Reasoning Our Choices

By Reuben Ray

The philosophy of reasoning for the choices we make combines biological, psychological and social factors to provide a values approach. Our values are the basis on our choices across the four realities. It is our values that drive our conflicts and unhappiness across human societies and in our personal relationships which needs to be understood to deliver peace and happiness. Reasoning Our Choices brilliantly elucidates why the Universe and the societies we inhabit is the way it is; it is for everyone to learn and improve our reasoning to find greater harmony within our choices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Oct 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9789388942447

Reuben Ray

Reuben Ray is the CEO of Pexitics.com | PexiScore.com which deals with People Management for corporates in India and abroad. He has over 18+ years of experience in handling people-oriented services and advisory to the Indian Corporate and SME sector and is an advisor to startups and new age economy sectors for Talent Framework, engagement & values framework. The author is a Trainer for subjects within Talent Management like Competency mapping, Hiring, Leadership, Talent Framework, Workplace Values, Engagement and Happiness at Work attributes of human psychology.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Hunter Gatherers To

Gadget Hunters

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.

Why does global warming fail to make people conscious of the impending danger to the globe? Do people choose to ignore it, and if so, why do the messages fail in awakening our conscious? Is the message wrong or not worthy of importance? The message does not hit us right, like a disease does; it is because we intrinsically choose based on value principles and not view objects like pollution through moral ethics. Pollution is the primary cause of global warming, and it is a result of the very components we use in everyday life; the industries producing the goods where we serve and earn our living, our automobiles which drive us around, which are not to be considered noxious and detrimental in our view, as we do not reason these choices from the values of waste and harm, but of living and enhancing our survival and comfort. Objects like automobiles and factories enhance our financial and economic well-being in our communities. They are the leading indicators of accretion of wealth and industrious prosperity for a nation. Behind the communication of global warming lies not the communication, but the way we reason with it, which is failing to awaken us, because we consider certain objects as important to the existence of a society; we need to oppose all the things that pollute, even if we love and are dependent on them, for the message to trigger us into action.

Pollution is a result of products and facilities we have assimilated in our everyday life that we can no longer do without. Water bottles and plastics, mobility and communication devices are discarded everyday due to their easy availability and higher perishability. Additionally, the objects we value as important for our happiness cannot be overnight labeled as pollutant! Choices we make are often our means of livelihood and survival. Thanks to the values we attach and provide symbolic reasoning as our social structure, we have decided for automobiles and gadgets to have a higher value in society than Mother Earth. Again, choices we make are rationalized by the framework of value principles, sitting deep in our subconscious to suit our expectations, rather than observing them from objective perspectives of choices and implications.

Choices are anchored in our thoughts and feelings. Morality, the term we conceptualized to explain our inner conscious seems missing when we label such values with reasoning that might match the immediate, but leaves a trail of moralistic gaps in our processes of reasoning and feelings. This is because anything in conflict with survival will be rejected, even when pitted against the highest virtues of honesty and morality. This is also why the value principle of survival often makes us choose the survival of humankind as a higher virtue than being right, or moral, or honest, or philanthropic in conditions of moral conflict of choices and offers a better sense of reasoning to favour the human over other species of life. Also worthy to note that honesty and morality are not universal values, but cultural concepts that vary with nations and communities based on their principles of reasoning.

We are born as a result of choices our parents make; the choice begins with an idea of having a kid. It doesn’t bear a face or an identity, but only imagination, and finally on landing on the mighty earth, we become a choice as if none other would be able to make us this happy! Parents make a choice and defend the choice as the baby springs and jumps and crackles into bursts of laughter, making us the happiest in our entire human experience. No baby is ever ugly, though the same babies, one they attain adulthood, are given odd names or bullied in school or at work for their outlook and physical bearings. So what changes over the years? A closer look tells us that the commonality of such oddities lie in the way we reason ourselves behind our actions, and have been at it for ages.

