MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

Adolescents mastering philosophy

It is so very French, but philosophy is an important part of adolescent education in France.  It is nearly absent in American public schools.  The only teaching in philosophy I received was a quick survey of the ancient Greeks in a Humanities course our senior year.  It was enough, because it made me want to take philosophy courses in college.  I can't imagine, as a high schooler, writing on the topics listed in the article.

Here is the well-stated reason for teaching philosophy:

So the purpose of teaching philosophy was - and remains, in theory - to complete the education of young men and women and permit them to think.

To see the universal arguments about the individual and society, God and reason, good and bad and so on, and thus escape from the binding imperatives of the now - by which I mean the dictatorship of whatever ideas are most pressingly forced on us in the day-to-day by government, media, fashion, political correctness and so on.

I like that phrase "the binding imperatives of the now."

The case against empathy

Last night I read an interesitng essay in The New Yorker entitled "The Baby in the Well: The case against empathy" by Paul Bloom.  It discussed much of the recent work on empathy and how it has been discussed in the public sphere.  Many believe that we require an increase in empathy to solve our problems.  Bloom, and others disagree.  While they believe that empathy is important for developing a moral consciense, it is not the best moral guide.  

Empathy is what makes us human; it’s what makes us both subjects and objects of moral concern. Empathy betrays us only when we take it as a moral guide.

Rather, we need to develop our rational skills.  Currently we respond overwhelming to immediate disasters, particularly those that are easily covered by the media, but don't respond well to long term, large scale problems which usually harm and kill more people -- e. g. gun violence, lack of access to health care, global warming.

“The decline of violence may owe something to an expansion of empathy,” the psychologist Steven Pinker has written, “but it also owes much to harder-boiled faculties like prudence, reason, fairness, self-control, norms and taboos, and conceptions of human rights.” A reasoned, even counter-empathetic analysis of moral obligation and likely consequences is a better guide to planning for the future than the gut wrench of empathy.

In fact, sometimes empathy gets in the way of moral judgement, as we react in a way that is protective of those closest to us, but in a way that harms more people.  

Overall, it is a fascinating discussion, and one I recommend to you.

Augustine on suicide

I haven't been able to progress very far in The City of God.  I'm only about twenty (small) chapters into book one (or about 30 pages).  In the last bit I read he discussed suicide, which he was very against.  I am intrigued by how the last three philosophy books I read by Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucretius are so concerned with death.

In my last reading, what disturbed me was his discussion of some virgins who were raped and then killed themselves.  He says that one can't judge them (even though he is against suicide) because their shame was just too great.  Gosh.  Why not question the social mores that created that shame?  Is it only modern to ask those sorts of questions?

Beginning The City of God: Augustine would make us worms

Yesterday I finished blogging about Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and in the afternoon, I began reading Augustine's The City of God.  I read Confessions in college, and it had a powerful impact on me.  I've never read the larger work and the copy I own (and have owned since college), in a two volume set of Augustine's writings, is actually abridged, though it still runs close to 700 pages.  This is going to take some time.

And immediately upon beginning Book One the tone, of course, is different from everything I've read so far since I began reading back through the philosophical canon in late autumn 2011.  Back then I commented how refreshing the ancient Greeks were and the modernity of concerns continued with the Latin authors.  Now we begin a noticeable shift.  

The first few chapters are spent complaining and attacking.  Sigh.  Pagans are denouncing Christians for the collapse of Rome, yet those very pagans took refuge in Christian churches where they were protected as the Germanic hordes were somehow awed into not attacking the churches, which is unlike every other marauder in the past and even contrary to Roman tradition, which did not respect holy sites.

In chapter IX (these are very short chapters) there was finally something of interest.  But first, the close of chapter VIII contained an influence of the Stoic.  Augustine writes that during affliction pagans detest and blashpeme God, while Christians pray and praise.  I'd rather rebel like the pagans then practice the resignation and acceptance of these Christians.  But, maybe this isn't Stoic acceptance?  Could it be some weird masochistic pleasure derived from the pain and suffering?  Even if that isn't Augustine's teaching, it is where this line of thought is headed.  It is a sort of Bizarro Epicureanism.

But the Stoicism is clearly rejected in chapter IX.  While suffering from the evils and violence of this world, the godly "do not judge themselves so completely removed from all faults as to be too good to suffer for these temporal ills.  For every man, however laudably he lives, yet yields in some points to the lust of the flesh."  Marcus Aurelius believed it was possible to live free of lust and desire, which Augustine clearly rejects (I agree with the saint over the emperor).  Marcus would have said that you must endure the troubles of this world, but that you can choose not to suffer from them.  I don't think I agree, but that worldview is in some ways more encouraging than Augustine's, for Marcus only encourages acceptance and resignation, whereas Augustine, again, seems to encourage some sort of masochism.

