An Overview

·A Brief Summary of the author’s point

·Why unpopularity ails us?

An evolutionary perspective;

·Eastern Views: Undue focus on “self”

·Other consolations brought by Eastern Views of self:

(1)  Taoism: a transcendence view of self;

(2)  Buddhism: the illusionary nature of self;

A Brief Summary of the author’s point

Which life path will you readily choose: to be reasonably right or to be welcomed by others? It is not even a surprise for us today to know that Socrates who lived an analytic life, would choose the former path in content and without hesitation. In the first chapter of the book—The Consolations of Philosophy, by citing the example of Socrates, the author discusses the problem of unpopularity, takes one step further by employing a Socratic manner of thinking(dialectically clarify ideas until a logically clear statement is made), and concludes: (1)do not even bother to be worrisome about your unpopularity, if others can not give you a rational, not-intuition-based explanation on why you are not welcomed and (2)it is very rewarding for us to embrace a Socratic manner in pursuing inner peace.

  Here, instead of discussing Socrates’ thoughts further, I emphasize two questions related to the problem of unpopularity:

(1)   Why unpopularity ails us?

(2)   On the same problem, besides a rational consolation from a Socratic thought, are there any consolations derived from other perspectives?

Why unpopularity ails us: An evolutionary perspective

Humans are social animals. We are designed by natural selection to depend on one another for our basic needs; we are not good, for example, at obtaining food alone. Throughout our evolutionary history, to be thrown out of the tribe was tantamount to death. The sensitivity of others’ attitudes facilitated cooperation which promoted our ancestors’ survival and reproduction. In the hunter-gatherer society we humans used to live in, a solitary man indifferent to others would definitely not live long enough to continue his story.

Eastern Views: Undue focus on “self”

On the question of why unpopularity ails us, the divergence between eastern and western views lies on the definition of where the rub is. Western views, be it philosophical or psychological, hold that it is one’s malfunctioned conscious self which can’t critically evaluate others that we are to blame. On the other hand, however, eastern ones contend that the undue focus on one’s “self” is the root of all evil: it ails us, for we care too much about others’ attitudes towards our “selves”.

Taoism: a transcendence view of self

Taoism suggests a transcendence view of self: your self doesn’t belong to you; it is a part of greater whole.

The ultimate goal of life proposed by Taoism is to be in a state of Wuwei(无为). The concept of the state of Wuwei is complex and has multiple facets. Modern Chinese philosopher, Feng Youlan（冯友兰）put that the state of Wuwei is a state of cosmic being. To keep it nice and simple, I borrow a short explanation from the book Trying not to try, by Edward Slingerland: the state of Wuwei is a state of being a perfected part of a greater whole and Wuwei itself is holistic, social, and religious. Self in essence is only a tiny fraction of the greater whole and unworthy of mentioning.

Buddhism: the illusionary nature of self

Buddhism holds a “schizophrenic” view of self: it is an illusion and doesn’t exist at all.

From the perspective of Buddhism, our senses, feelings, emotions, and thoughts are all, in nature, illusions: they are all false positives (we think we are in control of those, but in reality we are not) and give us a distorted reality (the root of all affliction). There is nothing that can be labeled as “self”: those things mentioned above, plus your physical body, are out of your control; they are in constant flux but “self” remains paradoxically consistent through time. (For a complete argument, refer to the book Why Buddhism is true, by Robert Wright)

Now take a look back at unpopularity: Does unpopularity still ail you with such transcendent and illusionary views of self bearing in mind? Does the problem even count itself?