A Virtuous Manifesto

a Virtuous Manifesto
Robert DeVaughn Jr.
To my wife, Christina, my parents, Bob and Kathy, my brothers, Eric and Corey, my family, friends, and countless strangers willing to work- to reason- together.
Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013
Personal Note This is what I have sought. It is the product and wisdom of my youth, the culmination of the insight I have found expressible. I am not an academic philosopher, and so my approach to philosophy is not academic. However, forgive any philosophical jargon I may use, I do so only to remain concise- and precise. I would suggest looking up any words you are not familiar with as you go; that is how I have had to read philosophy. On the other hand, excuse my ignorance or dismissals of convention; they are respectively unavoidable or deliberate. These thoughts are the product of my own valuations, built on those who have come before me. They are a compilation intended for personal reflection and alignment, and are not meant to be gospel. Though I do wish to propagate the ideas which I have found entreating, enlightening, and empowering; The most that I can hope is that my own are yet another step towards a better world. This process is in part a way for me to reconcile my own delusions of grandeur, to face how truly challenging it is to discover, develop and document philosophical insight into a consistent framework for understanding. It is a way to reflect on the considerable contributions of so many great people, and in parsing them to try to distill something that rings true for me personally. Much of this work may seem esoteric, although that is not my intention. Some of these concepts are complex- at least that is how they appear to me. Perhaps some of these ideas are trite, though I would expect their significance to encourage more invocation. For over a decade I have attempted to find complete expressions of these thoughts in art and philosophy; I have found them few and far between. Maybe these ideas are abnormal and lost on the majority, but I have found that I am not alone. Amidst the myriad of unanswered questions and confounding truths, I have found solace in the aim towards a more perfect union, not in any particular sense, but in all cases familiar. I believe my comfort lies in the understanding that through my will, in every subtle and profound way, I can shape the world around me- that to varying degrees, I am able to effect the passage of time, and by the influence of my effects, become a cause myself, eternally bound with all things in the cycle of existence. I am a membrane, a filter through which the future becomes the present, and the present becomes the past. By my present action, I can shape the future. Thus is the phenomena of free will- and the foundation of any hope that I have to remedy my abundant dissatisfaction with the world I perceive. That the world dissatisfies me is an understatement. This book was conceived on the verge of despair- at the lowest I have ever been. When I consider the course of human history- when I think about the lofty ideals expressed so long ago- I find it difficult to accept the general lack of enlightenment around me. Undoubtedly, the wisdom of great men and women has relentlessly Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 1
advanced our society, but it is lost on so many, and it seems to slip further and further into our cultural subconscious, subverted by the conflict between our often unnatural, compulsive, actions and our persistent primal emotions. I grimace at the world that we have been given. I cringe at the thought of the world we might leave behind. However, I take heart in those luminaries among us whose brilliance has lit the way thus far, and in whose archetype I find hope that a still more glorious dawn awaits.
Context The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free... (Sartre) A pessimist would look around at the state of the world and say that we have lost what once made us great. They would detail the political divisiveness and immorality so common in our headlines- ineffective and corrupt politicians, callus and selfish corporations, the indulgent and lazy masses. A pessimist would reflect on the abundance and purity of the world we inherited, and see nothing but decimation and spoil. They would invariably conclude with a reminiscence of some earlier, better time, in which people of all persuasions had yet to make so many tragic mistakes, and were better fit for the challenges humanity continually faces. An optimist would begin with an homage to the hard earned progress of civilization. They would chronicle our constant advancements in the understanding and mastery of nature, the perpetual propagation of enlightened ideals that grow ever more firmly rooted in our institutions. An optimist would see that the ever widening network of humanity is bringing us closer and closer together in our hearts and minds. They could only finish with the sincere belief that we are better off than those who have come before us, and the honest hope that humanitys brightest days are yet to come. Both the pessimist and the optimist would be right. Neither would see the whole picture. Those with justifiable doubt and those with unshakable dreams share the continual need to reassess and reaffirm their understanding of our common goals to calibrate and calcify their ethical alignment. Without this composure, we will never halt societys decline; we can never aspire beyond the heights of civilizations past. Whether you believe the tale of a paradise we have lost, or you are convinced by the promise of a utopia we must build, there are innately human principles which transcend this duality. The paths of the virtuous are like the first rays of dawn, shining ever brighter the natural light of human reason until a more perfect day. The rise of humanity. When we start to consider what we should do, we must begin by reflecting on what we have done, in order to establish what we could do. In order to decide how things should be, we must take the time to think about how things are, and how they have been. Before we decide the best course of action for the 21st century, we must first consider the legacies of the 20th centuryRelativity and Globalization. Relativity was the culmination of the fundamental shift in the paradigm of physical understanding initiated by Newtonian physics. Before Newton, scientific understanding rested upon identifying the mechanism causing physical phenomena. With the discovery of gravity, Newton no longer proposed the cause of the phenomena, merely the empirical observation that the phenomena existed. While this may seem trivial, its implications are significant. The Newtonian shift away from a purely mechanistic physics was the beginning of a scientific shift away from laws and rules, towards theories and models- conceptual abstractions which fit Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 3