A couple of other points arise in chapter IX.  He encourages celibacy by describing those "who are not entangled in the meshes of married life" as living "at a higher level."  This obnoxious idea continues to plague the world in the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.  One of Martin Luther's great advances was that everyone can live the good and righteous life -- there is nothing special about celibacy.  In fact, we know now that it, instead, has shrouded centuries of abuse.   Rather than being a higher state, institutionalized, it is riddled with corruption.

Should I take this advice to pastors?  "For watchmen or overseers of the people are appointed in churches, that they may unsparingly rebuke sin."  I think not.  Again, this idea led to great corruption and many of the evils that still haunt us.  Sigh.

The chapter ends with a brief reference to Job:

Then, lastly, there is another reason why the good are afflicted with temporal calamities--the reason which Job's case exemplifies: that the human spirit may be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.

Pure hogwash.  We studied the biblical book of Job last autumn, and you'll remember that this is not the point of the biblical book, though it does seem to be the point of the ancient folktale which appears in other sources and which the biblical book uses in order to subvert.  

Gerald Janzen, who was a Professor at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, interprets the Book of Job as rejecting the conventional view that there is a strict moral governance of the world.  In this view, good people receive blessings and bad people are cursed, and everything seems to follow this strict law.  Janzen believes, instead, that there is a felicity to the world, a freedom and a grace to it. 

When God speaks from the whirlwind he cannot vindicate Job in the way that Job wants to be vindicated because the world does not work that way.  Instead, God’s speaking to Job honors Job’s integrity and his humanity.  Humans are not presented as one creature among many, but as those whom God enters into conversation with.  The questions God poses, then, become challenges “to take up the divine image through engagement” with the world.  God is inviting us to explore the cosmos and pursue the answers to these questions.  God is inviting us to be responsible agents, not passive recipients, of this world.  For Janzen, the Book of Job is the creation of a new humanity.

Biblical Job encourages our integrity and humanity.  Augustine would make us worms.

 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed the Lucretius I read before reading this, so I must be in a period of life where Epicureanism is more appealing than Stoicism.

I do find good advice in Stoicism -- not reacting strongly to others, not fearing death, how to live reasonably, live in the moment (similar to Buddhism) -- there is much I do not care for -- resignation to the events of life, an acceptance of fate, avoidance of pleasure and imagination.

But, it is still good to read this advice and let it percolate with all the wisdom of the ages.

Next up in this review of the philosophical canon, The City of God by Augustine.

View all my reviews

Meditations: Books Ten to Twelve

The emperor encourages us to accept our fate as whatever the gods have sent to us.  I wonder if this is easier for a Roman emperor than for someone is who the oppressed victim of injustice?

"So remembering that I am part of a Whole so constituted will leave me happy with all that happens to me."  I don't think this would work for me.  How about you?

To feel fear, pain, or anger is to be a fugitive from the universal law.  Hmm.

He does suggest some good, critical thinking.  "Whenever you take offense at the wrong done by another, move on at once to consider what similar wrong you are committing."

He suggests that we should have always at hand the question "Have I done something for the common good?"  I do like that advice.

"The good, honest, kindly man has it in his eyes, and you cannot mistake him."  I find this to be true, except when it isn't.

You know, I once taught a series on the Sermon on the Mount pointing out the Stoic aspects.  Though the Sermon's teachings against anger are not worded the same way, this teaching is an example:

In your fits of anger have this thought ready to mind, that there is nothing manly in being angry, but a gentle calm is both more human and therefore more virile.  It is the gentle who have strength, sinew, and courage -- not the indignant and complaining.  The closer to control of emotion, the closer to power.  Anger is as much a sign of weakness as is pain.

Now, I find that selection most interesting.  I generally have been taught to think such about anger, but my spouse believes differently, arising from cultural and familial differences.  He has taught me to be more open to an emotional anger.  What do you think?

Book 12 opens with this "All that you pray to reach at some point in the circuit of your life can be yours now -- if you are generous to yourself."  Literally not true, but does it express some wisdom?

"Every man's mind is god and has flowed from that source."

Similar, again, to Buddhist mindfulness, "each of us lives only the present moment, and the present moment is all we lose."

The emperor has a very different view of salvation from that of the Christian church's traditional doctrines (one would expect as much):

The salvation of life lies in seeing each object in its essence and its entirety, discerning both the material and the causal: in applying one's whole soul to doing right and speaking the truth.  There remains only the enjoyment of living a linked succession of good deeds, with not the slightest gap between them.

Hard work, this is.  It requires a level of philosophical and scientific knowledge along with strictly ethical behaviour, and a spirit of joy.

