Philosophies of a Righteous Mind

By Aarav Pradhan, Year 12 Secondary Head Boy

Greetings! My name is Aarav Pradhan and I am a Senior Editor and Columnist for the WIN Times magazine! I am the Secondary Head Boy for this academic year. My interests include speaking and debating, which is often felt through my focus on argumentative and introspective questions in my articles. As the year begins, I look forward to strengthening the bonds we established as distanced learning students in the previous year. Writing is a superpower that can convey more meaning than any action or emotion ever could. I am excited to lead a new column discussing moralities and the boundaries of our ethics.

Family or Friends?

The Quintessential Dilemma PART 2

Previously on “The Philosophies of a Righteous mind”, we were discussing the quintessential question, family, or friends?

The History of Family

The “History of Family” is a field of study deeply studied primarily in the 20th century. Amidst heavy social change in family and wartime dynamics, people were still “re” familiarising themselves with the ideas of unity and trust. During these times, several reports on the social implications of family life were brought to the attention of the public. Through many years of distrust and secondguessing, the world had finally reached some form of harmony. With that harmony, however, came an array of problems, which while harmless, outnumbered the dilemmas faced by society during distress.

The family vs friends discussion brings into question an individual’s perception of their families. Being brought up in different familial environments, we all place different levels of importance on our family life. So, this question now has more than a few possible reasons to choose either side, making this initially 2-sided dilemma into a multifaceted mess of ethics and emotional perception.

To make this overwhelming issue easier to digest, let's break it down into the different reasons a person might make a certain decision.

Socioeconomic Circumstances

Depending on a person's economic standing and social prestige, people tend to view a certain aspect of their lives as “more important”. Due to human selfpreservation, many people are put in situations where they have to make decisions for their own best interests. But in lower stake situations like a family party versus a friend’s party, a few other factors play a more major role.

Purpose and meaning

In situations when such conflicts are regarding people or valued ones to be specific, a person’s decision is often heavily influenced by the relevance and relationship they share with each person. In this case, if the person has a very distant relationship with their family or doesn’t feel as comfortable around them, they wouldn’t feel obliged to attend the family function. However, if they do share a close relationship with family, even more factors may come into play.

Consequences & Fear of Confrontation

If this person still hasn’t been able to establish a clear idea of which side they would pick, the most rational decision would be to understand the consequences of each action. Family is often thought to be people who can forgive and look past one’s faults. With this in mind, a person may see the “volatility” of their friendship as a delicate situation, making them afraid to disappoint the friend by not attending the party rather than attending the family party. Using this logic, I think it's safe to say it would be most likely that you end up choosing “friends” over family.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you still haven’t been able to make up your mind after trying to make sense of this jumbled problem, it might be a sign to just talk to someone about it. After all, sharing your frustrations is part of the reason we have “friends” and “family”. So, the true dilemma isn’t you trying to make this decision, instead, it’s the fight between instinct and rationale. Which one is correct? Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves? Well to find out more on how this applies to other dilemmas, join us on the journey through the “Philosophies of a Righteous Mind”.

Family Friends