the data, but for which there was no definitive evidence of the mechanism itself. Relativity represented the total abandonment of any mechanical conception of physics, rendering the very objects and forces we experience as tangible, subjective. When the very fabric of the physical universe, space and time, become relative, our skepticism of the absolute becomes understandable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, our physical and metaphysical understandings evolve together. As telecommunication and mass transportation make the world a smaller place, exposure to disparate and varied societies inevitably leads to an understanding of the archetypal nature of culture, and clearly definable, universal human concepts. While spreading multiculturalism increases general tolerance and eventually reduces social tension, the ubiquity of conflicting ideologies increases skepticism and undermines support for any particular set of definitive principles. These factors give rise to postmodernism, the gradual erosion of confidence in any specific ideology, and its accompanying transcendental angst. Richard Rortys Ironist is the quintessential postmodern: 1. She has radical and continuing doubts about the final vocabulary she currently uses, because she has been impressed by other vocabularies, vocabularies taken as final by people or books she has encountered; 2. She realizes that argument phrased in her present vocabulary can neither underwrite nor dissolve these doubts; 3. Insofar as she philosophizes about her situation, she does not think that her vocabulary is closer to reality than others, that it is in touch with a power not herself. (73) Though some might consider postmodernism the end of philosophy, the reality is that people have a real, practical need for ideology in their day to day lives. Having a set of core, foundational beliefs allows us to make decisions efficiently and consistently. It grounds our actions with a spiritual alignment that works to alleviate the inevitable fear and doubt we feel about what we choose to do. As science and cultural exchange subvert traditional, dogmatic, religious understandings, the need for a secular ethics becomes clear. Considering the functions, value, and utility of ideals has long been the core of classical philosophy, and there is a substantial amount of thought on which to build. If everything is relative, something is absolute. If she has radical and continuing doubt about a current final vocabulary, that understanding itself becomes the foundation of a potential final vocabulary. The contradiction cannot be escaped, and therefore must be included in any comprehensive understanding.
An Ethos I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. (Plato) What should guide how I choose to act? How should I weigh the decisions which shape my life and the lives of countless others? Why should I care about others? Why should others care about me? What have we found thus far? Is there anything on which we can, or must, agree? In some senses, these axioms define what it means to be human. They are fundamental to sentient experience. Axioms I hold the following premises as self-evident:
1. Consciousness exists as subjective experience. It is the basis of the selfs existence and
sense of Freedom*. Consciousness is the sensation of a subjective, personal, internal self, interacting with an objective, external universe. All personal experience arises from the phenomena of consciousness; I think. I exist. I am free. If free will did not exist, no individual could be held morally accountable for his/her actions.
2. Causality exists in all objective experience. It is the basis of thought and Reason.
Causality is the understanding that events have antecedent causes. It is the elementary principle of cause and effect, wholly apparent in all natural phenomena. If causality did not exist, we would have no means of comprehension, or therefore communication.
3. Cognitive closure results from the explanatory gap between subjective and objective
experience. Cognitive closure is the notion that there is a fundamental paradox in the human experience of reality which prevents us from understanding or expressing it in absolute terms. It is most clearly demonstrated in the evident contradiction between free will and causality. If I alone am responsible for my actions, as free will suggests, then my decision to act could not have been caused by anything, as causality requires. If my actions are motivated by external causes, then they are not free. When presented with basic definitions, practically everyone is able to understand both free will and causality. However, our human aversion to cognitive dissonance, the anxiety we feel when holding contradictory thoughts, compels most of us to focus on, or choose, which of the conflicting axioms they believe to be right and wrong. Cultural conflict that results from misunderstanding spreads in the absence of this realization. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 5
Consider the typical Republican, for example. They regularly defend personal freedom and responsibility because they have chosen to recognize the axiom of free will and the role we must each play in our own fate. Now, consider the typical Democrat. They strongly support progressive, egalitarian social policy because they have chosen to recognize the axiom of causality, and the role that uncontrollable circumstance plays in not only what we can do, but even who we are in the first place. Both ideologies are supported by an irrefutable, foundational axiom of human experience, and yet, these self-evident truths contradict, giving rise to the third axiom, cognitive closure, in which we find recognition of the inescapable and perennial contradictions apparent in human experience. When the wisdom of humanity recognizes all three of these axioms, a consistent understanding of quintessentially human values and virtues emerges. Propositions I propose and shall attempt to demonstrate that:
1. There are certain universal human values, among them more specifically; life, liberty/
freedom, justice, and peace.

2. Life alone can be sustained through merely physical or physiological means; Freedom,
Justice, and Peace all require both physical and subjective, personal, metaphysical conditions.
3. As specific causes produce specific effects, our actions can be guided by specific
principles to increase the abundance of our values.

4. The principles which guide our actions are our virtues; there is a necessary set of
universal virtues which corresponds to our universal values.

5. Identifying, comparing, and weighing these universal virtues is a necessary and continual
process for the alignment of our actions with our desired progress. Thesis For the realization of Freedom, Justice, and Peace, we need the virtues of Reason, Respect, and Resolve. As an inseparable dimension of our subjective, personal experience, Freedom is the necessary basis of choice, and therefore, moral action. As the sole means of predictably guiding our actions, expressing ourselves, or understanding each other, Reason is humanitys greatest virtue. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 6
* From this point on, values and virtues will be capitalized as a proper nouns when referring specifically to the particular definition of the word I have given (or will give).
