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For many years I worried myself, I ask myself
about many things,
in appearance dissimilar.
¿ Why many people become creative easily?
and others find it so difficult?
¿Why many people have a research perspective
on their profession, on their job,
they go beyond
methods, processes, laws in their field
and others hold on to them as dogmas?
¿Why many people find meaning in their live
and the lives of others
and others find it empty?
Why many people create a habit of reflecting upon their existence,
perusing about their lives
and to others, it doesn't even occur to them?
And lastly,
How an ethical subject is built?
How does one become a good citizen?
And why others don't even reach that?
And it was in these last years that I believe to have found
a similar explanation for these diverse issues.
And the explanation is the following, to my belief:
In all these situations I mentioned
there's either a promotion or a damaging of a human being's existentialia
¿What's existentialia?
A dimension of a human being that cannot be denied
¿Which existentalia is damaged or promoted
in all the situations I mentioned?
Freedom.
But I'm not talking about freedom in an absolute sense,
but freedom even when sentenced to death like Socrates
who dies freer than his own judges
or freedom even when being in jail,
like Nelson Mandela.
And I'm not also talking about freedom just as "doing what I want"
which is a very important form of freedom,
of which I'll talk later
but I am also referring to other deep types of freedom
such as "wanting what I want", "not wanting what I want
and "wanting what I don't want"
"Leaving who I am and becoming who I'm not"
We'll talk about that
And I'm neither referring to a theoretical freedom,
that is, that freedom in a philosophy book
those who bore Matías, our master of ceremonies,
I'm talking about freedom felt by everyone in their everyday life
that is, the one I can feel and experience
myself Melina, Oscar, Daniel, Pala,
Myself because I am not the human race
I am me
So, that freedom is the one I am talking about
For many years, I have the privilege,
it has been a blessing, teaching philosophy at college
and philosophy to children in a program I created
on philosophizing with children.
And it was on a class for teens where we were doing revision,
in a class about anthropology reviewing definitions of man
What's man?
Man is a rational animal,
man is a being-with-the-other,
man is a political animal,
and kids, who always imagine that their teacher must be famous
like one of those people they have to study in an encyclopaedia,
well, they asked me: "and for you, what's man?"
I knew I had to answer in a precise and brief way
just like those quotes we were reviewing
and what came to my mind at that moment was that
Man is free and possible
And I heard myself, the children listened to the definition
as one of many
I heard myself in all my existentialist heritage
and from that moment on, I think I have repeated that phrase
I have problematized with it, I have complained with it
I have condemned and I have proposed a lot of things
So, today I stick to it because man being free
is something that philosophy has always defended
but what I want to repeat is that it is from their freedom
that man sees himself as possible
and there is where looking around makes sense
Look around because it's possible,
look around because there is something around for you,
look around because you are the promise keeper of all around
but if all around you is determined,
if it is standardized
my life is over, there's no pro-ject ejected forward
there's nothing to do around
In all the job I have been blessed to have
have been in line with the promotion in the exercise of freedom
in human beings
and even in my life, when I had to immerse myself in not-so-good
environments,
I think a feeling of internal freedom is what has allowed me
to be successful or keep moving forward
and in my children, particularly, I sometimes see in them
a capacity to talk, sense, think and do stuff
that other children their same age don't
and I think it is a drive that comes from inside
and that, maybe, results from an upbringing in freedom
that's why I want to talk about today
that man is free and possible
it's isn't my defence,
I think it is also a testimony
Man can be creative, it is when exercising freedom
that freedom to doubt established knowledge
about processes and how to come to be
about objects we use
Man can only be ethical in the exercise of freedom
freedom of choosing right from wrong
man can only find meaning in his life
when he is able, allowed, ejected forward
not being determined
and then it is worth it to look around
but about that I have a lot of demands
I think that society forces us to be free
I know that it doesn't say: "Be free, be free"
but it hopes we are free,
creative,
and that we are free to doubt,
it hopes we are entrepreneurs,
that we are free to have dreams
that we are ethical subjects, good citizens
that means, free to choose
but society embodied in a family, company, school, academy, university
doesn't teach us to be free
and I want now to illustrate this with a couple of examples
It doesn't teach us, it damages our freedom from an early age
and in turn, it forces us to be free, it forces us because it needs us
and it demands us to be that way
Society must be like this
I'm going to list, then, some examples of those
reckless acts of malformation in our exercise of freedom
First reckless act
There's a faux ethic which considers obedience
and conformism a virtue
An obedient subject may not be ethical
but he an easily frightened and calculating person
he is always trying to avoid punishment or getting a reward
In order to be an ethical subject
I had to have had the opportunity to choose
and have chosen with others in mind
choose without being God-fearing, or afraid of the standard
without fear of retaliation,
having chosen according to my own mind, in solitude
and that's why Ethics is so great
the thing is that having children who are blindingly obedient,
students blindingly obedient or employees blindingly obedient
is a huge risk
because when there's no standard
because standards don't include all dimensions of a human being
the standard doesn't involve all the spheres in a human life
then, there's no standard, where there's no prescription
the subjects wouldn't know how to act
or even, in a company, we will be training irresponsible beings
when we force them to be utterly obedient
because when something doesn't work, they will say in their own defence that
it didn't work because the rule said so, or the proceeding
or there were no standard we could work with
that is, they will say that to be irresponsible
When my daughter was just ten years old, I think she may have been younger,
she disobeyed me with regard to some specific matter
which I just had explained to her four minutes before
When I saw her, ¿how does she dare to disobey me in what I just had told her?