Meditations: Books Eight & Nine

The emperor is advising that people do not fear.  They should not fear death (that is a significant theme throughout the book) nor should they fear change (also an on-going theme).  "Accept humbly; let go easily."

"Nature's aim for everything includes its cessation just as much as its beginning and its duration."

Here is good advice, particularly for young people, "You must compose your life action by action, and be satisfied if each action achieves its own end as best can be: and no one can prevent you from that achievement."

Throughout my pastorate time has been an issue I have realized is important to address pastorally and spiritually, for people struggle with their busy schedules and perceived lack of time.  Here is very straightforward and good advice, "make yourself a gift of this present time."  Clearly the Stoic meditations of Aurelius have some things in common with Buddhist teaching on mindfulness.

Also similar to St. Paul's teaching, "Universal nature has brought you nothing you can't endure."

At the close of book eight, he writes interestingly about "the universal mind" and how its light illumines.  The universal mind is a constant radiation that falls on things.  What receives the light, the light will "settle there and illuminate."  While "anything unreflective will deprive itself of that light."

Book nine repeats many earlier themes -- the fear of death, quenching desire, not using the imagination, etc.  

I was amused by this statement from the emperor "Today I escaped from all bothering circumstances."  

Though I"m negative on Stoicism, its advice on reacting to others I have often found to be good: "When another blames you or hates you, or people voice similar criticisms, go to their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are.  You will realize that there is no need to be racked with anxiety that they should hold any particular opinion about you."

Meditations: Books Six & Seven

Book Six of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations includes much consideration of change and how that impacts your life.

The directing mind is that which wakes itself, adapts itself, makes itself of whatever nature it wishes, and makes all that happens to it appear in the way it wants.

This is fun: "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."

The next time you are considering becoming an emperor, remember "Take care not to be Caesarified . . . . it happens."

In Book Seven he states, "Your principles are living things."  Good advice.  Principles can too often become dogmatic.  He also writes, "a person's worth is measured by the worth of what he values."

I liked this advice, "Do not let the future trouble you.  You will come to it possessed of the same reason that you apply now to the present."

He reminds us that everything is interconnected and everything changes.

All that you see will in a moment be changed by the nature which governs the Whole: it will create other things out of this material, and then again others out of that, so that the world is always young.

I can't go along with the emperor when he advises that we "erase the print of imagination."

Meditations: Book Five

The fifth book opens with the emperor's questions and motivators of himself while lying in bed of the morning deciding whether to get up or not.  He has a man's work ahead of him and must set out to do it.  "Was I created to wrap myself in blankets and keep warm?"   Certainly not.  Look at the animals and insects, "each helping in their own way to order the world," don't you have a task as well?

But then there is this deterministic, fatalistic nonsense:

so welcome all that happens to you, even if it seems rather cruel, because its purpose leads to the health of the universe and the prosperity and success of Zeus.  He would not bring this on anyone, if it did not also bring advantage to the Whole."

Ridiculous notions like these infiltrated Christian thought, harming it.

Now, here is an interesting idea:

Your mind will take on the character of your most frequent thoughts: souls are dyed by thoughts.

Later in that same paragraph he emphasizes that the "good of a rational creature is community."  So it would seem that our thoughts should focus on community as such.

As a good Stoic, he believes we have internalized a divine spark.  After advising to revere the "ultimate power in the universe," he writes, "Revere the ultimate power in yourself: this is akin to that other power."  A little more influence of this idea in Christianity would have been helpful.

Meditations: Books Four

"No action should be undertaken without aim, or other than in conformity with a principle affirming the art of life." 

Interesting advice.  What do you make of it?  There are some resonances with Whitehead's aim of adventure.

Remove the judgement, and you have removed the thought 'I am hurt': remove the thought 'I am hurt', and the hurt itself is removed.

Nonsense.  Plenty of pain is not the result of our perception but of the injustice and oppressions imposed upon us.  Only someone of the upper class could believe what he has written.

Now, this is good advice:

No, you do not have thousands of years to live.  Urgency is on you.  While you live, while you can, become good.

Then some metaphysical speculations:

Think always of the universe as one living creature, comprising one substance and one soul: how all is absorbed into this one consciousness; how a single impulse governs all its actions; how all things collaborate in all that happens; the very web and mesh of it all.

I am drawn to this organic vision, though not to the deterministic elements in it.  Though, he also emphasizes change and process:

Change: nothing inherently bad in the process, nothing inherently good in the result.

Fun cynicism there.  But also this regarding change:

There is a river of creation, and time is a violent stream.  As soon as one thing comes into sight, it is swept past and another is carried down: it too will be taken on its way.

And reflecting on the impact of time and change on the human person, he has a sober picture of the world:

You should always look on human life as short and cheap.  Yesterday sperm: tomorrow a mummy or ashes.