The Universal Values of Freedom, Justice, and Peace What are values? Why are they essential? Put simply, values are things- thoughts, sentiments, objects or experiences- that we desire. Values are essential because they provide the clearest insight into our motivations and inclinations. They allow for comparisons of preference, and provide a measurement of progress. What we value is what we want; what we want is integral to who we are. What are universal values? Beyond the existential necessities and superficial urges of Life, there are innate desires which most human beings tend to place above all else. Beginning the important process of valuation is daunting. There are so many words with so many meanings it is difficult to parse and differentiate their subtleties. However, after any short review of the wisdom of humanity in philosophical, or cultural works, consistent themes appear. Our values are stirred by desire and suffering. These passions are shaped by our shared limitations and common struggle against them. The human condition is reflected in not only our seemingly universal pursuit for enlightenment and understanding, but also in the strikingly similar realizations of disparate ideologies- religious and scientific. Rising to the forefront of our social consciousness in the modern era, Freedom has taken its place as our predominant value. Liberty has captured a special place in our hearts as an unalienable right granted to all human beings, and perhaps all sentient life. Since the birth of civilization, Justice has remained a quintessential human value. Though occasionally opaque, and often specific to a place and time, the promotion of moral rightness has been a common aim of society throughout history. As society coalesced, violent conflict over resources increased along with our temporary reprieves from the constant challenges of survival. Thus began our seemingly never ending journey towards social and personal harmony. As the clearest evidence of contentedness and freedom from existential desire, Peace has become, in many ways, our ultimate pursuit. These values are not absolute; Though they represent my best estimations, they are part of a cloud of philosophical vocabulary. They are subject to context, circumstance and change, and warrant continual revision and redefinition.
Freedom [I]t is above all in this consciousness of his freedom that the spirituality of his soul reveals itself, for physics explains in a certain way the mechanism of the senses and the formation of ideas, but in the power to will, or rather to choose, and in the feeling of that power, we see pure spiritual activity, of which the laws of mechanics can explain nothing. (Rousseau 88) On June 11, 1963, a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down in the middle of a busy intersection in Saigon, South Vietnam. Another monk proceeded to empty a five gallon bucket of gasoline over Quang Duc, who then struck a match, dropping it on himself. He immediately burst into flames, where he remained seated in the lotus position until his death. A famous photograph of the incident was captured by an American journalist who wrote, As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound. (Halberstam 211) Thich Quang Ducs self immolation was in protest of the Roman Catholic government of South Vietnams persecution of Buddhists throughout the country. It immediately brought international attention to the suffering of South Vietnams Buddhists, along with direct pressure from the U.S. to satisfy their religious grievances. The act is remarkable for many reasons. It was selfless. It was extreme. A man voluntarily sacrificed his life in an absolutely horrific manner for what he believed was right. It was an act of almost unimaginable willpower. This man, sitting in a meditative posture, remained perfectly composed as he literally burned alive. It was a perfect demonstration of our innate freedom. Thich Quang Duc was no prisoner torturously murdered at the hands of an unjust mob. He chose his own fate, and suffered it with a poise demonstrating that no matter what oppressors may do to us, we are still free to choose our destiny. By his death, Quang Duc demonstrated the inherent, indomitable Freedom of all humanity. Unknown to many of its citizens, at the pinnacle of the United States Capitol Building, the symbol of our republic, there is a statue. There is a piece of art, an idea, at the top of the building most representative of our country, and many, if not most people, would scarcely recognize it. It's called the Statue of Freedom. Perhaps the name isn't surprising, we talk about Freedom a lot- practically everyone recognizes the Statue of Liberty; but how often do we really think about Liberty? What does the word really mean, in all its different contexts? Which context were the founders of the United States referring to, and why was it their highest ideal? What does it mean for an individual to be free? Individual Freedom is commonly understood as free will, the innate capacity to direct our thoughts and command the actions of our bodies. The experience or sentiment of free will can be felt in our sense of individuality, in our feelings of personal desire. It arises from our consciousness, and is the definitive property of any sentient being. Individual freedom is the idea Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 9
that we are free, responsible, autonomous agents. (Zizek) Our feelings of free will beg two very difficult questions, commonly understood as the problem of Freedom. First, given the apparent contradiction between free will and causality, are we really free, or is Freedom an illusion? Second, if we are free, how should we choose to act? What should guide our decisions? Our innate sense of Freedom is rooted in the most basic and universally appreciated phenomena of personal experience. However, this sense of our free will directly conflicts with the ubiquitous experience of cause and effect, and so we are doomed to doubt the truth of our Freedom. It is impossible to know with certainty whether or not we are free, therefore we are compelled to behave as if we are free, regardless of the unknowable, absolute truth of the matter. Freedom, the capacity for choice, is the necessary basis of moral action. What should guide our actions is the subject of this essay. What does it mean for society to be free? The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legislative power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislature shall enact, according to the trust put in it. (Locke) Liberty is the manifestation of our free will within a society, arising from our sense of selfpossession and our essential desire for self-determination. It is the absence of arbitrary or unjust laws- not Justice, but the necessary condition for Justice. Liberty exists in the relationship between the individual and the state. It is evident in the degree to which we are uninhibited by law or policy to live as we choose.
