What is the right amount of contemplating?

Socrates famously said, “An Unexamined life is not worth living”. Now that’s all well and good for a guy from 2000 years ago, but did he ever get to experience the luxury and convenience of the 21st century? Probably not. Neither did Epicurous but he still recognised how much better it is to just have fun and advocated for a life based on pleasure. But then again, was this just because Epicurous was an elitist who didn't have any problems that needed solving? Or perhaps Buddha’s ‘middle way’ is best, where we do everything in moderation. Point is, everyone’s got their own perspective on how much we should contemplate- let’s contemplate that for a bit. To think, or not to think (and how much)-that is the question!

So for starters, we can rule out the option of spending all day every day contemplating, as there obviously would be no life left, thus to contemplate on. Plus we need to spend some time eating, sleeping and doing all those other grotesque things humans do to survive. But there may be arguments for spending most of the day contemplating. For life is a chaotic mass of swirling particles for which we don’t even know how many dimensions there are, let alone whether we should have pineapple on pizza or not. There are just so many conundrums to tackle. So, the way I am going to tackle this question is by first positing the hypothesis that spending the majority of the day contemplating is ideal, then look at all the arguments that could disprove this hypothesis and whether they hold any weight.

Reason 1 against contemplation: Doing a lot of contemplation leads to anxiety and sadness.

I’m sure everyone has at some point been victim to the 21st century disease of overthinking. For some, it leads to rumination that goes round in circles to no particular end and for others it maybe leads to full blown breakdowns (that would be me). The alternative is a much more peaceful place encompassed by the Daoist ideal of Wu wei. Wu wei is about effortlessly going with the flow and living in harmony with the natural order of the world. Mihhalyi Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his book, The Psychology of Flow, how those who experience more instances of flow states are happier.

First, this logic presupposes that the meaning of life is singularly to be happy. Regardless of your ethical stance on this, what we know from evolutionary psychologists is that the human brain was not built to be happy; it was built to survive and proliferate genes. The way that humans have occupied their niche in this world is specifically by getting a bigger brain to think more. Not only are our brains bigger, but specifically it’s our prefrontal cortex that is unique in its ability to plan and analyse. Therefore, what’s the point in pursuing only happiness if we were made for something else?

“Evolution smevolution”, I hear you retort. “It doesn’t matter what we’re made for, this is what I want damnit!” Okay so let’s say there is some merit in pursuing our happiness. And flow states are the way to do it. Well, that psychologist that came up with the theory of flow states, he also said that multiple conditions have to be met to reach them. Life is a beach and many do not have access to those conditions. To reach any kind of happiness, we need to contemplate on how to reach the conditions of happiness first. They are not a given.

Reason 2 against contemplation: We need more action to progress.

I always thought it was interesting how my history teacher contrasted Ancient Greece with Ancient Rome. He said the Romans sought to find out what they needed to do to get what they wanted. And the Greeks were more interested in contemplating on why things worked the way they did. Both were pretty successful civilisations but it is Ancient Rome that is famed for its power and innovative technological progress, including the invention of aqueducts, roads and the modern legal system. This might suggest that putting more emphasis on the ‘doing’ is the path that leads to swifter progress. Additionally, for much of history, humans had to spend most of their day acquiring food, cooking food and maintaining the home- there simply wasn’t time for contemplating.

However, it was the Greeks who came first and certainly Ancient Rome stood on the shoulders of Ancient Greece. The philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Socrates- all Greek. These are the guys that laid the foundations of Western civilisation and inspired much of how Ancient Rome organised itself. And as to the point of needing to act to acquire food and take care of the home, the more we have contemplated on how to do these things, the better we have been able to do them and faster. In fact, it was because of the enlargement of the human brain and increased cognitive power that we were able to begin acquiring more complex foods and cook in the first place. And just look at the enlightenment period, when science came into being- an arguably very contemplative activity leading to lots of progress.

So, yes, while we cannot have progress without taking action, we have to lay the groundwork first, through contemplation, to make the actions that we take worthwhile. So you could (very gingerly) say that contemplation is just as important as action so they should be done an equal amount.

However, we are now presupposing that continual progress is the end we are seeking. But if we compare ourselves to Ancient Greece and Rome, we know so much more now and people live much more comfortable lives. Hell, just today I got toilet paper delivered to my door, I had a meal that took 2 minutes to cook in the microwave and I asked generative AI to write this essay for me- only joking- but I could have. Arguably, we have become a little too obsessed with “progress”, but is this pursuit bound to perpetual insatiability?

Reason 3 against contemplation: There is not as much of a need for progress now.

