The Architecture of Becoming: On Acting As If in a Collapsing World
and a self-experiment
Hey everyone, welcome to wild:philosophy.
As some of you know, I started an EU-funded project about “PhilosophyGyms for Regenerative Futures in Small and Medium Enterprises” this year. Last week, we met for the first time in person. If you are curious about what we are doing - inspired by our first in-person meeting, Christine Wamsler offers a glimpse into these Gyms here. The exploration of PhilosophyGyms also continues with IPeP, where Leonie Trutschler and I are offering a series on PhilosophyGyms at Grokkist, a learning community for the deeply curious (we begin this Thursday at 7 pm CET - you’re warmly invited to join us, free of charge). I highly recommend checking out Grokkist, no matter if you are interested in the Gyms or not.
Many of us find ourselves in a tension between aspiration and inertia. We hold values we wish to embody more fully, yet our actions often lag, tethered to ingrained habits or the sheer weight of the present. The tension often seems personal. Yet, in a fractal world, we can see this tension echoed in our collective grappling with the metacrisis that demands deep shifts in how we live and relate.
We often think that in order to achieve those shifts, we need a shift in values. Once we value the more-than-human world, for example, we will act accordingly.
We also see how this often doesn’t seem to work. And while we might assume that we just haven’t shifted values enough, there might also be another way to think about this.
Maller et al. essentially argue that focusing on our values to change our actions is not the most productive path to transformation. In fact, they argue that one of the most common pathways assumed to generate action - which is based on the idea that action is driven by values, and that in order to change action, we therefore need to change values - reverses direction, so to say, and instead posits that beginning with actions is a more productive place to start.
The "Act As If" Principle in Self-Help and Beyond
This concept isn’t new, especially for those inclined to read self-help literature - which, personally, I have read hundreds of and which has eventually brought me to philosophy, because self-help is often the impoverished version of philosophy. Anyways, self-help talks a lot about this, either in books that are more psychologically grounded, such as Benjamin Hardy's Willpower Doesn't Work or Atomic Habits by James Clear, or in books that are more about magical thinking, such as Add More-ING To Your Life by Gabrielle Bernstein. (I have explored a range of books that in intellectually inclined circles would be considered garbage. The philosophical implications of such diverse reading choices, though, are a topic for another time). The magical thinking kind say things like, "Just act as if you already have what you wish for, and it’ll come true." Also, they rarely question any underlying deeper philosophical questions around what’s worth wishing for in the first place.
What Maller, as well as those books, point to can be summarized as acting-as-if.
The Power of Acting-As-If
I find this principle very powerful, because first of all, on a personal level, it offers a pathway out of the paralysis that can accompany a sole focus on internal states or values. Instead of waiting to feel a certain way or to fully believe a value before acting, it provides a pragmatic starting point. This can be particularly empowering when faced with overwhelming feelings or deeply ingrained habits, as it shifts the locus of control from an often-elusive internal state to concrete, manageable actions. It moves us from the contemplative to the experimental, allowing embodied experience to inform our understanding rather than the other way around.
Second, in times of the metacrisis, acting-as-if can be a powerful form of ethical and existential engagement. When faced with systemic complexities that dwarf individual agency, and where despair is an understandable temptation, acting-as-if a regenerative future is possible, as if our contributions meaningfully co-create that future, becomes an antidote to cynicism. It allows us to embody the change we wish to see, fostering micro-cultures of resilience and innovation even amidst pervasive uncertainty. It is a way to cultivate hope not as a passive wish, but as a generative practice.
And because this idea is often understood as an impoverished version of itself, I want to add some soundness to it.
Philosophical Grounding
Hans Vaihinger wrote a book about this very topic, titled The Philosophy of As If. Vaihinger argues that many of our most crucial concepts - in science, ethics, religion, and everyday life - are "fictions." Not fictions in the sense of being false or deceitful, but rather as necessary, useful constructs. We operate as if mathematical lines possess perfect Euclidean straightness, as if individuals possess an indivisible free will, as if ethical principles hold absolute validity. These "as ifs," Vaihinger suggests, may not correspond to an ultimate ontological reality, but they are pragmatically indispensable for navigating the world, making sense of experience, and achieving our goals. They are heuristic tools that enable thought and action in realms where absolute certainty is unattainable.
"We have repeatedly insisted... that the boundary between truth and error is not a rigid one, and we were able ultimately to demonstrate that what we generally call truth, namely a conceptual world coinciding with the external world, is merely the most expedient error." Hans Vaihinger
Of course, if acting-as-if is seen as mere pretense or just faking it, it could easily be viewed as inauthentic and as a flight from our true self. However, we can also consider this from a performative standpoint. From a performative standpoint, the true self is also, to a significant degree, a construct, constantly being shaped by our actions and interactions. The key, then, is the sincerity of the intention within the performance, which is not about deceiving others, but about transforming oneself.
