Time to Reflect

So far I was of the opinion that the Mankind was getting smarter generations after generations. But after I read the chapter ‘Reason and Objectivity’ from Amartya Sen's book “The Idea of Justice”, I am no longer sure if that is true.

Here I am producing the text from that book for the benefit of all.

“ … Underlying the point may be the recognition, in some form, that many acts of nastiness are committed by people who are deluded, in one way or another, about the subject. Lack of smartness can certainly be one source of moral failing in good behavior.

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Being smarter can also give us the ability to think more clearly about our goals, objectives and values. If self-interest is, ultimately, a primitive thought, clarity about the more sophisticated priorities and obligations that we would want to cherish and pursue would tend to depend on our power of reasoning. A person may have well-thought-out reasons other than the promotion of personal gain for acting in a socially decent way.

Being smarter may help the understanding not only of one’s self-interest, but also how the lives of others can be strongly affected by one’s own actions. Proponents of so-called ‘Rational Choice Theory’ have tried hard to make us accept the peculiar understanding that rational choice consists only in clever promotion of self-interest. Nevertheless, our heads have not all been colonized by that remarkably alienating belief. There is considerable resistance to that idea that it must be patently irrational – and stupid – to try to do anything for others except to the extent that doing good to others would enhance one’s own well-being.

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What we owe to each other’ is an important subject for intelligent reflection. That reflection can take us beyond the pursuit of a very narrow view of self-interest, and we can even find that our own well-reflected goals demand that we cross the narrow boundaries of exclusive self-seeking altogether. There can be cases in which we have reasons to restrain the exclusive pursuit of our own goals, because of following rules of decent behavior that allow room for the pursuit of goals by other people who share the world with us.”

[By now you would know why I gave the elaborate text here, even when the subject of discussion is ‘smartness’. I will allow you to ponder over underlined sentences for now. Glad to discuss the same in days to come.]

Now let us come back to the discussion of ‘smartness’. If a truly ‘smart’ person should be able to reason out the need for socially decent behavior, and the need to make room for his countrymen’s pursuit of goals, have we really become smarter compared to earlier generations? If ‘smart’ people should be reflecting on their actions and pursuits, have we become ‘smarter’ or have we become ‘thicker’?

I think, if we take current definition of smartness, we indeed have become smarter. The technological and engineering progress that we have achieved, the rise in standard of living (if not quality of life) are all testimonies for it. But the root of the issue, and a reason for all other problems, I believe, is that we are not just giving enough time to reflect. We are not just involving ourselves enough in reflection and introspective thinking. Henry Ford’s saying “A man who cannot think is not an educated man however many college degrees he may have acquired. Thinking is the hardest work any one can do-- which is probably the reason why we have so few thinkers” is still valid to great extent, when it comes to introspective thinking, even after more than 75 years.

I cannot make justice if I try to explain the importance of thinking and reflection. But it is worth pondering why some of the most influential persons in the world: Buddha, Tagore, Aristotle, Kant to name a few, were prolific thinkers. Tagore even goes onto say, in his Noble acceptance Speech that behind poems of Gitanjali lay years spent in seclusion and meditation on problems of life.

One of the biggest ironies of modern times is that people have become so busy that they do not have time for themselves (I believe a truly busy person will have time for everything). They are busy worrying about their bank balance, appeasing family, society and friends and trying to get ahead in the imaginative race they have defined for themselves. Various amusement tools including TV just take away attention in the name of relaxation. People involve themselves in various activities to such an extent that they leave themselves with no time for reflection.

I believe lot of improvement in quality of our lives can be achieved if people, whose intelligence is no way doubted, make time to reflect on their actions and pursuits. Only through reflection, introspection and reasoning people can realize the place of self-interest and the behavioral and change in outlook that is necessary. It is time to make time for reflection. It is time to reflect.


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"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." - Confucius