must be important. For example, if someone drops a tray of bolts in a production facility, a cause and a solution must be found. The color of shirt of the person involved with the accident may or may not be relevant. If there was a flash of blinding light, then perhaps a brightly colored shirt reflected it. But is this accurate – and is there enough data to making an informed decision? Do bright colors really reflect flashes, and was the person involved blinded temporarily? Finally is the information necessary to make a judgment? It may be relevant that bright colors could have reflected a flash, but if it was blinding anyway, it is not a necessary component of determining fault. Performing a relevancy analysis, like the use of Occam’s Razor eliminates a great deal of unnecessary processing time in decision making.

Mutual Understanding – The Being Connection

If you want to make a build a relationship, you have to connect with another personal in a visceral way. Likewise, if you want to obtain useful information, knowledge, or wisdom from someone, you must acknowledge their presence, respect their person, and be tolerant of differences. In order to establish the relationship that makes transactions of ideas, information, or even cash, there must be a mutually acknowledged respect of each other’s humanity. This is mutual understanding – it is a visceral connection between beings. It is hard to get someone you do not like, who knows it, and does not like you, to provide information, buy your product, or share ideas. Information sharing in such an environment is nigh impossible. If you wish to go into a Mosque to talk to a Mullah, you had better take off your shoes. To provide a conducive environment for interaction there must be a mechanism on a being level created – this is called mutual understanding.

Wisdom Extraction / Socratic Dialogue

Heuristics are operational rules of thumb and wisdom is good judgment. The cultural heuristics of a society are its suggestions for how to best live life. A key area for any interviewer, seeker of wisdom, expert system computer programmer, or analyst is the identification of heuristic extraction methodologies. How do you get the operational nuggets of wisdom from the source of your information and how do you connect the relevant dots? Questioning and data mining have a lot in common with the dialogic process known as the Socratic Method. Old Socrates had a wonderful knack for asking the proper questions to elicit the answers he required. In the Meno, Socrates leads and ignorant Greek boy through the complexity of the squaring of the circle by route of designing the questions in such a manner that their answers appeared as obvious. So often, the design of the questions shapes the response.

Philosophical Vision Formation

Another important tool is philosophical vision formation. This is the detailing of the who, what, where, when, and why of any action. Without a shared understanding of the fundamental principles, assumptions, values, missions, and goals for activity, it is hard for people to act individually or in unison. Quite often such basic aspects of our activity are not consciously articulated. Not only must these questions be answered individually, but also they must be communicable to others. We can only clearly explain what we understand. Unless we understand why we are acting, such actions become ‘chaotic’ or uncoordinated. Before the development of organizational culture is possible, the definition and communication of philosophical vision is necessary.

Logic, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science

Two of the most commonly recognized tools of philosophy are logic and linguistics. Logic is a system of technical reasoning and linguistics is the study of language. Logic is used for structuring arguments and linguistics is used for critiquing language as a formal structure. Both are used in combination to try to develop consistent systems of knowledge based on clear definitions of basic human concepts.