Reversing the Slow Descent of Accepted Thought Toward The Inactive Commonplace

When I committed to writing and publishing something every day, I imagined it would involve a lot of writing about “the farm”.

While I plan to do that, I’m enjoying how this process has led me to a more formal reengagement with philosophy.

For the last couple days, that has specifically been Alfred North Whitehead and process philosophy.

I’d like to share a particularly interesting representation of Whitehead that I found in a video from Matthew D. Segall, a philosophy professor from California with a website and Youtube channel called Footnotes2Plato. The name comes from one of Whitehead’s most famous quotes:

"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

In Segall’s Introduction to Process Philosophy video, here is how he characterizes what process philosophy is to Whitehead:

To engage in an adventure of abstraction, to trust in our minds ability to know and to penetrate into depths as yet not understood, as yet unarticulated. So for Whitehead, the process philosophers aim - primary aim - is to reverse the slow descent of accepted thought toward the inactive commonplace by maintaining an active novelty of fundamental ideas that illuminate the social system. So philosophy for Whitehead is not merely an academic pursuit, it’s not merely about scholarship, it’s an active intervention upon social norms in an attempt to disturb and interrupt those norms. To refresh our understanding of what it means to be human, conscious, civilized creatures - earthlings. So that we never rest in dogmatic conception of the universe and our place within it. Philosophy’s role is to, as Socrates first taught us, to play the role of the gadfly. To question everything. But not just to question everything, to engage imagination so as to bring forth something new.

I don’t know about you, but this is an adventure that I want to sign up for. Both the underlying ideas and Segall’s choice of words are excellent.

That’s a long passage, so let’s break out some of the most important parts.

First, the aim of the process philosopher is:

“To reverse the slow descent of accepted thought toward the inactive commonplace by maintaining an active novelty of fundamental ideas that illuminate the social system.”

Put another way, the philosopher’s job is:

“To play the role of the gadfly. To question everything. But not just to question everything, to engage imagination so as to bring forth something new.”

This is what we want the farm to be.

We want the farm to be a gadfly. We want to question everything, disrupt the slow descent of accepted thought, and use our imagination to bring forth new ideas that lead to a refreshed understanding of what it means to be human and what our role in the world is.

I like the term “process”, and I like what it represents.

There is no finish line. There is no one starting place. Our job is ongoing, forever.

I think this is also a good reminder of how important it is to find joy and happiness in each day. The only place you’ll ever find them is right here and now, in the process of living. A lot of people fall into the trap of putting off the things they want to do most because there’s other things they feel like they have to do in the present.

The problem is there is an infinite amount of things you’ll perceive as “urgent”, so if you don’t purposefully make time for the things that are less urgent but still important, they’ll never get done. This is commonly represented by the “Eisenhower Matrix”, which is a big component of Stephen Covey’s third habit of First Things First.

According to Covey, the antidote to this problem of forever delaying the most important is to put them on your schedule first. Schedule your week ahead of time, and start with scheduling specific time for the things that are most important to you.

Sunday is a really good time to do this, so today I am going to take some time to schedule my upcoming week. I’m going to sit down and consider the roles I want to fill this week and the things I most want to do within each of those roles, then I’m going to put them on my schedule.

Not just on a list, mind you. They need to be given a specific time slot. A time and day. Picking a time and day is a commitment, and that commitment makes it much more likely that it gets done.

Is there anything you’ve been putting off that you really want to do? Does any part of your life feel stuck? Schedule some time for it this week. Even if you just pick one thing, you are engaging with the process.

Rewilding is engaging with this process again.

Everyone is a target. No matter where you stand on the spectrum of thought and practice, you can engage with these ideas. Start asking some questions, start doing something different.

Avoid the slow descent of accepted thought toward the inactive commonplace.

Rewild your mind, rewild your yard, or rewild your community. Question everything and engage your imagination to bring forth something new.

Engage with the process.

Pick something that would feel good to engage with this week, schedule time to focus on it, and do it.

Life is good!

Next: Welcome to the Farm