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Justice The sentiment of Justice is so natural and so universally acquired by mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion. (Voltaire) The notion of Justice is both difficult to explicitly define and easily implicitly understood. The reason for this is that our conception of Justice varies, and has changed over time. However, from the beginning of civilization, the value of Justice has been understood as necessary for the preservation of social order. In any form, Justice is embodied by a system of cultural understanding, social contracts, and institutions focused on the protection of cultural ideals. The conceptions of Justice found in early societies were often be based on systems of categorical, or deontological, ethics. They centered around adherence to a set of rules or laws, generally prescribed by the divine order found in religious doctrine. The Ten Commandments are an example of categorical Justice. As civilization progressed, social edict became increasingly dependent on natural law, built on our understanding of human nature. In the beginning, these systems of Justice were primarily focused on retribution for offenses against the rule of law. As we advanced, they shifted towards punishment to deter the undesirable tendencies of humanity. Though long the product of philosophical inquiry and rarely found in practical application, alternate conceptions of Justice arose based on consequential, or teleological ethics. These theories maintained that Justice should be founded on the desired effects of law, and not an externally determined decree. They argue that Justice should be built on rational goals such as harmony, fairness, or prosperity. The Bill of Rights is an example of consequential Justice. These systems are often focused on the restoration and preservation of the rights of victims of injustice, and are essential to the progressive interpretation of Justice. A combination of deontological and consequentialist ethics, the modern understanding of Justice is almost invariably associated with the notion of Equality. Established in Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights it states that All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Enshrined in the Declaration of Independence we hold the selfevident truth that all men are created equal. Engraved on the front of the United States Supreme Court Building are the words, Equal Justice Under Law. Though many of us take this for granted, this is a relatively new advancement rooted in our growing appreciation for Equality. Though our definitions of Equality have varied, we have consistently trended towards egalitarianism. From the birth of humanism to the civil rights movements of the twentieth century and continuing today, Equality has become increasingly fundamental to our idea of Justice. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously remarked, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (King) In modern society, we have sought to balance the utilitarian concepts of the common good with libertarian notions of absolute, inviolable rights. As John Rawls explains, Each person possesses an inviolability founded on Justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override... Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 11
(Rawls 3) Accompanying Equality in our modern definition of Justice we find the need for rationality. We hold that not only should laws be equally applicable to everyone, but that they should be based on Reason, and conceptually consistent. For this purpose we look to establish precedence in the interpretation of law, and have created the processes of judicial review. Justice is the necessary condition for the pursuit of Peace. It is a state devoid of arbitrary, artificial barriers to our Freedom. Justice exits in the differential of each individuals' relationship with the state. It is evident in the degree to which we are each treated by the state equally.
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Peace What does it mean, to find Peace? Peace is found in Harmony, in the balance of tension and resolution. Happiness; Satisfaction; Eudaimonia; These words are part of the nebulous definition of Peace. Peace is that rare sensation of supreme spiritual alignment, beyond pleasure, a feeling that could only be described as righteous. In one form or another, it is the essential goal of all Life. The will to Peace surpasses even the will to power. Peace is both our ultimate, and perhaps by extension, our most elusive pursuit. Any personal or societal realization of a state of Peace is fleeting at best. The conditions of Peace are delicate. They are dependent on the a myriad of factors beyond our control; yet there is much we can do to increase the likelihood and frequency with which we find it. There are two types of Peace that virtually all of humanity seeks: internal peace and external peace. Internal, or inner, peace is the quelling of the existential angst that we all feel from time to time. External peace is synonymous with world peace- a respite from the violence and animosity that invariably disrupts our cooperative existence. In many respects, the ways in which we achieve these different forms of Peace are the same. Yet often these types of peace are very different, and require very different approaches. Inner peace can be thought of as karmic peace. It is the incomparable satisfaction of ethical alignment. With it, we can willingly endure the seemingly insufferable; voluntary poisoning, crucifixion, or self-immolation. The condition of inner peace is the presence of virtue in ones self. While inner peace lies in acceptance of ones self, and the conditions of ones own existence, in many ways world peace lies in our acceptance of others, or in others acceptance of us. Acceptance of others is tolerance. Tolerance is something that must be reciprocal. We must be tolerant of others so that they may be tolerant of us. The necessary condition of world peace is Justice. In this respect, Peace depends on Justice in the same way that Justice depends on Freedom. Perhaps tellingly, we often treat the notion of Peace with considerable cynicism; We treat inner peace as a naive distraction, and we treat world peace as a utopian delusion. Though everlasting Peace may indeed be a naive delusion, both inner and world peace can be achieved, if only from time to time. The realization of any of our values- Peace, Justice, or Freedom- depends on the successful pursuit of our virtues.