I protested, and she say: "Mom, you now tell me this,
but all my life you said a different thing
and I won't go against the way you have raised me."
I felt very happy
I can't give details on the situation, I recall it
in all its uniqueness,
I felt very happy the moment my child refused
to obey an inconsistent mother
and after that there were many instances where she and her brother have disobeyed me
fortunately,
I think people move their life projects forward thanks to three aspects:
one, because they obey
to obey is practical, it's economical
It means to obey things that other people have tested
and we know whether they work or don't
a person lives quickly today, in time, obeying
but obeying what's legitimate,
that was what my daughter was doing in that moment
Secondly, people who move forward are able to follow
they identify who to follow, which idea or person to follow
and the follow it.
And thirdly, they are capable of disobeying
I think in every big company, creative acts, research
there is a high dose of disobedience.
Coming back to the company,
I don't think an obedient person in a company
has a sense of membership, or is committed
No, he is afraid of being fired, right?
I think families, companies and academies should always have
places where there's no standard
where there's a void of uncertainty, when we don't know what to do
and when we are there, it's time to think, for what?
to develop practical knowledge, the one Aristotle talked about
to know how to distinguish one thing from the other.
So, when we are in that situation, and, what do we do?
There's no standard, now what?
Even, if we review history, cultures have had eras
of order, which is Apollonian
and eras of no-standard, of disorder, which is Dionysian,
it can be seen on the carnivals we still hold in some countries
and currently in the idea of a weekend
in a person's life and in their intimate life and private life
I end this first example like this:
I think we cannot expect to build a determined world, standarized
with human beings who are born free
It is an incoherence
And there's proof that every creative act has had to break a standard
It has been disruptive, it has experienced creative discomfort.
every research breaks an standard in that field,
every initiative breaks an standard of our expectations.
So, it's something to work on
Second reckless act in diseducation
The way we teach science
I think we teach science as a series of answers,
a collection of answers
If we want to do science, we have to exercise the freedom
Immanuel Kant talked about, that is, intellectual authonomy
Sapere aude,
dare to be wise
If we teach science only by teaching answers,
what we are teaching is to obey science
i know there's something invariable in science
but it is the variable, the drive which move science forward
the invariable and the variable gives rise to the question
pro cuntus, the question, the world at your feet
the question is freedom, the answer is determination
the question is an open hand, the answer is a closed fist
If we are at the academy, school, or college
we teach to repeat answers
and we teach to ask,
How many times the test reads: ask five fundamental questions
and don't answer them?
We'll check the quality of the questions
that is, in all those unvoiced questions,
many of the scientists that in turn society will demand will go to waste
There's a third reckless act
that has to do with the way freedom of doing what I want
I don't know why so many people find it so scary
Letting do what you want
Children are damaged from an early age
they aren't allowed to do what they want in harmless situations,
with harmless results
like choosing a game or the toy they want
when we know it doesn't have any harmful effect
choosing their bedroom's colour, or their clothing style
once we had made sure the clothes are for the right weather
The problem is that if we don't let him exercise
in these little freedoms of doing what they want
in the harmless,
only for knowing to be knowable and capable of freedom
the free subject
then, won't be able to exercise that freedom
in important issues
and when he's a teenager, we protest:
But how can you have done that!?
But didn't you consider the result of your action!?
and the kid could retort by saying:
"no, when did you teach me that? when did you let me choose?
You always choose for me, always told me what to do,
I just needed to obey you."
But the same happens in the company.
I think we would have to have an amount
of time and functions inside my manual
according to my profile to do what I want
I go to the company to do what I want for the company
for my field, with mi skills, for my position.
How do they expect us to be entrepreneurs or creative in a company,
if they don't allow me to do what I want in that certain amount?
And in college,
I think that the way things stand in this society of knowledge
society of information and globalization
when people get their degree,
five or six years after they enrol,
The knowledge they acquired in their firsts semesters are out-of-date
in fact, people who are 15, 20, 30 years in their jobs
realize how little we are applying that knowledge
we gained at school.
