Plato in the Office
Philosophers examine the human condition and isolate insights with the potential to inspire transcendence and growth. Can their core assertion be directed toward the human working condition? Let’s find out!
Aristotle: “Anything that we have to learn to do, we learn by the actual doing of it.”
- Modern office translation: Finishing or even just starting a project you don’t know how to do is the best way to change that.
Lao Tzu: “To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is the disease.”
- Modern office translation: You will look and work smarter when you ask all the questions you need to.
Mencius: “He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature.”
- Modern office translation: Deeply engaging in your work can be a meditation on your priorities.
Jorge J. E. Gracia: “I favor inclusiveness because it allows the consideration of a wide field of experience and a great diversity of views that challenge our own cultural, ethnic, national, and racial limitations, opening the doors to a greater understanding of humanity and the challenges we face.”
- Modern office translation: Treat inclusion as a way of life, not as a rote initiative or process.
Plato: “The only real ill-doing is the deprivation of knowledge.”
- Modern office translation: Be transparent in your processes and know-how to empower those around you.
Hegel: “Nothing great has been and nothing great can be accomplished without passion.”
- Modern office translation: Find the aspect of any project that excites you and lean into it.
