We all contain multitudes

In my previous post, I examined the basic concept of dialectical thinking. I explored dialectic as a means or model of reconciling opposing ideas. Now let me take a little time to dig a bit deeper into the core philosophical notion that reality is complex, and truth can be multifaceted. 

Earlier in my life I had great conviction in an underlying truth, in an optimal path, that I needed to uncover. Maybe my love of physics inspired in me a sense of order and predictability of the world. Just set up the equations of motion and solve, right? Boom, done. 

Surprise! It turns out that life is far more complicated than this.

I later discovered that there was great value in embracing contradictory perspectives—and even contradictory truths. This was a notion that took me a long time to reconcile. If two vantage points explicitly lead to contradictions, how could I embrace both? We all have diverging values and principles in life. What if those values or principles point us in two different directions? One says go right; the other tells us to turn left. Can we simultaneously go in opposite directions?  

In the physical sense, no. But in the conceptional and ideological sense, we can.

You can see the world as having both an underlying order and being inherently unpredictable. You can perceive business, relationships, and life through the lens of scientist and artist, even if these viewpoints lead to radically different visions. You can embrace the power of spirituality, even as you double down on the truth of traditional science. One of my favorite poems is Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”:

The past and present wilt—I have fill'd them, emptied them. And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me? Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening, (Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper? Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

You too are large. You contain multitudes. Contradictions can be contained within you. They can reinforce rather than negate each other. You don’t always need to be consistent, or, gasp, even logical. Maybe your logic is slightly different than Boolean logic or quantum logic. That’s good. You don’t always need to choose one line of reasoning, view life from a single perspective, or follow a fashionable way of thinking. This may ruffle other people’s sensibilities. 

That’s their problem, not yours.