Wikipedia is an interesting place to look up philosophy!
How many of us are cynics in some area or the other in life? Think relationships, professional life, personal life, academics, ethics etc etc...
An interesting theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism
- Life's vagaries ?-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness (see the interesting last paragraph on the link to optimism - learned_optimism they call it)
- Leading to ?-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism
Sometimes evaluating why we react in a certain way in certain spheres of life - does give us an insight into how much of it is from habit (learned helplessness/optimism?).
Surprisingly personal life and personal philosophies link closely with professional life and professional philosophies; especially in demanding work environments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
**self-esteem, with psychological well-being and with personal health. Martin Seligman, in researching this area, criticises academics for focusing too much on causes for pessimism and not enough on optimism. He points out that in the last three decades of the 20th century journals published 46,000 psychological papers on depression and only 400 on joy.
Ideologically convinced optimists may defend failures in their hoped-for outcomes by discussing "misplaced optimism" rather than abandoning optimism altogether.
A number of scholars have suggested that, although optimism and pessimism might seem like opposites, in psychological terms they do not function in this way. Having more of one does not mean you have less of the other. The factors that reduce one do not necessarily increase the other. On many occasions in life we need both in equal supply. Antonio Gramsci famously called for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will": the one the spur to action, the other the resilience to believe that such action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity.
/**
On a related note:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism
-Rishi
Note: The views included in this article are views of the author only, and do not convey any corporate views. The author does not suggest a path, he merely wishes to provoke thoughts.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Uncertainty...
How does one get over a feeling of restlessness? of uncertainty, of diverging paths, of the unknown...
You'd think that you have already done your share of the slog. But somehow each time you take a moment and reflect, you feel like a 4 year old kid who thinks he's done it all. But in the end thoughts and perspectives are so very relative. You can market / debate the hell out of a success and make it a resounding failure or vice versa. Some how as a kid who loved debating, I used to love doing it with abstract topics, but recent incidents really make me wonder on the absurdity of relativity.
Relativity... A very convenient term. A term that can make a contended (successful?) and happy person; into one who is just in a confort zone with blinders on! I just recently proved that to someone. Perspective indeed... But brings up a key point. Where do you draw the line on perspective.
Take for example an individual who just does not want to / does not know better to think about more variables / complexities in life. Such a person can be very comfortable with where he/she is in life; going on with life's tenacities. Why do I resent such an individual as being shortsighted? Why do I want to brand such a person as being beneath my interest zone? Is it wrong to lose interest in simple people? The funny thing about people is the shades of grey. It is easy to categorize the really simple ones. The picture gets hazy when you get to people who are just amazingly complex in some areas in life and yet just so under-developed in others.
The philosopher in me just cannot reconcile to this spectrum. You do learn to stop judging people, else you would never have 'friends' to hang out with. But when you think back to an Aristotle or a Socrates or a demosthenes. Why should a philospher indulge the simple?
An answer pops up- loneliness! Sucks indeed if that were the only answer!!!
But the realist in me suggests that there are more solutions to the problem. Life can be a collage of people, groups and relationships. Some where you learn, some where you teach and some where you are equals. And loneliness is just one aspect of life, conveying the fact that man is a social animal. Perspective! :-) Don't I love its attires.
Maybe my current restlessless is the impatience of a life in transition. Sigh. Why can't there be dictatorship in life on an as required basis! with full blamability on screw ups! :-)
Life!
You'd think that you have already done your share of the slog. But somehow each time you take a moment and reflect, you feel like a 4 year old kid who thinks he's done it all. But in the end thoughts and perspectives are so very relative. You can market / debate the hell out of a success and make it a resounding failure or vice versa. Some how as a kid who loved debating, I used to love doing it with abstract topics, but recent incidents really make me wonder on the absurdity of relativity.
Relativity... A very convenient term. A term that can make a contended (successful?) and happy person; into one who is just in a confort zone with blinders on! I just recently proved that to someone. Perspective indeed... But brings up a key point. Where do you draw the line on perspective.
Take for example an individual who just does not want to / does not know better to think about more variables / complexities in life. Such a person can be very comfortable with where he/she is in life; going on with life's tenacities. Why do I resent such an individual as being shortsighted? Why do I want to brand such a person as being beneath my interest zone? Is it wrong to lose interest in simple people? The funny thing about people is the shades of grey. It is easy to categorize the really simple ones. The picture gets hazy when you get to people who are just amazingly complex in some areas in life and yet just so under-developed in others.
The philosopher in me just cannot reconcile to this spectrum. You do learn to stop judging people, else you would never have 'friends' to hang out with. But when you think back to an Aristotle or a Socrates or a demosthenes. Why should a philospher indulge the simple?
An answer pops up- loneliness! Sucks indeed if that were the only answer!!!
But the realist in me suggests that there are more solutions to the problem. Life can be a collage of people, groups and relationships. Some where you learn, some where you teach and some where you are equals. And loneliness is just one aspect of life, conveying the fact that man is a social animal. Perspective! :-) Don't I love its attires.
Maybe my current restlessless is the impatience of a life in transition. Sigh. Why can't there be dictatorship in life on an as required basis! with full blamability on screw ups! :-)
Life!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)