Via negativa is a concept in theology that attempts to describe God in terms of what He is not rather than what He is. The attributes of God are expressed in terms of what He cannot be. For example when we say God is good, we really should say God is not evil. The argument is, that God is beyond human understanding, He is infinite, hence positive words such as good, great and the like are insufficient to describe him. The alternative therefore is to describe the attributes of God through negation, via negativa. “God is not cruel” gives us a better understanding of who God is than “God is merciful”.
The point is, negative actions, not doing something, is sometimes a more rigorous way of understanding situations or making decisions. This sounds counter-intuitive considering that when we seek advice we often want to be told what to do. Ten things to do to be rich, ten things to do to lose weight. Ten styles to do it and so forth. It is easier to focus on things to do because it gives us the illusion of agency that we made something to happen.
For example when being advised about marriage, you will often be told to compliment your spouse, buy them gifts, take her out, blah blah blah. More often than not, these actions do not guarantee you success. A more helpful advice can be given via negativa, what not to do in marriage. Do not speak unnecessarily, do not call her someone’s name when engaging in coitus and so forth. Maybe marriage vows could be more effective if people promised what they would not do to each other.
The point is, a good sculpture is made by subtracting what one does not want. Michelangelo, who did a masterpiece of the statue of David, was asked how he did it. He said that he did so by removing everything that did not look like David. It is often easy to describe what we want but sometimes what we do not want is equally important. When we are sick, we go to hospital or pray to God not so that we can be alive but so that we do not die. Sometimes not losing is better than winning.
Let’s describe happiness via negativa. If we say happiness is the absence of anxiety. We can therefore conclude that our grandmothers are happier than us because they never go to sleep anxious about whom or how many people have commented on their WhatsApp status.
A wealthy person is therefore not someone who has many things, but someone who does not need many things. A successful marriage should therefore be judged not based on what the couples do to each other, but rather on what they do not do to each other.
In religion, the Ten Commandments are more effective in controlling behavior because God tells us what He does not want us to do. Not coveting your neighbor’s wife is more effective in your living peacefully with your neighbor than loving your neighbor as yourself.
Avoiding bad company is better than having good company. The absence of bad things in your life is a good thing. What you don’t pay attention to is more important than what you focus on.
The thing is, sometimes we don’t need to make wise decisions we only need to avoid stupid mistakes.
Fabio