TRANSFUTURISTIC RATIONALITY: A NEW CONCEPT IN HUMAN PHILOSOPHY

 

TRANSFUTURISTIC RATIONALITY: A NEW CONCEPT IN HUMAN PHILOSOPHY

(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, November 9, 2022; 08116181263; loisayuba420@gmail.com)

Before I proceed with this intellectual exercise, permit me to make a disclaimer here. I am not a linguist and do not have a literary license. However, our linguists and literary icons will pardon me to stray into their knowledge and professional domain today. After all, I am protected if writing is an art because art allows room for creativity.

Transfuturistic rationality (reasoning) is my intellectual coinage. I came about it when I was philosophizing and trying to put together one of my pieces under my literary column, "Modest Thoughts" which is a platform I have used to share my worldview on many cross-cutting issues affecting humanity.

Transfuturistic rationality or reasoning, in my estimation, is any present action or actions that are tale guided by future consequences or outcomes. When a man attempts to answer the question of what will the consequential effect of his action (s) tomorrow be, he or she engages in transfuturistic reasoning. Another concept that could be referenced or liken to this thinking is Buddhist philosophy encapsulated in the Law of Karma. The law of Karma summarizes that what a man sows, the same shall he reap. The scriptures replicated this law in the Book of Galatians 6:7.

I never understood the philosophy behind the Law of Karma until an Abuja-based computer guru, whom I have so much respect for, Engineer Ogak Gowon, lightens my intellectual ignorance through a response he gave to one of my numerous Social Media posts. Below was the intelligent hint he provided:

_"Must Japanese are Buddhist. Their religion teaches them the law of cause and effect. Karma. The Buddhists believe that your present life is determined by your past life. Hence their actions today determine their next life and so they are more worried about their next life by being conscious of their present state.. it is indeed a good life to emulate."_

Take note of the emphasis on consciousness about the interplay between present actions and future effects the explanation captured. Transfuturistic reasoning and the law of Karma are also in consonance with a wide range of natural science laws. Therefore, they are not abstract laws, but practical principles of life and nature. This calls for sober reflection.

Transfuturistic rationality is very important in the life of humans who are moral agents. It is germane because it has the potential to shape the quality of interaction amongst humans (social intelligence) and service to God (righteousness).

Transfuturistic reasoning is an intellectually induced factor for human progress. It relates to intellectual reasoning and capabilities that are smart in catching the vision of what tomorrow brings. The main thrust of the philosophy is that there is tomorrow in man's present enterprises and engagements.

Let me graft the full content of the idea that motivated the idea of Transfuturistic reasoning in the first place. Without editing, it reads: _"TRANSFUTURISTIC RATIONALITY

If tomorrow comes, that distress contact you refused to attain today, might just be the hotline you will need to sort yourself out of tomorrow's distress. Empathy, therefore, becomes the antidote for tomorrow's needless shame. This is what I termed transfuturistic rationality, that is, action(s) teleguided by future consequences (Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, April 16, 2022)." After putting together the body of this piece, the idea of the title mysteriously came to me and was accordingly reflected upon and developed.

Transfuturistic rationality is a phenomenon for all people. It is good for businessmen who want their customers to keep coming. If you maltreat your customers in business, they shall maltreat you tomorrow by not returning to patronize your product or services. It is good for politicians who always have the next election to face.

When a politician deceives people to win an election or a public officeholder failed to deliver on his core mandates to the people, his chances in subsequent elections will be jeopardized. Transfuturistic rationality is good for a student who is aspiring to be the best, valedictorian. Such a student must work hard to get it at graduation or miss out on the altar of laziness.

Transfuturistic rationality is all about the drive for enduring virtues of life. It is a vision, sympathy and empathy, love, morality, wisdom, endurance, patience, consistency, investment, etc. Towards a better and more rewarding future. It is a forward-looking phenomenon that de-markets the will to be insensitive to tomorrow's repercussions. Transfuturistic rationality encourages people to pursue the path of honour and integrity where people who make it to see tomorrow will not have to be ashamed about their yesterday's actions or inactions. It is all about carving a path in the way of increasing relevance amongst reasonable men.

Whoever wants to secure his tomorrow must not lose sight of history. Luck Dube sang a song with the lyrics "there is no future in the past" (history), agreed, but there is a great lesson to learn from it. History is the barometer that guides the launch path of success. A good knowledge of it helps man to avoid the pitfalls of the past while venturing into the future which is full of opportunities and possibilities. It is transfuturistic rationality when a man becomes history conscious as a strategy to escape the repeat of past contradictions.

The knowledge of the history of a horrible past like the Rwandan genocide, eugenics, and its clear genocidal manifestation in Nazi Germany, etc. Is necessary to awaken human consciousness about any movement that could plunge humanity back into those evil days of man's cruelty against man. It is in this light that Crichton (2004) wrote that the theory and history of eugenics was a dreadful and embarrassing one but it is a story that should be well known to every global citizen so that its horrors are not repeated. Anything short of the motivation to know about an ugly past to safeguard the future is transfuturistic irrationality.

We are all victims of transfuturistic negligence. Part of the future we refused to effectively construct yesterday is now the present (today) we are battling to survive. As a nation and as individual citizens, we are struggling with existential problems which derive from transfuturistic irrationality. Nigeria's socio-economic and political woes and structural imbalances which manifested insecurities like Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, etc., or escalating unemployment and poverty, stunted economic growth as well as endless agitations for holistic restructuring are there to warn us against further inaction because tomorrow will always come.    

Transfuturistic irrationality is when a man or a person throws caution to the wind and behaves as if tomorrow will not come. A classic example of transfuturistic irrationality is the John Maynard Keynes postulation which favors the short run (now) with the mindset that in the long run (future) we are all dead. Transfuturistically irrational persons are often present sensitive, but future useless. This means that should the future comes, the man who failed to plan gets confused or disorganized and at risk of missing it all. A disorganized today is a recipe for a chaotic tomorrow because the present and the future are functionally related under normal circumstances.

Transfuturistic rationality is the cultivation of wisdom in the womb of time. It is the consciousness to be proactive, that is, thinking ahead. The phenomenon is the defining element of visionary people who plan seeds which, upon germination, gives reasons for the celebration of past decision(s). Therefore, transfuturistic rationality is the currency of the future, which derives from present investments.

It is important to note that transfuturistic rationality is not a linear concept. Since the phenomenon has a time dimension, it is prone to natural and artificial moderation which can be dictated by unforeseen influences arising from the social environment. Transfuturistic reasoning subscribes to the theory of chaos which functions within the context of dynamism. Hence, it provides an opportunity for the hopeless to be hopeful since there is a window for surprises. This is the point of departure of this phenomenon from the law of Karma.

The gains and benefits of today's civilization are the product of somebody's sacrifice and commitment to trasfuturistic rationalization. On the other hand, however,  the woes the world is suffering today are products of somebody's transfuturistic irrationality.

At leadership levels, transfuturistic rationality gives birth to the transgenerational transformation of societies. At the individual level, trasfuturistic rationality raises the personality profile of those who cultivate it, but diminishes the profile of those who jettisoned it over time. May the benefit of this discourse awaken our consciousness to the need to take transfuturistic reasoning seriously.

Futuristic rationality is a deliberate attempt to strike a balance between life's responsibilities of today and the consequences of tomorrow. It has to do with the tracking and moderation of present actions to ensure that their consequences do not result in injurious pain(s), going forward. It is a new lexicon in human philosophy and/or relations within the context of the interrelationship between or amongst the actions or inactions of the past the present and the future.