The Rational Mindset

As long as I can remember I’ve had trouble falling asleep at night. I find myself lying in my bed staring at my ceiling at night while my mind is swinging from the questions of life to frustration about not being able to fall asleep.  Which frustrating as it is, gives me quite a lot of time to think. You could say philosophy has been an involuntary form of pastime for me for a long time and in a way I would state that it has shaped my personality for a great deal.
Up until now it has been mainly current events, both in the news and in my personal life, which I’ve debated in my head. I try to look at stories from multiple angles, like the whole Cecil the lion story which pissed off pretty much the entire western population.
From social media posts to Jimmy Kimmel crying on international television, everybody was losing their mind.

We’ve been fed main stream pop culture like ‘The Lion King’ which made us connect our human emotions to Lions and other animals, so all we see a fat dentist who haunted and shot a thirteen year old lion and tried to cover up the evidence.

However, what we forget is that Lions are essentially furry killing machines.
They not only kill other lions and their cubs but also their own kids if it pleases them.
They kill local livestock and attack the local villagers, so really when the president of Zimbabwe reacted as if the entire nation was crying, he was full of shit.

What all media outlets failed to report on is how in these game reserves a Lions life is more valuable than say, a poor man trying to feed his family. In these game reserves there is a lot of poaching, often these poachers are hunting for ivory and other items to sell on the Chinese market. However on occasion these poachers turn out to be poor hungry men with makeshift guns who are trying to kill an antelope to feed their starving impoverished family.
These men, like the actual poachers, are reported to be shot on sight by wildlife rangers.

The point I’m trying to make is that we could all use some solitary thinking before we shortsightedly lose our mind and start pointing fingers.

It was a Monday when I entered the main hall of InHolland Diemen, made my way towards the cafeteria and took the stairs up towards the first floor of the E-wing for my first real taste of the IBIS program.
The subject we tackled was rationality and the way we think, what do you know and how come you’re so sure? Is it the way you and somebody else perceive that exact thing? Were you taught by somebody? In short, what does it mean to think in a rational way? But why is this useful? What value does this carry for the rest of the course and how will this help me develop my professional skills?

I decided to look at it in a rational way (see what I did there?), the IBIS program aims to teach its students how one can seize opportunity, create possibilities and see capabilities in ways conventional business students will fail at doing so. To achieve this skill one must have a thorough understanding of the problem at hand. You have to be able to take a step back and see the situation in its entirety.
Furthermore, because you’re expected to be a creative professional your solution to a problem might seem unconventional to the person who decides to give it the green light or not, and you’ll have to be able to explain the thought process behind your ‘madness’ and convince them they are making a rational decision.

We made the small step to the famous philosopher René Descartes, the founding father of rationalism whom in a time where most philosophers pointed at god or other forms of authority to justify their philosophy. Descartes on the other hand argued that the biggest questions in life could be answered by personal experience gained by exposure to as much different opinions, personalities and situations as possible. A philosophy I share and try to follow as much as possible.

At some points the exercises we did during class reminded me of the 5 year old nephew I have who keeps asking the question “Why?” to every answer he gets. Even though I’m fairly sure he’s just trying to annoy me and get me to chase him around the yard, from now on I’ll regard it as his curiosity and keep that in mind as a reminder/metaphor to stay curious, skeptical and always  look for rationality to take away doubt.