So, what do we should do in college?
Well, do what I want.
In the course I enrolled,
do what I want,
they should have a minimum curriculum
and another to do what i want,
I want to research in this field
I want to be an executive in this field
I want to point out, frame new paths
and most of all, learn to work in teams
which has been the philosophy in this TED, look around
Learn to work in teams and
learn to learn
which is something that will keep me going in my career,
it will keep me active
If I have learnt to learn
and when talking about schools, in that field
the issue is settled by a brilliant woman some time ago
María Montesori
She, a few decades ago, created classrooms
where children spend their hours doing what they want
with the material their teacher have carefully tailored
and he is ready to help them,
the teacher simply says:
"this is what needs to be done by the end of the day,
or for the end of the week."
and children accept responsability
and each day they do what they want and at the end they report
on their good or bad choices
So, there has to exist this freedom to do what i want
in order to be creative.
Fourth reckless act
it is the use of fear as an enslavement and power tool
all three things I mentioned, which I condemned just now
work because of fear.
We are taught in fear,
fear to disobey, you will be punished
fear to doubt , you will be wrong
fear to ask, you would make a fool of yourself
fear to choose, no,it's all settled
fear to undertake a project, you're going to fail, you'll be a failure
Creative people aren't frightned
creative people may experience fear of rejection of not-approval
what we saw in the last video.
But they act despite that fear, and that's what we call courage
Acting in spite of fear because I feel that what I'll get from this
will be better.
Scientists aren't frightened, or even obedient
The obedient one is the lab worker or a survey tabulator.
Scientists aren't obedient and has no fear
He has the courage to challenge the hard truths in their field
Neither entrepreneurs are frightened
Fear is opposite to freedom
Fear is opposite to love
A life in fear isn't worth living
A life in fear isn't possible
Why would I want to look around if everything is determined?
We only have fear
Fear
Fifth reckless act
It's the negation of a type of freedom
that has to do with dreaming what I dream
wanting what I want
¿what's the use of looking around if I cannot be what I dream,
what I dream to do, what I dream to be, have, etc.?
That is discouraged with phrases like
Stop dreaming
Be logical
Here it has always been like this
The world has worked without you
Don't be ridiculous
That's just fantasy
You'll be in trouble
You are seeking the cat's fifth paw
There's even companies who don't distinguish between the processes of
exploration and exploitation.
Processes of exploration keep the company
planning for the future,
they guarantee there will be a future,
thanks to innovation, research, development
and that are led by very peculiar characters, very brave and innovative
And processes of exploitation
keep the company in the present
repeating proceedings already settled and fool-proofed
Sometimes these processes clash
and what results is a disruptive work climate
or finally exploration processes,
creative people, migrate to more innovative companies
Here in this act, we can quote Fernando Pessoa
The world is moved by dreamers, not realists.
Last reckless act and last example
is all that attacks on free will.
Freedom of becoming who I am not
and stop being what I'm not
because it suits myself or others
in a life project
It is the free autodetermination.
Our master of ceremonies has been reminding us
of Heraclitus
the only thing that remains is change
Human beings aren't,
I am not,
I am being
I am not something static.
About me, they will only say that I was, there in the epitaph, in my coffin, she was
but I am being
The past doesn't condemn you.
The past doesn't determine you
man isn't determined,
man is free and possible
the past supports me
and the future pulls me
I long for infinity, I long for the future
Without future, life isn't worth living.
Look around
look because it is possible, because there's a future
and that only if you can stop being what you are
because man always can become something he isn't
man always can be a different man
a different woman, a different boy, a different other
and because I know the other can be different I tolerate him
That's tolerance
and because I know I can be someone diferent I have hope
and a life without hope isn't a life worth living
In the Cathedral, here, in La Plata
there's a sign at the entrance to the museum
To remain and go by,
that's what we are
Remain and go by
There's no new science without the capacity of stop being
There's no creativity, no innovation,
there's no art, no research
without the possibility of becoming someone I am not
Up until now I have supported an hypothesis
I believe that we would be more creative,
if we really could exercise freedom
we would research more just as society needs
we would be more innovative
our life would have be more meaningful
I'm going to finish with this
We are born hominids
of the hominid species,
not of the eggplant species, or the pig species
hominid species
but becoming humans,
call ourselves human
is a task,
we have to deserve to be called humans
and that task has a lot of virtue
and that task is only possible thanks to the exercise of freedom
Without freedom and possibility there's no life worth living
Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz said that
God had been so delicate, that he had left man
the task of building himself.
San Juan de la Cruz said that
man is the creature with a capacity of infinity
Today I want to urge you and call you to that
to the creature (create): I, you, he, we, you, them
who is born infinite,
don't make it finite
don't end it
the creature who is born free and possible don't determine it
Look around!
Look it's possible!
Thank you very much.