A lot has been said and written about the COVID-19. Its cause, alleged cover up, possible economic impacts, future multilateral repercussions are being discussed at great length. But, equally important are the philosophical lessons this pandemic has inadvertently given us which are not only metaphysically but pragmatically significant.
The first important lesson for all of us is that we need to shun the anthropocentric view of Earth. We need to realize that we are not entitled to treat fellow creatures of earth, the ways in which nature prohibits us. This ethical dimension is not some new found wisdom. It can be found in Advaitavada/non-dualism. Advaitavada says all living creatures share same soul as that of God and if all share the same soul then harming other creatures for luxury or convenience goes out of question. Similar ideas can also be found in the works of western philosophers. James Stuart Mill expanded the idea of Utilitarianism to include environmental concerns. He quite aptly noticed that unending growth can not be achieved in this physically finite planet without destroying it and doing so will reduce the quality of life.
Moreover, these plants and animals have shared and even assisted our evolution trajectory by doing their assigned job in the ecosystem. And it is this job, we are endangering by apocalyptically targetting them and in the process even putting ourselves at risk, which can be seen in the recent spurt in zoonotic diseases and climate change related incidences like devastating floods, frequent cyclones, longer duration of heat waves etc.
Second important learning is "Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere". There can be no better example to this than the democratic manner in which COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people, paying no heed to geography, privileges or any other human made differences of caste, religion etc. United Kingdom Prime Minister who contracted COVID-19 is as much in control of the things as is a worker in Wuhan. A person is not safe from the coronavirus as long as any other person has it. This underlies the fundamental idea that all humans are equal and all humans ought to be equal. As the famous saying goes "If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go along". Hence, every person regardless of one's socio-economic status should have a basic standard of living and facilities, only then universal prosperity can be ensured, and these facilties not only include healthcare but decent education as well .
Third important observation is the importance of democracy. Dr. Li Wenliang who was a Chinese opthalomologist whistleblower warned about the virus and its human to human transmission on 30th December 2019 which was way before it became pandemic. But, he was silenced and made to sign an undertaking not to spread rumours. This hid the severity of the problem from other countries making them unaware of the enormity of the challenge they were going to face and denying them time to equip themselves. The main argument here is not about the start of disease, rather it is about not acknowledging it. Democracy has in-built mechanisms to bring out the mistake in open which allows us to assess the vulnerability and avert the catastrophe. Had China been a democratic country, with freedom of views and press, such incident would have definitely surfaced out, allowing other countries to prepare themselve to contain and fight COVID-19.
Like many other things democracy too has critics. They say Adolf Hitler was also a product of democracy. But, our understanding needs to be nuanced with the fact that problem was not with the democracy but with the truncated and amputated version of democracy that was practiced. Winston Churchill had aptly summarised this in his saying "Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time".
It might feel strange how a tiny microrganism can make human beings feel weak. But, the fact is that our history has got fare amount of diseases and have steered the course of history. It is just that our history has been more focussed on wars and successions with humans in the driver's seat and not the microorganism. However, this might not had been the case always. In hindsight a lot has been said about the impact of The Black Plague in steering the course of history. I hope that we learn and do not commit the same mistake of writing off the role of other creatures. Everything can teach us something including this pandemic unless we are a bad student.
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