ALGOSPHERE

An enterprise about suffering

 

ALGONOMY : A FRAMEWORK FOR DEALING WITH SUFFERING

All major spheres of human activity deal in one way or another with suffering:

politics, religion, healthcare, social affairs, economics, law, art, literature, philosophy, ethics, the news media, environmental studies, education, science, history, war, crime, work, sport, interpersonal relationships, personal life, etc.

Suffering is implicated in other, more specialized fields too, although their overt objects of concern are something else. For instance:

medicine, social service, social security, economic development aid, human rights protection, animal welfare, judicial punishment, the practice of torture, disaster relief, certain parts of the biological or psychological or social sciences, etc.

So there are many areas of activity that deal with suffering in relation to something else, to the State, or God, or health, or welfare, or wealth, or justice, etc. In practice, however, no discipline deals with suffering per se as its primary focus. Consequently, suffering in the contemporary world is still essentially out of control, despite a pervasive concern over its existence across the millennia. This lack may be explained by the impossibility until now of tackling suffering within an overall framework that is specifically dedicated to study and action about it.

So here an idea is proposed that is in one sense obvious, namely to develop, alongside the other areas mentioned above, a whole new sphere of investigation, an additional and quite different approach to the world and its problems - a new discipline dealing with suffering itself and with all that is related to suffering.

It is suggested that the discipline concerned with suffering should be called "algonomy". The term comes from two ancient Greek words: algos, which means pain or suffering, and nomos, which evokes the notions of domain, management, and knowledge. It should be noted that the word "suffering" is used here in a broad sense and may refer to any pain or unpleasantness.

Algonomy is a framework that allows to deal with knowledge and action about suffering through a discipline that is proper to that phenomenon. Of course, it touches upon a large variety of domains, most particularly psychology, philosophy, religion, politics, health, justice, and the social services. However, algonomy clearly distinguishes itself from any other approach to suffering because it is concerned both specifically and universally with that subject, and with nothing else : in other words, a theoretical or practical activity may be said algonomic if, "in principle", it deals with suffering, the whole of suffering, and nothing but suffering. Thanks to these characteristics, algonomy allows us to go beyond three kinds of shortcomings against which other disciplines, for all their merits, are powerless when they deal with suffering.

1- First, other approaches are inappropriate or inadequate insofar as their specific object of concern is not suffering itself, as such, 'per se'. Only algonomy allows us to acknowledge the specific reality of suffering in all its guises.

2- Next, other disciplines are deficient or incomplete insofar as none of them deals in principle with everything that concerns suffering, physical or mental, human or animal. Only algonomy embraces within a common conceptual framework all forms of suffering, all causes, all remedies, all elements of the topic. If our goal is to understand and resolve the problems that the existence of suffering entails, these problems must be tackled not only one-by-one, or in narrowly defined contexts, but also in their entirety, in spite of the intimidating scale and complexity that this approach may represent.

3- Lastly, other fields of interest are misleading or inconsistent in the sense that when they deal with suffering, they always do so only in relation to their disciplinary specialty. There are countless people or groups who say that their concern is suffering, but in reality all of them are focused on concerns which are not suffering as such but rather, for instance, illness or hunger or injustice. Thus suffering has never hitherto been the specialty of anybody and therefore, per se, it has been awfully neglected. From the perspective of algonomy, all that is not first-and-foremost focused on knowledge and action about suffering represents a diversion, a deviation from what should be the primary and overriding interest.

To be sure, algonomy also has its pitfalls which must be guarded against. For instance, the new discipline may give rise to the temptations of totalitarian benevolence. Within algonomy, indeed, everything is subordinated to its core goal. Those who practice the discipline, however, will be responsible for making sure that algonomy itself is subordinated to appropriate imperatives. At times, a focus on suffering may be a priority, but at other times something else may have to prevail. For dealing with the extremely complex question of the place that algonomy should have in the scheme of things, it is suggested here to use an approach such as the one put forward in the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential.

To sum up, algonomy is an innovative conceptual framework with the following key uses:

 

 

ALGOSPHERE PROJECTS

Algosphere is an enterprise that carries out research, communication and practical action projects about suffering, especially with the aim of developing a new work area dedicated to knowledge and action on suffering.

Information on the context where the Algosphere enterprise is taking place, and where the algonomy idea comes from, may be found on the personal page of Robert Daoust.

Algosphere projects are presently the followings. Suggestions for new projects are welcome. English is the main language used until now in these projects, but other languages may be used if required.

Internet Website for Promoting Algonomy — This project consists in using algosphere.org as a medium for the advancement of algonomy.

Introduction to Algonomy — This project consists in producing, on Algosphere website and eventually as a book, a document that presents the first elements of a new discipline concerned with suffering: see Introduction to Algonomy.

Collaboration to Wikipedia About Suffering — This project consists in collaborating to Wikipedia encyclopedia for raising to the best quality the articles relative to Suffering. It is hoped that algonomy will benefit from Wikipedia as a very busy knowledge place, and that reciprocally Wikipedia will benefit from algonomy's encyclopedic viewpoint on suffering.

Association for the Advancement of Algonomy — This project consists in establishing a nonprofit organization with the mission to further the development of algonomy. In order to found that association on a sound basis, it is necessary first to gather at least three persons who are contributing to knowledge or action about suffering in an algonomic fashion. Interested individuals are asked to write to info@algosphere.org. The domain name www.algonomy.org is being reserved for the future organization.

Review of Precursor Works for an Algonomy This project consists in furthering the development of algonomy through collaborative editing of texts that review works figuring under the list of Precursor Works for an Algonomy. The idea, being carried out at Algonomy — Review of Precursor Works, is to elaborate an algonomy discourse that will have better chances to be a founding one because it will be connected with works existing already in the present written culture.

Blogs About Suffering This project consists in establishing solidly at least one algonomy-inspired blog. Posts are focusing mainly on various documents and events where people speak of suffering as a primary concern. The intended goal is to develop algonomy by linking up with people who are the most likely to benefit from it or to contribute to it. A blog in English About Suffering, and a blog  in French Sur la souffrance were started in September 2006. Two other blogs, more eclectic, were also started in February 2007 : Everything on the Topic of Suffering and De tout sur la souffrance.

 

 

© Algosphere, Montreal 2012

Last modification : 2012/01/21

Email : info@algosphere.org

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