Hegel believes that by refuting prior philosophical ideas and building upon them we can develop stronger concepts.  Lacan believes that our unconscious minds are structured like a language, and that language shapes our reality.  Zizek believes that we must identify and unmask the dominant ideological fantasies of our time to achieve meaningful social change.  I believe that philosophy must become increasingly creative to save the world from progressing towards a mindlessly-determined future.

The goal of philosophy in the modern era should not be to uncover the truth – science can handle that – philosophy should change the way we see the world and primarily be concerned with (1) how we create philosophical concepts, (2) how the ideas we create shape our actions, and (3) how we can create philosophical concepts that bring about good futures.  To do this, we need to understand what goodness means to us; we need to dismantle existing concepts and replace them with new ones; and we need to formulate a process that instills creativity in philosophy, a creativity that is powerful enough break through the epistemological inertia that constrains thinking and holds us back from world-changing revolutionary ideas.

It is not about articulating “good ideas,” but about intervening in the very structure of our symbolic reality and challenging the underlying fantasies that sustain problematic situations.

This is a radical, disruptive, and uncomfortable process that demands we confront the fundamental illusions that bind us, embrace the traumatic truth of our collective contradictions, and then, with courage and a renewed universal vision, engage in the “impossible” act of transforming our symbolic reality. 

The first steps of a poietic philosophical process are as follows:

     QUESTION

     DISMANTLE

     CREATE

     EXPERIMENT

     ITERATE

This poietic process synthesizes philosophical, scientific, and artistic approaches into a method through which we can develop concepts in conjunction with a concern for the impacts of our ideas upon the future.

QUESTION.  First we must question the concepts that shape our symbolic reality. All philosophy begins when we question our underlying assumptions.  To question in philosophy is to find gaps and inconsistencies within our existing conceptualizations.

DISMANTLE.  Next we must deconstruct and disassemble these existing concepts.  We can reuse some of the parts and some of the relationships if they prove valid, but not within this step.  To dismantle is to separate messy concepts into their component parts.

CREATE.  Now is the time to bring new ideas into existence.  The creation of new concepts may be the most challenging step of this process, but it is also the most important.  It is imperative that the ideas we create are beneficial, catchy, and easily understood.  To create an idea is to shape future thinking.

EXPERIMENT.  Before we put an idea into the world, we must conduct thought experiments to determine whether the created concept is likely to bring about good futures.  We should imagine what would happen if the idea were taken out of context by different people, in different places, and in different times.  To experiment in philosophy is to study how an idea might affect the thoughts and actions of individuals and societies across time.

ITERATE.  Lastly, we loop back around to the beginning, this time with greater knowledge and insight, attempting to solve the problems we uncovered in prior steps.  This is the hard work of good philosophy.  A good idea must be subjected to a rigorous iterative process.  To iterate is to question and dismantle our own ideas with the goal of creating better ones.

CREATIVITY AND OUR SYMBOLIC REALITY.

Zizek argues that our symbolic reality includes language, social norms, cultural codes, laws, and all other systems of meaning that shape our perception of ourselves and our world.  Our symbolic reality tells us what is permissible, meaningful, and even conceivable; it tells us what is possible.  In this way, our symbolic reality shapes our ways of seeing and our potentials for acting within the world.

We should not let our symbolic reality be the result of chance; we should consciously and actively shape it. The goal of poietic philosophy is to reclaim control over our symbolic reality through an intentional creative process. At present we do not have full control over the creation of ideas and ideologies; they are often passively shaped by the forces of the world, both human and non-human. We should not let our baser instincts and the brutal realities of existence shape our ideologies.

Due to the structure of language we tend to philosophize in a linear fashion, but philosophy should not be a linear process.  The creative process of philosophy loops back upon itself and can even become three-dimensional as we tap into thought experiments, design thinking, and the visualization of highly interconnected concepts.

Creativity is difficult in philosophy.  Thinking creatively is especially hard for modern philosophers, who often find it challenging to step beyond the known.  Epistemic inertia becomes stronger the more knowledgeable one is.  To be creative we need to open our minds to new ways of seeing and move beyond the confines of our own thoughts and our own symbolic realities.

In order to think creatively we must break our mental sets, kill our most prized thoughts, and consider the perspectives of others.  We need to learn new things, practice lateral thinking, and allow our ideas the time and space to grow and to deepen.

Creative philosophy can learn much from the visual arts. From Michelangelo to Van Gogh, and Jasper Johns to Jackson Pollock, many artists follow a rigorous process. This is a secret that these creatives hold dear; a strict process opens our minds to engage with content over form, and thus frees our souls toward creativity.

Creative philosophical ideas need to be catchy and concise. The general populace does not react well to esoteric explanations; we must cut to the conclusion and provide pithy one-sentence summaries that can be easily repeated. Philosophers still need to do the hard work of generating and testing ideas, but we also must provide more accessible interpretations.

A good philosophical idea may also require some kernel of selfishness within it. “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you” is catchy because it works in both directions – we selfishly understand the warning it poses to our own safety if we do not treat others well. Wittgenstein’s “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world” is similarly catchy because it relates directly to the individual’s perspective of the world, and at the same time it uses repetitive phrasing and a simple form to allow easy remembrance.

CONCLUSION.

Poietic philosophy intervenes in the structure of our symbolic reality, challenges the underlying assumptions that sustain our modern problems, and creatively brings better concepts into the world.  When we question and dismantle an aspect of our symbolic reality, we make space for new symbolic conceptions that have the ability to shape our future in different directions.  When we create, experiment, and iterate new concepts, we should consider whether the created ideas are good, true, and beautiful.  Do they reduce harm and increase happiness?  Are they compatible with our existing systems of knowledge?  Do they help us see the beauty of the world and remind us how precious our lives are?

In the end, there are gaps and inconsistencies in every concept we could possibly create.  Within a philosophical concept, we must point out where the idea breaks down.  In our one-sentence summarizations meant for the general public, we must note the limits of the idea.  In this sense we might summarize: the ideas we create shape our reality; it is important that we consider them carefully.

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Additional Reading:

The Sublime Object of Ideology, by Slavoj Zizek

Metaphors We Live By, by Lakoff and Johnson

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, by Ludwig Wittgenstein