When we label someone or something, whether bad or good, we observe from the prism of value principles that we consider the most rational way to evaluate people or things. We do this subconsciously due to factors we develop from an early age, based our culture and intellect. Babies observed from the values of cuteness and innocence is the result of two humans entwined in love; we find those from our family or community a lot more ‘cuter’ than the rest, highlighting the reasoning of our values bring driven by a set of factors, which we shall term as the value principles of reasoning. We do not choose in emptiness, but use a reference point. The suggestive references for reasoning our choices are the value principles.

Automobiles, bikes, gadgets and technologies are seen advancement of the human intellect, and thus considered as symbols of determination and perseverance as a species; some even consider it from the values of ethics. As humans, we have successfully removed ourselves from the wrath of nature, facing lesser wild animals and unknown diseases with each passing age. It helps us push the narrative of technology, from a perspective of reasoning that is difficult to question. As a result, we bare-empty the womb of Mother Earth of her resources of natural wealth to reason for our right to plunder.

Readers won’t fail to notice that our choices are always justified from a standard of reasons that are hard to ignore on their apparent face value and at times backed by congruous reasoning. These perspectives aid in glorifying the human race as the ultimate benevolent species to help earth and the universe survive the wrath of its creators; God and the devil. Reasons of scientific temper argue through a different reality, which is the beneficence through progress of society and humanity, and this may need the will to override all objections, including ones delivered from the point of ethics, where caring for other species is an equal, if not a greater responsibility for the most intelligent species for a sustained campaign of equality of all species. Both perspectives, driven by a hierarchy of logic, leads to the value principle of survival; the former considers the need to invent more for human survival while the latter bats for the value principle of survival by considering the threat that could arise from ignorance of the need to progress irrespective of the lives of other natural partners of the animaldom that inhabit our universe.

The temptations of reason

The human brain, filled with a trillion of nerve connectors, define for us the choices we make, based on how we ordain the brain with the preferred order of precedence to follow while justifying our reasoning; it ends up shortening the process of making a choice, thus making it easier for us to define our stand against a defined set of objects or feelings we might encounter as counter reasons. Such reasoning can be observed in our ideological beliefs or our ‘rational’ response statements to justify our thoughts. Choices result in love and violence; choices for war or peace are concepts faced since time immemorial and we will keep reasoning for one, depending on the outcome we are more eager to comply or agree with. Choices beget us to action, to provide hope and empathy, to give or take, to like or dislike. Though they may not be meant to dislike the opposite, but it is a natural collorary that when we choose something above the other, we exhibit our rationality with reason. We ascribe to a select choice through reasoning by using values like hate or love, cowardice or bravery, power or wealth that explain themselves from the sub-component apparatus of cognition.

If one considers racism as the reason to hate or love something, it is reasoned by their feelings of affection for the context within which is it applied, and where the outcome is determined by a set of reasons that reflect these values. These values can be clustered together under a framework of value principles and shall are used frequently by our sub conscious. Value principles can be moral or immoral; ethics is the ability to use the right value principles using virtues of honesty and dignity. The concept of justice is considered ethical irrespective of whom it punishes and whom it rewards or how it determines the power to decide the fate of its subjects. This can be understood if we reach back to Socrates; he questioned whether it would be just to return the arms a friend had kept with you for safekeeping, but now seek it back when they are not in the right frame of mind. What would be your answer to be considered as justice? To answer, we shall be forced to tempt our reasons.

So where does this temptation land us? This leads us to the objective understanding that value principles can be corrupt, or can lead us to a greater joy, dependent thus, on the value principles we observe to reason for our choices. When we advocate a certain practice, principle or ritual, be it at work of within the family or society, we offer the reasoning that could be based on studies or research or hearsay (‘this is the best that is available’) and then offer the value principle of culture (‘this the way we do it’) to adhere to an outcome that pushes our outcome rationale. Simply put, we use reason to not only reason, but are tempted to use it to achieve the effective possibility of an outcome that pleases us or confirms our beliefs or biases.

