(1) Either I will be laid off from the company or I will not.
(2) If I will be laid off, I will be laid off whatever precautions I take.
(2*) If I will be laid off whatever precautions I take, then all precautions will be ineffective.
(2') So, if I will be laid off, all precautions will be ineffective (from 2).
(3) If I will not be laid off, I will not be laid off whatever precautions I neglect.
(3*) If I will not be laid off whatever precautions I neglect, then all precautions will be superfluous.
(3') So, if I will not be laid off, all precautions will be superfluous (from 3).
(4*) A precaution that is ineffective or superfluous is pointless.
(4) Therefore, all precautions are pointless (from 1, 2' and 3').
The conclusion creates confusion as it seems logical at the same time sophistical. It comes in as a direct blow to the people who cashes in on judicial deliberations.
The argument implies 'whatever happens in the future is already unavoidable'
No matter you take precautions or not, if event X is destined to happen, it would happen.
It asserts that any event bound to happen would happen independent of your actions, deeds, thoughts and efforts.
Agreed…..but does it mean that our precautions we take or the planning we form or the estimations we come up for a Project… all are pointless ??
Pointless just because irrespective of all these, if the Project is destined to be a failure in the future? Project you work on may get shelved because of sudden lack of funding or business breakdown or economy slowdown or change in business strategy – reasons galore.
Let us stop here and go back again to the argument of Fatalism and take Buller’s analysis to start with.
Let us analyze in greater detail…
(2) is ambiguous between
(2a) If I will be laid off, then I will be laid off and the precautions, if any, that I will take will not help me from being laid off
and
(2b) If I will be laid off, then I will be laid off and there are no precautions I can take which are such that I would not be laid off if I were to take them.
I will be laid off and the precautions, if any, that I will take will not prevent my being laid off
But its not true that....
If I will be laid off, then it is pointless to take precautions
Though I am going to be laid off, if I were to release the product in time or perform better (which I will in fact not do as its destiny), I should not be laid off....
Of course the company itself must not be in a loss to lay me off
Consider this way - I am going to be laid off,
And there is a precaution I can take which would prevent my layoff. It is not pointless for me to take precautions, since by taking precautions I can sustain in my company.
So....
If there are no precautions I can take which are such that I would not be laid off if I were to take them, then it is pointless to take precautions.
Fatalism requires that, if I actually will be laid off, I will be laid off no matter what my circumstances are.
But fatalism does not assert the view that there are some situations in life in which the outcome is beyond our control, rather, it is the view that all situations in life are those in which "the future will be of a certain nature regardless of what we do"
Sometimes, in spite of our efforts, we cannot do things that we want to do.
Although it seems reasonable that we can do these things. .. It was fated that.
And there is a precaution I can take which would prevent my layoff. It is not pointless for me to take precautions, since by taking precautions I can sustain in my company.
So....
If there are no precautions I can take which are such that I would not be laid off if I were to take them, then it is pointless to take precautions.
Fatalism requires that, if I actually will be laid off, I will be laid off no matter what my circumstances are.
But fatalism does not assert the view that there are some situations in life in which the outcome is beyond our control, rather, it is the view that all situations in life are those in which "the future will be of a certain nature regardless of what we do"
Sometimes, in spite of our efforts, we cannot do things that we want to do.
Although it seems reasonable that we can do these things. .. It was fated that.
The design was perfect, the coding was equally good. The test plan covered every possible scenario to test the product. All corner cases were looked into and all possible bugs were found by the QA and fixed by the developers. FCS is all set in and release dates fixed.
Suddenly an FCS blocker pops up from nowhere ! The release dates get pushed…..whole team back in action burning the midnight oil to release at the earliest….
The FCS happens smoothly…..
Still…..when it goes in the production network, the customer finds a P1 bug !
We call it ill-luck or fate and go for the postmortem analysis. Team does an RCA (Root Cause Analysis) and finds how the imperfection came in and closes the issue.
On the other hand, there are cases where we very easily do things we can not dream about. In such circumstances naturally emerges the idea of fate.
There is no chance he can get through the interview as he performed badly – still he is IN !
There is no chance that he could have got promotion as he faired poorly but still he fetched it !
I have tried all the ways to avoid encounter with traffic police, but still I get caught somehow. Why so ?
It seems very easy to achieve x. I do whatever is usually needed to achieve x, even more than that, but I fail. Or, it seems practically impossible to achieve y. I do something to achieve it, usually regarded as definitely not sufficient to achieve it, and I succeed. How come?
Perhaps it is psychologically easier to give a name "FATE" and blame - for our failures than ourselves. Since this form of argument applies to anything that happens, if sound, this argument shows that we can not make any influence whatsoever on the course of events. If this really is so, then a rational mind would dare to make a try since
there is no way we could prevent events we do not want to happen, nor way we could bring about events we want to happen.
Now let me come out of the philosophy and get back to PRESENT and start working !
The release date is nearing….. It may happen on time or dates may get pushed too far as well. I cannot take a laid back approach clinging onto the ‘Idle Argument’ and say to my Manager “Whatever happens in future is already unavoidable , so let us keep cool for the FCS”
He may reply: “Sanbalas, your lay off also is already unavoidable”
The above was a peep thru and my blatant analysis to the concept of Fatalism and as I read somewhere this is just a logical culmination of “an overflow of emotions collected in tranquility”. Let us take a sanguine perspective and learn from all our mistakes and failures and aim for improvisation in every aspect – be it in our sharpening of the skills or shaping up of the human values. Our LIFE is too short to LEARN LIFE in its entirety. Every moment counts….
Sasneham
Sanbalas
1 comment:
may be i will read later..
on first reading i am confused..
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