{"id":29310,"date":"2022-10-28T16:32:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T23:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29310"},"modified":"2022-10-28T16:32:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T23:32:15","slug":"an-antifragile-approach-to-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/an-antifragile-approach-to-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"An Antifragile Approach to Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in \u201cAntifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder,\u201d offers the reader a literary and philosophical discourse arguing for how best to utilize uncertainty and even chaos to move beyond resilience or robustness to becoming antifragile.[1]<\/a> In this way, Taleb, who is American-Lebanese, takes the leader-reader beyond Todd Bolsinger\u2019s forge metaphor of developing tempered resilience.[2]<\/a> Taleb also integrates the concept of tacit knowing[3]<\/a> as he writes about antifragility: \u201cAntifragility has a singular property of allowing us to deal with the unknown, to do things without understanding them\u2014and do them well.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Arising out of a different background than Edwin Friedman (Taleb worked in finances and risk assessment),[5]<\/a> Taleb also talks about systems and processes. He uses the language of fragile to antifragile to get at the journey of moving from anxious to differentiated. \u201c\u2026fragility\u2026could be expressed as what does not like volatility<\/em>, and that what does not like volatility<\/em> does not like randomness, uncertainty, disorder, errors, stressors, etc.\u2026. antifragility\u2026likes volatility et al. It also likes time.\u201d[6]<\/a> Taleb\u2019s view on antifragility often comes across to me as quite Darwinian or at least quite cold: \u201c\u2026the antifragility of some comes necessarily at the expense of the fragility of others. In a system, the sacrifices of some units\u2014fragile units, that is, or people\u2014are often necessary for the well-being of other units or the whole.\u201d[7]<\/a> How do I reconcile such an understanding with the way in which the Apostle Paul describes the working of Christ\u2019s body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, in particular, verses 21-22 : \u201cThe eye cannot say to the hand, \u201cI have no need of you,\u201d nor again the head to the feet, \u201cI have no need of you.\u201d On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable\u201d?<\/p>\n

His book\u2019s structure is unique, in some ways harkening back to an earlier era of writing. He opens with chapter summaries before delving into the prologue which provides an expanded summary of his entire argument. In what he calls seven books developed into twenty-five chapters he details his argument, demonstrating how his thesis of antifragility applies to a myriad of fields and circumstances. The glossary of terms at the end offers a different type of summary for his thinking. He also uses appendixes in an interesting manner. His first comes at the beginning of the book following the prologue. Here he examines in more detail his core principle\u2014The Triad, made up of a tripartite spectrum ranging from fragile to robust to antifragile.[8]<\/a> \u201cThe task here is to build a map of exposures\u2026to see how the ideas of the book apply across domains.\u201d[9]<\/a> His remaining two appendixes come at the end of the book with the first providing \u201ca graphical tour of the book,\u201d[10]<\/a> and the second exploring the technicalities of how and why economic models fail.[11]<\/a> There is yet more. His section of additional notes, afterthoughts, and further reading offer a fascinating glimpse into his dopamine driven thinking[12]<\/a> as he continues to add layers of texture to his book\u2019s themes.[13]<\/a> He concludes with a thorough bibliography, acknowledgements, and index. I was delighted to see in his acknowledgements a person I have been privileged to work with on the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese American University. One of those small world experiences.<\/p>\n

To say Taleb\u2019s book covers a lot of ground is an understatement. The two sections that most caught my attention were chapters 16-17 in book four (the implications of antifragility for learning) and chapters 23-24 in book seven (ethics and antifragility). Here I will address only the section on ethics. In it he seems to take up an aspect of the question I raised above when he writes: \u201cThe worst problem of modernity lies in the malignant transfer of fragility and antifragility from one party to the other, with one getting the benefits, the other one (unwittingly) getting the harm, with such transfer facilitated by the growing wedge between the ethical and the legal.\u201d[14]<\/a> He draws on some of Joseph Campbell\u2019s hero language[15]<\/a> when he continues: \u201cIt is, of course, an agency problem\u2026an asymmetry\u2026Consider older societies\u2026The main difference between us and them is the disappearance of a sense of heroism\u2026For heroism is the exact inverse of the agency problem: someone elects to bear the disadvantage (risks his own life, or harm to himself, or in milder forms, accepts to deprive himself of some benefits) for the sake of others. What we have currently is the opposite: power seems to go to those\u2026who steal a free option from society.\u201d[16]<\/a> He ties this together with antifragility noting, \u201cThe robustness\u2014even antifragility\u2014of society depends on [heroes and people of courage]; if we are here today, it is because someone, at some stage, took some risks for us.\u201d[17]<\/a> His ultimate solution to this widening gap of some gaining increasing benefit at the increasing cost to many is to introduce practices that ascertain that everyone has \u201cskin in the game.\u201d[18]<\/a> He goes on to give many examples. I found myself pondering yet again the potential benefits of stakeholder capitalism (versus present-day stockholder capitalism) in light of Taleb\u2019s arguments. Stakeholder capitalism invites companies to serve the interests of all communities impacted by their presence: customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and the communities in which they are located.[19]<\/a> It makes for a much more complex, interdependent conversation and dynamic, but Taleb would argue that this sort of complexity has greater antifragility in the long run.[20]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. 2014. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder<\/em>. Random House Trade Paperback edition. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 3.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bolsinger, Tod E. 2020. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/em>. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 6.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Polanyi, Michael (1966), and Amartya Sen. 2009. The Tacit Dimension<\/em>. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Taleb, 4.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Friedman, Edwin H., Margaret M. Treadwell, and Edward W. Beal. 2017. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix<\/em>. 10th anniversary revised edition. New York: Church Publishing.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Taleb, 11-12.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 65<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 20-27.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 20-21.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid., 435ff.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Ibid., 447ff.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Lieberman, Daniel Z, and Michael E Long. 2019. The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity-and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race<\/em>. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Taleb., 457ff.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Ibid., 375.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Campbell, Joseph. 2008. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>. 3rd ed. Bollingen Series XVII. Novato, Calif: New World Library.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Taleb, 375-376.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Ibid., 378.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Ibid., 381.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Schwab, Klaus. 2021. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet<\/em>. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Taleb, 56-60.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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