qualtrics.com: Hegel & Marx

Thesis -> Antithesis -> Synthesis
Hegel described the process of progress as beginning with a thesis, an antithesis emerging, and then a synthesis coming from the two. This process continues to repeat itself in all growth. qualtrics.com doesn't necessarily provide this experience for visitors. If there were areas for debate and conflict, users would be able to be a part of this progress and growth. I recommend an area where site visitors can critique or debate about Qualtrics as well as how to properly perform research.

Meaningful Work
Marx supported Hegel's ideas and added on the importance of labor fostering development and growth of the group. As individuals visit qualtrics.com, they should be able to grasp the vision for the entire company, not just the specific aspect they are interested in. The landing page has the phrase

Ask Questions.
Get Answers. Act Fast.

Viewers can probably get the idea that Qualtrics is all about collecting actionable insights but might not catch the vision that Qualtrics is trying to change the way people do research. If Qualtrics is truly trying to change the world in this regard, there should be a place that makes this clear to the visitor. This way they can see that though they are working on a specific aspect of research (customer satisfaction, market research, employee feedback, etc.), they are part of a movement to change the way everyone is collecting insights.

Hegel and Marx

Early Postmodern Period

Hegel is sometimes called the beginning of postmodernism.  Marx was also a postmodern philosopher.  A really, quick, messy way to talk about modernism vs. postmodernism would be to say that the moderns believed in a fixed reality or laws of perfection, while the postmoderns believed in unfixed reality with changing laws of perfection.

Modernism =



(Standard of perfection to measure worm against!)

Postmodernism =


(This worm is free for interpretation!)

Hegel


Georg Hegel 
Philosopher
Born: August 27, 1770
Died: November 14, 1831

Education: Tubinger Stift

 





Teachings

Hegel believed that the entire world moved and changed in the following manner:

Thesis -> Antithesis Emerges -> Synthesis

This process repeats itself and demonstrates the importance of conflict or opposition in order to progress.  Instead of things moving toward a perfect form, the idea of perfection is always changing here, and it is always embedded in the newly formed synthesis.

Applications

Unified: Your website should strive to allow for the unification of opposing ideas so that it continue to grow and develop and change.
Accessible: People should not feel feel welcome to contribute to the site as well as the standards for the site, even if it is to provide an antithesis to everything going on. 
Ongoing: Site should be continually growing and changing to something new, or beyond what it has been so as to always be combining the current antithesis, thesis and synthesis.

For Hegel, ideas are shared, refuted, and synthesized through all forms of posting, commenting, liking, sharing, etc. You could say that social media accelerates the process of history (Thesis-->Antithesis-->Synthesis) by making it easy for everyone to be involved in the collective conversation.  It could even be that daily the site moves through a different antithesis, thesis and synthesis for each user.
Another way to look at this is that the sites purpose in general for all the users collectively can change and adapt in this way.  This is where the makers come in. They need to be paying attention to the constant antithesis and thesis and synthesizing the two.

Marx

Karl Marx
Philosopher, Economist, Sociologist, Journalist and Revolutionary Socialist

Born: May 5, 1818
Died: March 14, 1883
Education: Universities of Bonn and Berlin






Teachings

Marx agreed with most of Hegel's ideas and added on applications to labor. He believed that the worker should never be alienated from their work.  They should understand the larger picture of why their work matters and how it is part of the larger goal of their company, culture, etc.  This will allow them to connect with it, be passionate about it, and because of this, have their values and even themselves reflected in it. 

Applications

Unified:  Your site should allow your users to connect with it and become one with it in a sense, seeing themselves reflected in the actions they take and things they create or write on the site. 
Accessible:  Your site's greater vision or purpose should be accessible to any user.  This will help them engage meaningfully.
Ongoing: People and the site are never set against a standard other than that all voices are equal on the site.  This should allow for ongoing use of the site. 

A good social website will allow each individual to really connect with it, and see their values and themselves to be fully expressed and flourish in and through the site.

The Early Postmoderns on Art and Social Media

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel lived from 1770 to 1831. He was a German philosopher who used a historical perspective, coupled with idealism, to bring about paradigms that would help shape the world. His thought would lead to most of the great philosophical ideas of the last century: Marx and Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, and psychoanalysis, to name a few. One of his best known concepts is his idea that mind or spirit manifests itself in a set of contradictions or polar opposites that are ultimately integrated without losing the core concepts of either side. This can be summarized as a process that goes from a thesis and an antithesis to a synthesis.

With Descartes, there was a split between mind and body. Hegel tried to integrate those two back together. He was interested in the spirit, which we can think of as God, as embodied in the world, in all matter. But this spirit can evolve; it doesn’t stay at the lowest form of matter. Gradually, spirit can become more conscious, more aware, more articulate. For example, consider a rock. That’s physical matter, but there’s not really spirit in there. Spirit is conscious, aware, free, rational; pretty much everything a rock isn’t. Hegel says that the ultimate embodiment of this spirit is human consciousness. Human beings, for Hegel, are not just accidents of nature; they are reason itself—the reason inherent in nature—that has come to life and self-consciousness. Beyond human beings – or the hypothetical idea of other finite rational beings that might exist on other planets – there is no self-conscious reason in Hegel's universe. And he thought of the overall spirit, which is moving along and evolving, as being like God. God, to Hegel, is not completely separate from the human spirit. God develops through the creation of a thesis, which has an antithesis inherent within it, and the two form a synthesis, which becomes a new thesis. And spirit, or God, has to be embodied in the world. It’s not separate from it, as Descartes thought.