If we take this argument a little further, we can observe that while dealing with people to apply our moral or ethical, social or cultural conduct, we are required to reason from a perspective of values. If you are in a new country, you would first seek help from people who are your countrymen; in a smaller setup like a town or city, the use of our mother tongue creates a stronger sense of trust. We do it all the time during our games and sports by supporting the nation or the city club. Observe how we reason our choices among humans not on how they score on a scale of humanity, but our attributes of language, culture or land. In India, caste and religion plays a big role in power and politics while offices are politicking with common connectedness not based on human values, but ideology or birth place, language or religion, color or race to drive our likes and dislikes for our fellow colleagues and countrymen. Such reasoning standards become the anchor to our interpretation of our thoughts into feelings in claiming our choices. We attach a label of values to the outcome to determine our reasons for accepting or rejecting the choices presented before us.

While choices are the options, decisions are the options we finally opt in. The former is the multitude, while the latter is the result of our capacity to observe and make informed choices. Decisions, which in simpler terms mean making informed choices, are not spared from our biases. These too are based on rational reasoning of the choice coated with an outcome that will be driven from the factors of value principles. If a CEO chooses a market strategy to win over markets, they are doing it with the value principles of domination or their own reputation and gain recognition of their knowledge and efforts from the stakeholders and the Board. While one may argue that they are doing it for their enterprise, what is the core motivation to do it for one enterprise and then also go about doing it for another? The answer lies in the question.

Decisions in their truest sense are an outcome of our experiences, where past experiences play a major role of influence. Using a Conscious Brain Experience (CBE) enables us to observe objects using our cognitive processing skills, where the outcome through value principles will be predefined, but the choices will still be bad or kosher. Behind every saint and murderer is a human first. So is every leader. When we need to take a decision, we are presented with empirical evidence, data, and historical outcomes from the past to help define the decision using a scientific approach and with fact-based rational outcomes. Companies still fail and teams still lose. This is partially due to our biases which fail to accept or ignore factors that remain outside our condescending reality. Another cause is the outcome we seek to promote as a value principle to motivate us in the decision making process. Good leaders are known to avoid taking decisions where there is no ‘skin in the game’ or an outcome that they consider not worthy of importance and not in sync with their value principles. We decide our philosophy based on whether we like the people who invented it, or whether it is in sync with our cultural values. Someone motivated by wealth will be keen to be a part of the decision making process if there is wealth and power as an outcome for them. When we went around with our product PexiScore, a unique scoring logic that makes hiring simpler and more efficient, most Human Resource Managers rejected it on the basis of reputation; we were not famous enough for them to be seen promoting or trying out a new approach.

The human race, since centuries have been adventurous, but limited themselves to adventurous outcomes only where the value principles benefits or enhances the accumulation of wealth or knowledge. Decision making fails not because the knowledge was inadequate or missing; it is because we fail to deconstruct the feelings for the objects of choices and see it purely as an outcome. Let us observe the earlier dilemma of Socrates; some will argue that it is a greater justice to return what belongs to another as the root of reasoning in their concept of justice, while others will worry about the frame of mind of their friend and thus not returning the arms to be a wiser justice towards friends. Did you notice what was missed in this decision making process? It was not whether to return the arms or not, which one shall do if it doesn’t belong to them in the first place, but to first reason their friend and engage them to regain a positive frame of mind to ensure there are no casualties of action left unaddressed. We often do not recognize the universe of choices we have in the first place.

We mentioned cognitive processes a while ago, and we have now added to it the complexity of the universe of choices. There is a debate on intellect and some people consider others to be of lesser intelligence. While this has some factual truth, it is also true that even intelligent people determine their choices from a value principles framework. And the framework helps them decode the reasoning of choices much faster, whether it is electing a representative or choosing how to ration the earnings. The notion that intelligence, or the lack of it does not affect our values can be understood when we put it to test in the plant and animal world, sans humans. For humans, our aspirations and expectations lead to our motivations.

For a poor farmer, what often is missed is not the lack of motivation for wealth, but the need to survive that bears a larger meaning. If you are in an income bracket which categorizes you as poor, there are some realities which can be accepted as facts and categorized into truths. One of the belief systems reminds them of their inability to become richer or rich enough to own their choices. Even the middle income classes rarely believe they have choices when it comes to life’s milestone choices; choices that can be called a milestone of change in their lives. If that be the hypothesis, the bigger driver of this belief comes from the lack of an individual identity and roots. Not simply roots, but grounding of roots. Poor folks can hardly explain their roots. All they have is a story that explains how they are where have succumbed to, and how they expect to be better, unless something untoward happens. As a metaphor to nature’s systems, one can compare them to saplings. Saplings die if they are subjected to frequent pot changes.

