|
Social
Organizations and 21st Century Philosophy |
|
|
Dr. S. S. Apte |
|
|
Introduction |
|
|
Nineteenth
century view of the world and therefore the Philosophy
of living was based mostly on religious concepts.
Twentieth century witnessed scientific progress at a
remarkable speed culminating in biotechnology at the
turn of the century. |
|
|
|
Philosophy of
21st century, to be effective and useful, has to take
cognizance of this. The confusion on this issue is
already evident from deteriorating value system in all
spheres of life. Hence this humble attempt to put the
matter in right perspective. |
|
|
|
Background
concepts |
|
|
|
Structure, form, function
We perceive the material world around, through its
structure (elements of its
formation), form (external appearance) and function (its
impact on surroundings) |
|
|
|
Time and space
Temporal (Time) and spatial (space) dimensions of it
have given rise to complex world of nature from atoms to
man. |
|
|
|
Quality and quantity
Our mind expresses this understanding by quantity
(perceived through intellect) and quality (perceived
through feeling). |
|
|
|
Change
This is the fundamental aspect of the universe. |
|
|
|
Man and Universe |
|
|
|
The nature is
unfolding itself through constant change. From
evolutionary perspective our earth came into existence
as a huge glow of hydrogen atoms. Slowly arose the
mineral, vegetable, animal kingdom, and man dominating
the scene through its intellectual facilities. Man is
thus nothing but a part of this natural phenomena of
change. |
|
|
|
Man as an Individual |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
As an individual, on time
dimensions, man follows this course. Spatial dimensions
of man have expanded through its mental operations. |
|
|
|
As a child, emotional facet of
mind starts developing beginning with love/attachment
axis. Conflicts with surroundings give rise to flight
response denoted by fear / fright / anxiety and fight
response exhibited in anger/irritability. |
|
|
|
As the child grows ‘reasoning’
takes over as a manifestation of intellectual facet of
mind. The individual identity of these operations,
emotional and intellectual, is evident at adolescence. |
|
|
|
Through conscience, man tries to
strike balance over the conflicts arising out of its
mental operations. |
|
|
|
The Worlds of Man |
|
|
|
Collective mind
of man, operating over thousands of years, has given
rise to knowledge. Religion, ethics, various
philosophies to promote and maintain social life coupled
with symbolic representation of thinking demonstrated in
various arts were the forerunners of science as we know
today. |
|
|
|
The science has
the greatest impact on today’s world because of
associated technological advances. This has given rise
to an entirely new world conflicting with nature but
offering comforts to human life. |
|
|
|
Human Society and Two Worlds |
|
|
|
An essential
force to maintain this manmade world is money, while the
balance of natural world stands on conscience, goodwill
and faith amongst society members. Ultimately man is an
animal. The trouble starts when he yields to the
pressure of money to acquire comforts of manmade world
at the cost of his conscience and value system. |
|
|
|
The 21st
century philosophy has to resolve this conflict to
maintain peace. |
|
|
|
Philosophy of action for 21st
century |
|
|
|
First of all one has to understand
that maintaining the balance between these two worlds is
essential for his survival. |
|
|
|
One has to have
centrifugal direction for his/ her activity. Whether my
action is good for me ---family----society should be the
first question to be answered. “good” is a relative term
bound to time and circumstances. |
|
|
|
One crucial
point is to develop social capital, i.e. fostering the
element of trust, goodwill and confidence amongst
individuals especially those at the helm of
organizational affairs. This ‘social capital’ is as
important for the maintenance of natural balance as
‘finance’ for development of manmade world. |
|
|
|
Persons in the
field of education, medicine, literature, law and
recently media and communication have a great responsibility
towards society. They need to formulate and adopt a
definite philosophy of action at individual and
organizational level. |
|
|
|
This paper is prepared to
stimulate dialogue amongst such individuals. |
|
|
|
Social Organizations- Model for
Action, Direction, Expected changes and Evaluation |
|
|
|
Society is a
macro system. Where to start? What to do? What would be
the result of action? How to evaluate it? Any social
organization need to answer these questions in the
beginning itself. For this we need a reference frame.
Following model may serve this purpose. |
|
|
|
Model: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Individual |
|
Society |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brain
-------------------------- |
Control ------------------ |
Government |
|
|
Organs
------------------------ |
Units --------------------- |
States |
|
|
Cells
--------------------------- |
Functioning Units -------- |
Individuals |
|
|
Molecules
---------------------- |
Matter -------------------- |
Material World |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In an
individual there are thousands of cells, the
coordinated functioning of which leads to a balanced
state - Health. |
|
|
|
Similarly, in the context of society, an individual is a
functional unit. |
|
|
|
Therefore, activities of a social organization has to be
individually oriented. |
|
|
|
Direction |
|
|
|
At an
individual level, health, education and economic well
being are the main areas to be taken care of. It is
essential to decide one’s main area of activity. Keeping
in mind that it is related to other areas for proper
development and can not be tackled in isolation. |
|
|
|
One
should educate and motivate people in respected areas so
that as a group they should become self sufficient to
move further. |
|
|
|
Expected changes and Evaluation |
|
|
|
The changes
with reference to areas indicated earlier are not
visible in a short time. But it is possible to find out
whether one is able to create a group to take on the
responsibility. Once that is done it is easier to lay
down evaluation criteria for group members. At this
stage, activity becomes self-propagated and progress is
guaranteed. |
|
|
|
Top |