Hegel’s philosophy of aesthetics portrayed art as having one particular purpose: to allow us to contemplate and enjoy images of our own spiritual freedom—which images are beautiful precisely because they give expression to our freedom. In other words, art’s purpose is to enable us to bring to mind the truth about ourselves, to enable us to become aware of who we truly are as free human beings. Art is there not just for art's sake, but for beauty's sake, that is, for the sake of a distinctively sensuous form of free human self-expression and self-understanding. Furthermore, art is not only just a matter of form, but of content. Art must contain within itself the freedom and richness of spirit embodied and living in the world. Since the spirit is understood as “God,” the content of truly beautiful art is in one respect the divine. Yet, it's not separate from human life. As we have just seen, Hegel argues that the Idea – or  “God” – comes to consciousness of itself only in and through finite human beings. The content of beautiful art must thus be the divine in human form or the divine within humanity itself – as purely human freedom.

So what does this mean for social media? Well, it presents a surprisingly optimistic viewpoint. Due to the theme of progression through the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, the only way for a website - or any work that is to be judged – to be considered “bad” is if it fails to be inspired and to, in turn, inspire. And the best social media websites should somehow allow us to contemplate our own spiritual freedom, and inspire us to discuss that freedom with each other. Perhaps the idea of a social media website devoted solely to discussing human freedom sounds a bit pretentious. And it is. This isn’t an explicit goal, but rather, a by-product of a marriage of form and content into beauty. That beauty will, in turn, inspire each viewer to privately ponder their own freedom and their place in the divine.

Hegel and Marx on Webphil!

To start, I would like to say that I really like the updates on WebPhil!  I feel like it is a much more friendly/welcoming format than it has been in the past.


WebPhil Critique from Hegel:



 

 

Principle: Change comes about because everything has a thesis and an antithesis and because of the conflict between the two, moves to a new synthesis of the two.  This cycle repeats itself. 

When applied to WebPhil...

Thesis: Draw people in to read our critiques and become interested in what we are trying to do.

Antithesis: Push people away by an awkward placement of the "Thinkers" section. The placement right now feels awkward.  They seem like a side thought instead of a main point on the front page.

New Synthesis: Place the "Thinkers" section above or below the "Critiques" section so that the flow feels a little more natural.  

 WebPhil Critique from Marx:

Principle: A worker should never be alienated from their work.  They should understand the bigger vision and purpose of their work so that the work can become apart of them and their values and person should be enhanced in it. 

When applied to WebPhil...

I honestly feel that in light of Marx's idea of alienation, WebPhil is doing a really good job.  What I mean is that with our front page we really portray the bigger vision of what we are doing which will make sure users don't become alienated as they go through the site.  With the bigger vision in mind, they will interact and dive into the site and be able to really fully participate and appreciate it.  Hopefully this will allow them to become connected with the site, instead of alienated.  Users aren't necessarily creating something as they use the site, but their "work" when moving through the site will be to connect our writing and videos to their websites.  This "work" will largely reflect their own values about social websites.  So then, by the time they leave the site the applications they take away will be a mixture of the bigger vision (what we provide) and their already held values. 

Hegel & Marx on Webphil

Hegel: The world is always changing and progressing (as a group). 

Webphil has been evolving and continues to evolve as new viewpoints (new philosophers, antitheses) are added to the mix. Along with this, he would be happy to hear us debating over certain aspects of the website. Conflict is positive and provides opportunity for growth.

He might propose the idea of an open forum where visitors of Webphil are encouraged to critique the site and propose new ideas. There could be push back from other viewers as they seek to find a synthesis of their ideas. There should also be encouragement for opposition and debate in the analysis of websites that are up for critique.

A key for Webphil is to emphasize the culture. Businesses are currently expending a lot of money and energy into setting and maintaining a strong culture. In fact, some firms have even named a chief culture officer to aid in these efforts. A key part of Webphil's culture should be the idea of straight talk - don't get offended if someone disagrees with you and don't be afraid to be honest with others.

Marx: Everything that is done should be pushing toward meaningful work.

So far, the Webphil certified critics have all (well, almost all) been engaged and have learned about philosophers outside of the ones they are assigned to. Even though each critic has a specific task, they are informed of outside viewpoints and have an idea of what the website will consist of as a whole.

Website visitors should have a similar experience; though they may be particularly interested in a single philosopher or topic, they should still be exposed to others so they understand where their task fits in with the whole.

They should feel that they are accountable and responsible for how the whole site turns out. Though the visitors and critics may have a specific task, they should be like the difference between assembly line and kaizen manufacturing. They need to understand the vision and growth of the project.