I recently read Agnes Callard, who articulated in her excellent book on Aspiration how we might aspire to hold a certain value or idea, like enjoying classical music, but it’s not really ingrained in our ways of being yet. We don't actually value it at our core (otherwise, we'd already be consistently acting accordingly). So, according to Callard, we can consciously choose to act-as-if we already care, and through those actions, this care will become genuine - something that can also take years.
“Grasping new values is work. The name I will give to the rational process by which we work to care about (or love, or value, or desire . . .) something new is “aspiration.” Aspiration, as I understand it, is the distinctive form of agency directed at the acquisition of values. Though we do not typically come to value simply by deciding to, it is nonetheless true that coming to value can be something the agent does. The explanation of how we come to value, or to see-as-valuable, so many of the things that we once did not is that we work to achieve this result. The aspirant sees that she does not have the values that she would like to have, and therefore seeks to move herself toward a better valuational condition. She senses that there is more out there to value than she currently values, and she strives to come to see what she cannot yet get fully into view.” Agnes Callard
As James Clear eloquently describes in Atomic Habits, our perceived identity - much more than our values, though they form our identity - defines how we act. If we take ourselves to be a generous person, we act generously. If we take ourselves to be thoughtful, we act that way. Our identity is not merely formed by our ideas, though. It’s also formed by watching ourselves act. Just like we observe other people by their actions and make up our minds about who they are, we observe our actions and make up our minds about who we ourselves are based on those actions. By consciously changing our actions, we begin observing ourselves in a new light. If we consistently act generously, we gradually internalize that generosity, and it becomes part of our identity and value system. We’re not just observing others; we’re observing ourselves.
(Un)fortunately (depending on how you look at it), we humans are creatures of habit. Our actions are often automatic, driven by ingrained patterns. To deviate from these patterns, to consciously redirect our actions, demands attention, awareness, and persistent effort. It is no small undertaking.
Experimenting with Acting-As-If
Well, I love experimenting with philosophies, even if it takes a little effort, trying them on, so to speak, to see how they shape my life experience and understanding. The one I'd like to try on at the moment is this acting-as-if principle.
To do this meaningfully, it must be woven into my existing philosophical commitments. For example, while I've previously critiqued certain interpretations of relational philosophies - particularly those that might inadvertently dilute individual accountability or oversimplify the complexities of entanglement - my own aspirational philosophy is deeply relational, specifically what I term differentiated relationality: the understanding that we are all profoundly entangled, yet simultaneously possess porous, distinct boundaries that allow for unique agency and responsibility.
So some of the questions I am asking myself when integrating that philosophy are: Does it make sense to act-as-if, if our agency is never fully within us, but within our relationality to the world, a result of our intra-action? Do I risk bypassing parts of myself? Will it alienate me from reality, or will reality really bend to my performance (as magical thinking suggests)? What might be a truth that holds both of these ideas? I've recently written about how letting go is more aligned with my overall philosophy than rigid planning. Isn’t acting-as-if the most rigid planning I could do?
Tentative Explorations
While definitive answers obviously remain elusive, here are some tentative explorations:
If we understand reality not as a collection of discrete, pre-existing entities but as a dynamic web of relationships, then acting-as-if is not about imposing a fiction onto a solid reality. Something that’d feel quite wrong. Instead, though, acting-as-if can become a way of actively participating in the co-creation of reality. When I act-as-if I am compassionate, I am eventually not merely pretending. I am actively performing compassion, and this performance changes my relationships with others, my internal state, and contributes to a world where compassion is more present. My actions ripple outwards, shaping and being shaped by the relational field. I become-with.
Furthermore, if we challenge human exceptionalism and view agency as distributed, emergent, and entangled with the more-than-human, acting-as-if can even be a tool for ethical extension. For example, Judith Butler talks about how we are not essentially gendered; we become gendered through repeated, citational acts. Acting-as-if one is a certain gender, or has certain qualities, is precisely how these identities are materialized. We can extend this: acting-as-if the river has rights, acting-as-if the ecosystem is kin, acting-as-if more-than-humans have agency or intrinsic value - these are performative stances that can shift my ethical frameworks and material practices.
I can naively believe that acting-as-if will bring me everything I ever wanted, and that the Universe has my back, and if it doesn’t, then my performance of acting-as-if just wasn’t convincing enough, so it’s all my fault. And I can believe that all of this is nonsense, that the universe does what it does, that reality is not bending - for anyone. That maybe, all it does is psychologically trick ourselves. The power might lie precisely in the "as if” - in the focused intention and embodied performance, regardless of the ultimate metaphysical truth. Personally, I aim to hold these possibilities with a sense of epistemological humility and playful curiosity. I’ve witnessed too many synchronicities in my life to entirely dismiss the idea that our focused intentions might interact with reality in ways we don't fully comprehend. Simultaneously, my critical faculties acknowledge the powerful role of cognitive biases and self-persuasion. So I want to sit in the sweet spot: to sincerely engage in the "as if," as though it can shape reality, while simultaneously acknowledging the constructed nature of the ideal and the potential for self-deception. I want to be aware that the ideal we are acting-as-if towards is a construct, perhaps even unattainable in its purest form. And yet, commit to it sincerely, as if it were achievable. In the worst case, the act of striving itself is valuable and can produce tangible, positive change. I can believe in something while knowing it's a belief. A hopeful performativity.