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Necessary Virtues Surely this bond of common fate, surely this bond of common goals, can begin to teach us something. (Kennedy) Accepting that all men and women value their Freedom, their equal right to Justice, and the possibility of attaining Peace in their lifetime, it stands to reason that all men and women would be interested in understanding what is necessary to acquire these values. Based on the principle of causality, we understand that specific causes produce specific effects. If we perform a certain action, for example, we know that if the circumstances remain unchanged in subsequent repetitions, we can expect the same result. If Freedom, Justice, and Peace are the results we seek, surely there are specific actions we can take to increase their possibility. If there are specific actions which tend to bring about Freedom, Justice, and Peace, perhaps there are a specific set of guiding principles uniting these actions. These principles are our necessary virtues. What are the qualifications of a virtue? A virtue is a concept, a thought or notion that guides us to right action. What is right action? Right action is acting in a way that promotes the realization of our values. While our values are that which we pursue, our virtues dictate the means and manner of our pursuit. Virtue is shown in action. Right action is the only way virtue can be proven. Virtues must be acquired by choice, they cannot be received by chance. The are many commonly accepted, but mistaken virtues, among them commonly; intelligence, strength, and power. Though all of these are undoubtedly positive qualities, they cannot be acquired strictly by choice, and are not principles of guidance. Given our apparent Freedom, as well as our desire for Justice and ultimately Peace, what virtues can guide our actions to the development of these universal values? For the realization of Freedom, Justice, and Peace, we need the virtues of Reason, Respect, and Resolve. These virtues arise from human nature; Reason, from our cognitive capacity; Respect, from our social capacity; and Resolve, from our will to exercise these powers.
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Reason All our knowledge begins with sense, proceeds thence to understanding, and ends with reason, beyond which nothing higher can be discovered in the human mind..." (Kant 212) Any list of human virtues must begin with Reason. Without it, we could not evaluate or express the significance of any other virtue, or any other thought we possess. It is the foundation of Rationality and Understanding, the communication and cooperation that have built our civilization. Reason is, above all others, humanitys greatest virtue, the virtue of all free, rational beings. What is Reason? Reason is a product of Freedom- of free will- and causality. It arises from the very foundation of consciousness- the separation of subject and object. Reason is derivative of objective experienceempirical, measurable phenomena. In our will, subjective consciousness produces a desire to command the objects we perceive in the world around us. Causality allows us to apprehend the motions and effects of those objects, and therefore, using our free will, to interject the object of our control, our physical self, over the objects of our desire. The process of creating a mental representation of objects with corollary natural phenomena is called cognition; The process of apprehending or applying the motions and effects of those objects is Reason. In Platos Republic, a brilliant analogy to our cognitive process and insight into its epistemological limitations is presented in the famous Allegory of the Cave. In it, Socrates describes a hypothetical set of prisoners, eternally chained to the wall of a cave so that they could only see the opposing wall and shadows thrown on it by fire. He argued that because the shadows were all the prisoners could see, they would presume that the shadows were the true forms of the objects they perceived, lacking the ability to recognize the shadows as projections of object they could not see. Like the prisoners chained to the wall of the cave, all of humanity is faced with a fundamental inability to see objects as they are in-themselves, relying instead on the forms objects take to-us. From this understanding of the Allegory of the Cave, Platos Theory of Forms becomes clear. The Theory of Forms asserts that all we can know of reality is how reality appears to us as specific phenomenal experience, and how we categorize those experiences into general Forms with particular characteristics. The Form of a basketball, for example, is the set of characteristics, derived from experience, for which the definition of a basketball would be given (an orange rubber sphere with black lines, etc.). The Theory of Forms can be thought of simply as the notion that the idea of a basketball is distinct from any experience from which the thought of a basketball would arise, and that only the Form of a basketball can be conceived of or expressed, not the actual experience of a basketball. Reason is beautiful. It is clear and self-evident. It transcends cultural and personal differences. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 15
Reason is a distinctly and innately human characteristic, a capacity which separates us from all other species on our planet. Reason is our primary means for survival, and our only hope for its continuation. It is the foundation of the Scientific Method. Reason alone is not responsible for humanitys progress thus far, but without it, we are subject to the probability of misguided chance. Without it, we are doomed to ignorance and misunderstanding. Only Reason can span the seemingly infinite expanses which isolate us. Reason is an inescapable feature of human nature. Even those who would argue against it employ logic founded in causality, using empirical or analytical evidence that are products of Reason. Though some things cannot be explained by Reason, nothing can be explained without it. That is, things that cannot be explained by Reason are, by definition, inexplicable. A common challenge to induction is that as past experience is not absolutely indicative of repetition. Yet, induction only presents a problem if we expect it to yield universal absolutes. Instead, induction processes discrete objective experiences, which, over time, indicate probabilities. Its accuracy increases with experience and sample size. Though its results are obviously not absolute, they should trend towards accuracy. The true challenge of Reason is being reasonable. Accepting Reason is easy, it is self evident and pervasive in everything we do. The difficulty we face is applying Reason to achieve Understanding- using Reason to interpret the thoughts and expressions of others. Reason is a hermeneutic process. It is the way in which we derive meaning from the words and actions of others, as well as for ourselves in the world around us. The supremacy of Reason does not preclude the existence of other virtues, but rather necessitates them. Reason is the articulator of values, and the generator of virtues, through it we express our values and identify our virtues. Honesty, Understanding, and Hope are the virtues of Reason, given by our most fundamental experience. They are virtues we must accept.