Grounding of roots is important for prosperity. So, while they might travel to faraway cities and towns for income, the roots are loosely grounded in some city devoid of their existential roots. And when you have such weak roots, which can be pulled apart from the ground by the mere threat survival, these income groups support each other as a community and put in their collective might when it comes to decisions like electing their political representative. The politician may do not much to improve their livelihood but will still be elected till he or she can ensure no threat to their grounding in the urban metropolis. The reason for low income vote banks being driven by the value principles of social dependency is because they reason with their values of income survival. To survive their life journeys, they are often told to be singularly loyal to the representative who ensures their survival, and they are happy to abide by the command, as their expectations of breaching the milestone choices are rare and few.

It is these representatives who understand this better and exploit it by creating fathoms of gaps between their economic truths and dreams to make them more disillusioned about overcoming their stature. And how can anyone improve their financial stature when the milestones of success are only being pushed further and further away due to the lure of new products, new inventions and new objects of luxury? It is a mistaken belief that the poor are unintelligent; they may not understand complex equations, but every object in this universe strives for the highest value principle of survival; be it a dog, a bird, a tree, a human or a community. What they do lack is an understanding of the universe of choices that can be tapped for reach for the mirage that creates new illusions everyday; they are however worldly wise to not fall into that trap, unlike middle income aspirations that keep chasing dreams into the chaos of choices.

Every progression is a step towards chaos. This is due to the multiple uncertainties that we are bound to face. Ageing and health are perfect examples here. As a child, we learn to deal with chaos; the struggle to drink milk for nourishment to subjects and books we are forced to study, as we may lack interest in them. As adults, we are forced to choose careers and livelihoods that may be far from the passion of sports and music that every teenager uses to pursue in their happiness moments. As a parent, the responsibilities become far enormous leading to higher state of uncertainty.

Every movement forward is a move towards uncertainty that leads to chaos. This can be explained using the primary factors of objectivity in our universe when we consider the notion of objects, feelings and concepts, we can summarize the reality in a more fundamental way than ever explained before. Consider yourself, me, people around us, the plants and pets, the house, the color or the stars as objects. Anything that can be seen, felt or heard are objects. Objects have within themselves physical properties. These physical properties can generate energy and power; they also carry identities. However, when we observe them in our own reality, we are fed with thoughts. These thoughts can be positive, negative or neutral dependent on the properties they have, like the piercing eyes of a tiger that can evoke the thought of fear or the colorful LED light of the smartphone that begs our curiosity. Our thoughts deliver intellect or feelings; feelings when expressed are perceived as emotions. Intellect is the choice of thoughts during a conscious state of reality. We may see a stranger and find their face familiar; if we put that thought aside, we are refraining our feelings from expressing themselves. Not all thoughts generate feelings. Driving through a rough road patch makes us conscious of our reality and we do not allow feelings to overshadow our intellect, enabling us to drive through such rough patches by being conscious. But we can also be controlled by our feelings to generate values; we can immediately blame the government for not caring for its citizens’ misery in driving through such nasty roads and this way we label values. When we were driving, we were reasoning with the value principles of survival to not allow any feeling to penetrate our concentration; there is no time to generate feelings when confronted with a beast. Once we are through with it, we shall now reason our thoughts through another set of value principles to blame using reasoning with others on the journey and how we nearly succumbed to death! There is this chaos which plays out in our mind while choosing among our thoughts.

The uncertainty that chaos presents is due to the numbers of objects influencing it; and the feelings we consider in accepting the chosen. Let me elucidate using an every example; when we are driving to work every day, and if we clock the time, we will notice variations of duration in our commute. This can be due to the multiple parameters like;

•The time we left home

•The road we took to reach

•The amount of traffic

•The driving capability and ethics of other drivers (considering that we remain highly ethical in our driving standards).

•The speed of our vehicle at both free and clogged traffic situations.

The thoughts intercepting our mind, causing unstable reactions of