Acting-As-If as an Internal Discipline
The earlier concern about inauthenticity resurfaces if acting-as-if is reduced to mere pretense. But again, if the "true self" is an ongoing project, then the sincerity of aspiration - the genuine desire to cultivate the chosen quality - becomes the ethical compass.
For me, then, acting-as-if evolves into an internal discipline, a method for intentionally sculpting future possibilities. It's a conscious choice to align my actions with the values I aspire to embody, understanding that these very actions will, in turn, reciprocally shape those values, my identity, and my perception of what is possible.
However, this practice requires a disclaimer: it must be ekological in the broadest sense, respecting both the internal ecosystem of the self (ego) and the wider ecosystem of our relationships and planet (eco). For instance, to acting-as-if I am entirely selfless, disregarding my own fundamental needs, would lead to burnout, resentment, and ultimately prove unsustainable and counterproductive. This is not self-cultivation but self-negation. Similarly, to acting-as-if I am the sole arbiter of reality, entitled to manipulate the world purely for personal gratification without regard for others or for ecological limits, is not a pathway to genuine transformation but a form of solipsistic egoism. It would be a perversion of the principle, turning a tool for growth into one for unchecked desire. The acting-as-if must be guided by an ethics of care and responsibility, acknowledging our entanglements.
This ecological boundary underscores that acting-as-if is not about fabricating a persona disconnected from our authentic needs or the needs of the world around us. Rather, it is about consciously choosing which aspects of our potential self to cultivate and bring into being, in a way that fosters both personal integration and harmonious co-existence.
Moreover, philosophers like Vaihinger, who champion as-if-thinking, might be seen as holding a somewhat pessimistic view of our capacity to truly grasp and engage with the world directly, using fictions as necessary crutches. And indeed, if acting-as-if devolves into mere self-delusion - a flight from uncomfortable truths - it directly contradicts the empowering potential it may hold. The crucial distinction, then, lies in whether acting-as-if- is a conscious, aspirational tool for transformation - where the fiction is a chosen scaffold towards a desired state of being or understanding, potentially leading to a more integrated self - or whether it becomes an unconscious mechanism to avoid a reality perceived as too harsh, thereby diminishing genuine comprehension and, ultimately, agency. The former engages with complexity through willed performance, while the latter risks retreating from it.
I aspire to know what new way of being is genuinely aspirational and sustainable, and what is merely a fantasy rooted in lack or avoidance.
The process calls for ongoing self-reflection, an honest appraisal of motivations, and a willingness to adjust acting-as-if experiments based on their real-world effects on ourselves and others.
A balance between intentional construction and receptive awareness.
I’ll continue to explore this "as if" life and will share my reflections as they unfold. What "as if-ing" might you experiment with, and how might it reshape your own becoming?
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This was beautiful. Like Vaihinger met Agnes Callard in a post-capitalist dojo. I'm all in on the “as if” path as path, not a lie we tell ourselves to escape, but a portal we walk through knowing the exit doesn’t exist yet.
But here's the kicker. Most people think authenticity is found by excavating some buried "real self." What if it's the opposite? What if becoming is what makes the self real in the first place? In that case, acting as if isn’t faking. It’s midwifery.
Thanks for offering a frame that holds both magic and accountability. Much to chew on and embody.
Well articulated. As for the "Acting As If" ethic, this harmonizes with the "Believing Game", as described by Peter Elbow in his book "Writing Without Teachers": "I can define the believing game most easily and clearly by contrasting it with the doubting game. Indeed, the believing game derives from the doubting game. The doubting game represents the kind of thinking most widely honored and taught in our culture. It’s sometimes called “critical thinking.” It's the disciplined practice of trying to be as skeptical and analytic as possible with every idea we encounter. By trying hard to doubt ideas, we can discover hidden contradictions, bad reasoning, or other weaknesses in them--especially in the case of ideas that seem true or attractive. We are using doubting as a tool in order to scrutinize and test.
"In contrast, the believing game is the disciplined practice of trying to be as welcoming or accepting as possible to every idea we encounter: not just listening to views different from our own and holding back from arguing with them; not just trying to restate them without bias; but actually trying to believe them. We are using believing as a tool to scrutinize and test. But instead of scrutinizing fashionable or widely accepted ideas for hidden flaws, the believing game asks us to scrutinize unfashionable or even repellent ideas for hidden virtues. Often we cannot see what's good in someone else's idea (or in our own!) till we work at believing it. When an idea goes against current assumptions and beliefs--or if it seems alien, dangerous, or poorly formulated---we often cannot see any merit in it."
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In a similar vein: "For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe — that unless I believe, I should not understand."
— St. Anselm
Acting "as if" is the practical application of the believing game. It's going beyond a thought experiment to an action experiment.