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Honesty Honesty means telling the truth. The truth is what is real. From a very young age, we are taught these simple facts. They belie the sophistication of any articulate conception of truth, and are rarely expanded on as we grow into adults. Yet they underscore our powerful commitment to the premise, and our implicit acceptance of its necessity. Truth is an elusive concept. It has countless arcane and nuanced definitions which generally hinge on an understanding of our abilities to perceive of the world around us, and conceive of it in our minds. Humanitys working definition of truth seems to be found when the things we think accurately reflect the things we see (hear, touch, smell and taste). Whatever our definition of truth, people around the world hold Honesty in high esteem, and rightly so. Honesty is essential to understanding, in both our communities and within ourselves. It lies in the belief that we are conveying what we believe is true. Put simply, Honesty is when what we are saying is the same as what we are thinking about what we are seeing (hearing, etc.). While Kant might not hold the distinction meaningful, categorically asserting that, By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man, (Kant) many people see a significant difference between superficial and coercive lies. Superficial lies come from good intent. They are commonly understood as white lies, told to smooth relations, to curb unnecessary tension or offense. Coercive lies, on the other hand, come from malicious intent. They are told to subvert the will or freedom of others. Coercive lies use deceit to manipulate others for personal gain. Despite the temporary advantages a lie may give, there are clear and substantial drawbacks to coercive lies. If a lie is not known as such, it is indistinguishable from the truth to someone it is told. To the person to whom a lie is told, the only misfortune they suffer is the loss of the truth the lie conceals. However, the perpetrator of a lie always knows it as such, and inevitably suffers for it, not directly, but through the reflection of themselves that they must inevitably see in humanity as deceivers and manipulators. The person given to coercive lies must be haunted by paranoia and fear, imprisoned by the very power they usurp- the power of truth. If I lie, its possible, if not probable that others lie as well; But if I can tell the truth, its at least possible that others tell the truth also. This is a karmic understanding of Honesty. The natural anger which arise upon realization of a lie is perhaps the clearest evidence of our appreciation of the power of truth, and the virtue of Honesty. Between people, Honesty is a pact, an agreement to express what we hold to be true and not to use expression as a means for manipulation. When employed, Honesty allows for the experience of others to become an extension of ones own understanding. It allows for the coordination that is an absolute necessity for society to grow and prosper. Within ourselves, Honesty has a similar though slightly different meaning. Given our simple definitions of truth, one might ask, How is it possible for someone to not be honest with their Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 17
self? But our complex biology and evolution has yielded psychological mechanisms which often seek to subvert our acceptance of what we know to be true. Because of these systems of selfdelusion, personal honesty relies on the relentless pursuit of objectivity, no matter how inescapable it ultimately is. Accepting the virtue of Honesty, in order to engage in the pursuit of the truth, we require the derivative virtues of Trust and Openness. Trust is the presumption that someone has told, is telling, or will tell the truth. It is an essential part of all human relationships. The capacity for Trust is inversely proportional to the propensity to lie. Trust is necessary to overcome the danger of cynicism, and without Trust, we are doomed to perpetual doubt. An extension of Trust, without Openness, we could never overcome our fear of the unknown. Openness is the willingness to expose oneself to new perspectives and experiences, trusting that those new experiences will lead to a more complete view of the world, and a fuller understanding of the truth.
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Understanding What is Understanding? Understanding is typically seen as the pursuit of Reason, the moment at which we apprehend the truth. However, the truth has often proven difficult to capture. It is first necessary to consider the various positions we hold on truth in order to define exactly what it means to Understand. There are four essential positions on the continuum of truth. We can have faith that something is true. We can believe that something is true. We can know that something is true, and we can Understand why something is true. When we have faith, we accept the possibility, if not probability, of a particular truth. When we believe, we accept the reality of a particular truth. When we know, we have experience verifying a particular truth. When we Understand, we have experience verifying the conditions of possible truths, as well as the reason for a particular truth. Faith and belief share the lack of empirical evidence for their positions. They are inclinations prompted respectively by desire and rational confidence. I have faith in things I want to be true. I believe in things for which there is sufficient indirect evidence. I have faith the efforts of this essay are not in vain. I believe that Germany exists- never having seen the country for myself, but accepting the substantial indirect evidence for its existence. While knowledge is particular information, Understanding is general information. I can know that the sky is blue, or I can Understand that the sky is blue because our atmosphere scatters more light from the sun of smaller, bluer wavelengths. Knowledge is a component of Understanding. Understanding is a superset of knowledge about a subject. Because we can never have absolutely perfect, or fully complete, knowledge of a subject, we can also never have absolute, or complete, Understanding. Understanding is more likely to be a process which trends towards comprehension of the truth, rather than a state of being which possesses it. Ultimately, the virtue of Understanding lies, not in what we know, but rather in what we know we cannot know. A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!" (Hawking 1) This anecdote is commonly used to explain the paradox of the first cause, and the resulting infinite regression. However, it also ironically mirrors our actual experience of Understanding. Thus far, under every new foundation of mechanical understanding, we have found a deeper mystery. Ask any theoretical physicist about wave-particle duality or quantum entanglement, the Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 19