You’d be hard pressed to find a contemporary philosopher that would hold the above view. Yes, okay, we are a bit of a moany species and like to focus on the negatives a lot. But while our technology is pretty advanced, how advanced is our understanding of emotional wellbeing? How advanced is our ability to quit slowly killing the entire planet through overuse of its resources? And saying that modern human lives are now quite ‘comfortable’ would be a slap in the face for many around the world living in poverty. 44% of the global population live on less than $6.85 per day. The bottom 90% of the population own only 15% of the world’s wealth. Call me a negative Nancy about all this and I’ll call you a positive Patrick. There’s still a lot of progress to make to reduce suffering.

This is not just on a societal scale but also on an individual level. Do we really believe that we would make as good decisions if we always just did the first thing that came to our minds, without thinking about it? Perhaps. Or perhaps there is reason to believe that with every problem we tackle, another comes up and our brains are simply too feeble to contemplate well enough to reach truly unbiased and fruitful thoughts.

Reason 4 against contemplation: Our brains aren’t actually that great at contemplating to useful ends.

Speak for yourself! Actually, this is an argument I can to an extent, get. And I really love epistemology so this paragraph should be fun. On Wikipedia, there are 150 cognitive biases listed. That’s right, we aren’t just stupid in a few ways, we are stupid in 150 ways. These 150 biases can broadly be encompassed by two categories: 1. When our brains are overloaded by too much information so we focus on a particular aspect of that information. 2. When there’s not enough information so we fill in the blanks or make up meaning. In addition, the majority of historical scientific theories that we have come up with have been overturned.

Nonetheless, as frustrated as I get at my own brain sometimes, I cannot deny how much better humans have gotten at reasoning. With thanks to people like Socrates or even little data analysts like myself. So even if there are some limits to human thinking, we can continue to get better. That won’t happen if we don’t practice. Moreover, because we still have all these biases, this is why we need to spend extra time on contemplating. That’s why as time goes by, as research improves, it takes longer. First people just talked through a problem, then they started using testimony and people’s experience. Some way down the line, the scientific method came into play and people started collecting quantitative data. Then we came up with the one and only randomised control trial and now meta-analyses are seen as the best standard of evidence. Essentially, the longer we think for, the more accurate our data is.  

So we should spend most of the day thinking then?

So do any of the arguments against contemplating for most of the day hold weight? In sum, not really. I think contemplation helps progress us in so many ways and it’s so much a part of what it means to be human. But. I concede that I may have to default to that ever so nebulous conclusion of “it depends”. On a number of things really. The below will retrace and summarise the arguments made above, but with the relevant caveats. Then we shall rather therapeutically, conclude.

What it depends on.

1.     The first argument was that although contemplating makes you anxious and sad, happiness isn’t everything. But also, that to achieve any happiness, we need to contemplate on how to meet the conditions for happiness. The caveat is, that that thinking definitely should be done in the right way about the right things. Some topics just lead you into debilitation or worse. Those should be avoided. And we have to avoid thinking styles like perseveration, cognitive fusion, intrusive thinking or contemplation that leads to burnout. This paragraph could easily be its own essay.

2.     The second argument said that we need more action for progress. But I retorted we need at least as much contemplation to make sure those actions are worthwhile. However, sometimes when you live in poverty, you just don’t have the time to contemplate because you’re busy trying to put food on the table. Those people probably need to act more and contemplate less. Others, more privileged, should contemplate on their behalf on how to help them.

3.     The third argument made the point that we shouldn’t be so obsessed with progress and try to enjoy what we have achieved already. I argued that actually, there’s still a lot to fix. I do think once we have reached a point of satisfactory progress, we should not obsess over progress for the sake of it. Sometimes an obsession with progress can crossover into greed or obsession at the expense of others’ wellbeing.

4.     The fourth point made the argument that we don’t think that well but we get better at it every day and that pursuit is worth it. However, I don’t think everyone is suited to the contemplative life, simply because they weren’t born with the skills or temperament for it. Other skills people have are also valuable and perhaps less thinking- oriented, like driving a delivery truck or… a politician? So they could spend less time on contemplating.

Conclusion

So basically, since there’s still a lot to fix in the world, contemplate at least as much as you act, up to the point that it 1) infringes on your mental health 2) you are able to, based on your socioeconomic status 3) you are not doing it for the sake of greed 4) you have the skills to do it well.

But do remember, I probably have like 55 unconscious biases influencing my every thought, which may lay challenge to everything I’ve just said. Damn, shoulda done a meta-analysis!