Ben Birkenstock is completing his MA in Interdisciplinary Humanities in the philosophy stream at Trinity Western University in Vancouver, Canada. Ben was born in Germany, grew up in China, and has enjoyed trying his hand at teaching, especially when it involves complicating commonly-held ideas about the history of Western philosophy and its differences from Chinese philosophy. His research focus is Daoist philosophy, Chinese and comparative philosophy, and modern research on humility and paradoxical psychological processes.
What excites you about philosophy?
Philosophy done well, I think, has the capacity to help us to worry less. I have encountered several students of Western philosophy, as well as some public opinion, that tend towards almost the opposite conclusion: philosophy leads to entanglement in unsolvable or useless conundrums. However, if we take a Socratic approach to the purpose of philosophy as a call to know ourselves and cultivate wisdom, and add Hindu, Buddhist, or Daoist insight into the (lack of) nature of the (individual) self, I think we start to realize that what we thought was a fairly straightforward sense of ourselves often turns out to be the real entanglement in unsolvable or useless conundrums. In other words, philosophical contemplation done well leads us to take ourselves, or at least our conceptions of our selves, a bit less seriously. This, in turn, frees us to be more generous towards others and ourselves, because we become more aware of our automatic reactions to the opinions and emotions we encounter and experience.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
Possibly my most recent paper on a Daoist approach to cultivating intellectual humility, written for a philosophy seminar course that focused primarily on empirical approaches to cognition. My conclusion was paradoxical: a Daoist might cultivate intellectual humility by using her conscious, deliberative cold cognition to attenuate the biases and desires of her emotive, unconscious hot cognition to a point where much deliberate and conscious cognition can become spontaneous or perhaps even superfluous.
Ironically, I had never really seen myself working with cognitive sciences or doing much empirical philosophy; I’ve long appreciated continental critiques of modernity’s obsession with basing all inquiry on the methodology of the natural sciences. In true Daoist fashion, however, actively engaging with perspectives I disagreed with or looked down on helped me to see the limits of my own approaches to life and thought. This paper has even driven me to change my thesis research so that it will now heavily rely on empirical psychological findings.
What are you working on right now?
I am in the beginning stages of my MA thesis work on Daoist approaches to humility in relation to contemporary theories and research on paradoxical interventions and ironic processes. I particularly am fascinated by the way the Daodejing (道德经) sees willingly the embracing of weakness and unpopular circumstances as practical and metaphysically realistic. Humility in the Daodejing is not a moralistic call to debase oneself no matter how impractical, but rather the most effective way to move through life, avoid unnecessary stress, and find harmony and fulfillment. I was recently surprised by how similar these insights are to those of the late Daniel Wegner on ironic processes, and to therapies employing paradoxical intentions, of which Victor Frankl was a pioneer. Basically, studies in these areas suggest that excessive attempts at cognitive control under conditions of mental stress are consistently counterproductive, and that embracing the symptoms we fears most, or deliberately ceasing our striving for control, are effective ways to move beyond the problems of mental control. So the Daodejing’s theme of reversal — when we strive to assert ourselves in order to attain socially-valued goods, we end up just bifurcating reality and getting what we didn’t want, but if we aim from the outset for what we would normally devalue, we not only come to be at peace with it, but also end up allowing for that which we wanted to emerge as part of an organic whole—seems fairly plausible as a psychological perspective. Of course, plenty of dots remain to be connected…
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
How to listen to and learn from pre-modern or non-Western traditions without having to adopt the inequalities they promote (e.g. Aristotle was classist; Confucius, what we would call sexist; both have valuable insights for today). It is wonderful how space is being created for non-Western voices to be heard in philosophy, but I have not encountered much work dealing with how to embrace non-Western modes of thought while wrestling with the potentially problematic social hierarchies they are historically embedded in. Doing this might open the way for more diverse, communitarian, and non-Western concepts of social justice.
What do you like to do outside work?
I like to go outside, find a forest or nice wooded area with fallen logs or park benches, and simply lie on one of them and gaze up at the sky and the branches. My favorite moments come in the large rainforests of lower BC during or after rainfall — staring up at the forest ceiling as water slowly drips down from the pine needles in large droplets, it seems as if time slows down and your world begins to merge with single drops as they fall towards you in slow-motion. Not to sound too cheesy, but “上善若水” – the physical phenomena most resembling Dao (道) really is water, precisely because and as it seeks the lowly places of the world.
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
I’ve been perusing with great enjoyment the Zen Sourcebook edited by Addis, Lombardo, and Rottman. And I also need to get back to reading Robin Wang’s important work on Yinyang thought which I started earlier this year. I recommend both, and for those interested in an overview of Chinese philosophy I would recommend Edward Slingerland’s clear and accessible introduction which makes connections with several modern cognitive psychological studies.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