causes or effects of time or consciousness, and they will reassure you that there are just as many inexplicable physical paradoxes as there are metaphysical ones. We assume that it is possible for us to conceive of and express the absolute Truth- to completely understand everything- when it might be the case that we are destined to find an asymptote. For Western Science this notion has been the ultimate taboo; for what can we know if we can not know it all? Despite this undesirable possibility, we may well trend towards accuracy, towards understanding. We will likely make better and better predictions, but there may always be inconsistencies. We might find that Understanding is a perpetual process, not an achievable state. It might really be turtles all the way down. It may then be the case, that the problem generally lies with our definition of understanding. To quote Albert Einstein, Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility or the meaning of such a comparison. But he certainly believes that, as his knowledge increases, his picture of reality will become simpler and simpler and will explain a wider and wider range of his sensuous impressions. He may also believe in the existence of the ideal limit of knowledge and that it is approached by the human mind. He may call this ideal limit the objective truth. (Einstein 31) Philosophy has long been familiar with the potential problem our possibly incurable ignorance presents. Since at least time of Plato, the mind-body problem has been well articulated as such: the phenomena of experience when held as thoughts, are not the same as the experiences themselves, giving rise to the question of which, if either- or both- exists. The Hard Problem arises by extension, when questioning the cause of the phenomena of experience- why do sensations have characteristics like color and sound. Ultimately, philosophy may have even come to grips with the reality of our situation. Cognitive closure suggests the possibility that certain questions are ultimately unanswerable. Koans like, What came first, the chicken or the egg? are meant to demonstrate this truth, rather than to suggest an answer which can be articulated. Inconceivable! The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. (Lao Tzu) Written in the 6th Century BCE. Around the world, men and women of disparate religions engage in a pursuit that is all too familiar- the quest for Enlightenment. Through Introspection and Contemplation, they plot a course towards a state of mind, towards understandings prophesied by the saints and poets of Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 20
their faiths. These ascetics hone techniques such as prayer and meditation, and participate in rituals meant to open the doors of perception to the ultimate nature of reality, but what do they find when they get there, or more importantly, what do they have to say about it? Many of our greatest seekers, often those of us with the most unquenchable curiosity, have claimed to have found what they were looking for. Some call it Oneness; some call it God. Some call it Brahman; some call it Truth. All of them describe it as an experience unto itself, and all of them have claimed to have found peace in this understanding. When reading through religious accounts of transcendental enlightenment, of the understanding that comes from realizing the ultimate nature of reality, perhaps the most striking thing that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus regularly relate is that the experience cannot be expressed, or conceived of; it can only be experienced. There is no definitive ontology. The nature of being is inexpressible. The simplest analogy to this understanding is, What does the color blue look like? The question cannot be answered with words, a person can only be directed to a particular experience- in this case the sight of something blue. As the Buddha says, When all phenomena are done away with, all means of speaking are done away with as well. (Sutta Nipata) Though Christians claim that God can be known through the natural light of human reason, they concede that Our natural knowledge begins from sense. Hence our natural knowledge can go as far as it can be led by sensible things. But our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God; because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. (Aquinas) In Hinduism, Atman cannot be attained through study of the Vedas, nor through intelligence, nor through much learning. (Upanishads) In Islam, one of the 99 names of God is Al-Haqq, the Truth or the Reality, and there is nothing that could be compared with Him. (Qur'an) It is true that the interpretations and philosophies arising from the transcendental experience are divergent and often contradictory, however the context and extent of such revelations rarely appear to conflict. It seems to me that there is not one meaning of Life, that there are many meanings just as there are many lives. I give meaning to my Life, you to yours. This certainly feels like the kind of common ground on which a foundation of Understanding and Respect can be built. But what can we know if we cannot know it all? We can start at the end, with our values, for they are the product of our free will, and by definition are of our own choice. As we endeavor to build a peaceful and prosperous society, these words should guide our actions: Comprehending the Absolute Truth may well be beyond our reach, but accepting this allows us to confine our discourse to the relative truths we share, and places Understanding within our grasp.
