On Being Reactive

Philosophers often write as if means-end reason were the factory setting for human agency. More or less efficiently, we act in pursuit of ends. Temptation, depression, anxiety, fear: distortions like these impede the smooth pistoning of the instrumental engine; they prevent us from doing what we will. But for the most part, we are means-end machines.

It’s not my experience and I doubt it’s yours. When I deal with conflicts at work, I am routinely stopped short by the question: to what end? Drafting an email, or a memo, to protest a policy or justify a decision, I find myself articulating frankly what is wrong with the policy or why the decision was made. With alarming regularity, I have to be made to ask: will doing this improve the situation? And very often, the answer is, quite obviously, no. Collating my objections to your action, rehearsing the reasons for my own: these communications are more likely to exasperate, or anger, than persuade. And this comes as no surprise. Means and e…