Accepting an Absolute Philosophy or Exploring Multiple Realities?

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In a recent discussion with a close friend, we were pondering over the philosophy or art of love. To which, she said, that she recently came across a philosopher’s view on what loving someone truly means and that made her question her own notion of love. The philosopher's view alone felt true and non-variable now, against the years of personal experience, books or content that had contributed to her concept of love. The philosophy she encountered was that love is about being selfless, sacrificial, and giving unto someone without expectations in return. And this is something which she had seldom seen in others, let alone herself. This led me to think that is a philosophy or more generally, a working theory enough and more, to dictate our notions about such a concept which has the depth and width of an ocean. This conjoined me to another line of thought i.e. Is it about accepting a well-known philosophy or being receptive to different perspectives that exist around us and then deciding which one is true?

Philosophies about any concept or discipline are not built in a day or two. It takes its time, space, and energies to develop over years of experience, observation, research, insights, and inputs of multiple people. When we accept a philosophy or theory, that itself has multiple for and against perspectives to support or refute it. So, when something is so well researched and built, are there any grounds to question it?

The understanding that I could come at was that sometimes certain world views or philosophies seem to be dominant, pervasive and all true. But it's more about our receptivity of multiple perspectives rather than simply accepting a philosophy and choosing to live by it. As intimidating as it looks, no one philosophy can answer all our questions or can be proved right or wrong. More than an accurate philosophy, life is about perspectives. There can be ample pieces of evidence suggesting that love can exist in the most self-scarifying form, something beyond one’s imagination or thinking like that of Meera or Radha and their sacred devotee ship to Krishna. But that does not make it the only right way or absolute truth of loving someone. There can be a hundred other ways and means of loving someone dear to you. This holds true for all parts or realities of one’s life. This reminds us as to how crucial it is to not dismiss the variety of outlooks offered by life or multiple realities that exist around us. It is very much possible that we identify more with a certain ideology or philosophy but that does not mean that other notions cease to exist. Something we view as absolute is itself made from multiple dimensions if we explore its depths. And even if we cannot bring ourselves to accept the other faces of reality, we should tone ourselves to not disrespect them.

Not just on the moral grounds, doesn’t it strike a thought that how mundane will the concepts of life become if we view them with just one lens. We all know how a prism works. How a plain white light comes out of it as a spectrum of different colours. Its ability to transform the white light makes it unique. Similarly, our ability to perceive a concept, thought or ideas through a spectrum of perspectives and philosophies, rather than accepting something as absolute, contributes to our remarkability.

Taking a philosophy as absolute leads us to think that it is the supreme one and makes us undermine, any other ideologies that prevail. There is not just confinement of our thought process in general, but also our ability to weigh concepts critically. This is because when something becomes so absolute and undeterred, be it a philosophy, a theory, an idea or a mere thought, there is a resistance to further explore, question, or accept others questioning on it.

When one refuses to view life concepts through multiple ways and means, they fail to taste the number of flavours that different life delicacies have to offer. There is no guarantee if each delicacy would add a good flavour or essence to one’s life but nonetheless it would be an experience. Whether good or bad, one can decide at the end. It is important to understand that to judge if different philosophies align with one’s worldview or not, it is necessary to take the first necessary step to experience it. It could be as trivial as experimenting with a new look or as major as exploring a different religious or political belief. 

One can decide whether to stick to one philosophy or explore all sides before accepting and then creating a one of their own. But whatsoever comes to be the outcome, the first step will always be to accept and respect that life concepts or situations, are not a square but a cube with multiples faces to it. And as simplistic as it seems to view life as a square, even that has two faces for one to explore.