Eugene Thacker: Business and Everyday Life Answer Why Mysticism

Eugene Thacker, in the last chapter of “In the Dust of This Planet”, quotes Evelyn Underhill asking if mystics are so separate from the day to day, focused on the union of the Divine and human, what’s the use of mystics? He then goes on to answer that mysticism can help us address climatological disaster and the general interaction between humans and an un-caring world. 

Seems we don’t have to go to such a macro or dramatic level to find a use for mysticism (focus being on use / utility). Most people deal with uncertainty every day and certainly people in business have to deal with, and make decisions under conditions of, uncertainty on an ongoing basis. We can look to mysticism, as well as philosophy and other disciplines that may not be traditionally thought of as germane, for guidance in and models of how to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. This is, in fact, the tack I’ve taken in my upcoming book “Strategic Decision Making: An Integration Approach to Uncertainty” forthcoming from Routledge, February 2027. 

For centuries, religious law had something to say about business and how we conduct ourselves on a day to day basis. One could connect daily action to, if one was being generous, acting morally and perhaps, in accordance with Divine Will. Over the last several hundred years this has fallen by the way side, with religion being relegated to specific situations, specific topics and debates or specific times of the week or year. It could be argued that doing so helped unlock creativity and opportunity for hundreds of millions or billions of people over time, removing the impact of certain power structures and constraints on creativity and commerce, allowing creativity and human energy to be directed at commerce itself. One can argue the pros and cons of this trend or this interpretation of historical observations.

However, without going into that debate, we can argue that strategic decision making and the every day tools and methods of business have, in many ways, defined how we deal with uncertainty: how we deal with the unknown or unknowable. In my first book, I called this Orientation Toward Uncertainty (Part II of Reinventing Communication) and identified it as a design element, and outcome of, a communication environment. This upcoming book focuses on decision making under conditions of uncertainty and draws on numerous perspectives, including a chapter that leans heavily on philosophy and mysticism. Mysticism, not in any sort of elevation of business to a quasi religious or moral sphere, but rather recognizing what mysticism, as a field of study (see Simon Critchley’s book Mysticism) and description of the bounds of human experience, can teach us about uncertainty: about the unknown and unknowable. And even more specifically, how we can relate to uncertainty.

The broader point, though, is that much like how some philosophical questions simply fade as our understanding changes, we can argue that the question ‘what is the use of mysticism’ fades when we recognize that business people and really, everybody, deals with uncertainty on a daily basis. We don’t have to reach for a potentially vast unknowableness or uncaring climatological disaster to find the utility (again, recognizing that the question specifies instrumentality) of mysticism. Mysticism can be applied to the everyday. As can other traditions and approaches to the connection between human beings and the unknown and unknowable.

Taking this one step further, which is not a step I’ve yet worked out (though I have an inkling and motion toward it in the afterword of the book), it is exciting to think how Thacker’s extensive use of Horror as a genre, and Darkness as a historical subject, could be used to deepen our understanding of decision making and the landscape against which we make decisions in conditions of uncertainty. I’m looking forward to the next book in his trilogy on the Horror of Philosophy: Starry Speculative Corpse.

EXCAVATION
In the Dust of This Planet by Eugene Thacker, audiobook
Reinventing Communication by Mark Phillips
Orientation Toward Uncertainty (see glossary of this site)
Strategic Decision Making: An Integrated Approach to Uncertainty (forthcoming) by Mark Phillips
Mysticism by Simon Critchley