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Hope Committed to Honesty in the pursuit of Understanding through Reason, we need one more virtue before we can begin- Hope. Hope is remembering that there is a chance- that probability bears misfortune, but it also carries success. Hope is often the fine line between Endurance and surrender, Resolve and dissolution. Hope is the necessary encouragement to try. Without belief in the possibility of a desirable outcome, there would be no reason to pursue happiness. Similarly, before we can seek Understanding, we must acquire the motivation that only Hope can bring. Hope, however, comes with a warning. In Greek mythology, Zeus, king of the gods, forbade Prometheus, the titan of forethought, to share fire with humanity. Foreseeing that it would lead to the birth of civilization, Prometheus brought the knowledge of fire (or perhaps, the fire of knowledge) to mankind. To take his vengeance, Zeus led the other gods to create Pandora, the first woman. Imbued with all the gifts of humanity, she too possessed curiosity. She was given as a gift to man from the gods. Pandora herself was given a beautiful box and warned by Zeus not to open it under any circumstances, though she was not told what was inside. Compelled by her desire to know its contents, Pandora opened the box, only to find them immediately escaping. Though she quickly closed the box, to her anguish, Pandora had released all of the evils against humanity into the world, among them War, Hatred, Anger, Fear, and Despair. She closed the lid as fast as she could, but all that remained in the box, huddled in the corner, was Hope. Though it may be a necessary one, Hope was perhaps not misplaced among the evils of mankind. As Nietzsche said of man, for he does not know the box which Pandora brought was the casket of evil, and he believes the ill which remains within to be the greatest blessing, it is hope. In the absence of knowledge, rather than remaining content with Hope, we are often better served by seeking further information to ensure our desired outcome. Epimethius and Pandora believed Hope would be their salvation. They did not realize it should serve as a reminder of the evils now all around them. When presented with the reality of a grim probability, the Hope that leads us to optimism also leads to a sense of inevitability and despair. In the absence of understanding, Hope has its place; but in the presence of knowledge, faith fails us. The problem with chance is that it bears out over time, it is not reflected in any instant, a feature reflected clearly in the idea of gambling. When people gamble, they rationalize, that despite the odds, a chance of winning exists and they could be lucky this time. While this is true, they ignore the impact of probability on the situation. For casinos, gambling is a business. The house has to win more than it loses, or the casino could not continue to operate. This means that statistically, the more you gamble, the more your total losses will trend greater than your total winnings. The house does not always win, but the house Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 22
always wins over time. The danger of Hope is the possibility of Hoping in vain for a result circumstance will not produce. We must be wary of these wishful rationalizations deluding us into irrational expectations. The reality of probability is borne with experience. The more experience we have, the better indication we have have of the probabilities of particular outcomes. However, our conception of the probability of something bears no influence on the thing itself, and so, with our continued experience, probability is subject to revision. In this acceptance of the continual need for experience to inform our Understanding, we come to the virtue of Respect, the acknowledgment of the source of our experience, and those with whom we share it.
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Respect The virtue of Respect is a different kind of virtue. While Reason is logically self-sufficient, Respect comes from our sense of the world and people around us. Respect is the appreciation of personal, subjective- emotional or sentimental- experience. If Reason is founded on the quantitative facts of Life, Respect is founded on its qualitative dimension. The power of Respect comes from the understanding that some realizations cannot be conveyed, or acquired, except through experience, over time. Through Respect, we come to know what we value. Respect arises from Understanding in the same way that Understanding arises from Reason. It lies in recognition of the significance of circumstance, our own and others. When we understand that the way we are is due largely to countless particular details of Life governed only by random chance, we can accept the same of others, becoming able to see through superficial and substantial differences to our innate, common humanity. Respect is recognition and acceptance, but it is also something more. Respect is the foundation of our highest ideals. In the sense of mutual consideration, Respect is synonymous with Magnanimity, which was described by Aristotle as greatness of soul, a sort of crown of the virtues; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them. (Aristotle) Having found greatness within ones own soul, the Magnanimous can see the potential for greatness in the souls of others. In this acknowledgment of the potential for greatness in others, they find the Magnanimous greatness of soul. Having found Respect for ones self, one can Respect others. In this Respect for others, they can find Respect for you. Respect and Magnanimity arise from the sense that if one wishes to be deserving of, or thought to possess either, one must act as if others are deserving of, or may possess either as well. This understanding of the correlation between Respect for ourselves and Respect for others is arguably most convincingly embodied by Kants Categorical Imperative. Perhaps best exemplified by the Golden Rule, the common understanding that we should act in a way that, were others to imitate us, we would be given the same consideration that we give them. Respect is integral to the modern conception of Justice in the propagation of fairness and equality. It is the rallying cry or inclination of civil rights activists and libertarians alike. Respect is implicit in the unalienable rights our Declaration of Independence sought to protect, and is integral to the Bill of Rights. Respect is instrumental to finding the acceptance we seek of ourselves and from others in pursuit of Peace. Through Self-Respect we can accept ourselves and in doing so, become more accepting, and therefore Respectful, of others. When we are more Respectful of others, they feel the Self-Respect which makes them more accepting of themselves and consequently, us. With the acceptance, and ultimately Respect of others, we find it easier to Respect ourselves and the virtuous cycle of Peace is perpetuated. The virtues of Respect are virtues we observe. They are the cornerstone of civilization- of humanitys progression beyond the instinctual motivations of the rest of the animal kingdom. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 24
They begin, necessarily with the respect for Life, mans most precious possession. They proceed logically to the virtues of Love and Loyalty- the essential bonds that engender the trust and openness which allow communities to exist. The virtues of Respect conclude with an appreciation of the Living- an understanding of suffering, and the need for empathy and compassion.
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Life It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement- that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life. (Freud) In some ways, Life must be our most precious virtue. In the Declaration of Independence it is listed first among our self-evident, unalienable rights. Practically everyone, everywhere, agrees that their lives are important to them. But what exactly are they referring to? Just as Reason is our method of comparison, Life is our standard- our tool of measurement. The word Life has almost twenty definitions, however, when we refer to our lives, we are generally talking about a very particular one. When I talk about my Life, I am referring to the stream of consciousness beginning with my birth and presumably ending with my death, from my awakening each morning, to my falling asleep each night, and the flickers of thought between. When I refer to Life, I am referring to the sum of sensible experience, thought, feeling and the passage of time. Consciousness is the root of experience, the awareness of a world, physical or metaphysical, beyond the self. My Life is my awareness of the world around me for connected intervals of time- from moment to moment. Our lives are a series of moments. We constantly seek the clarity in which we find real Understanding and Respect. On occasion, we experience the rare poignant moments in Life when the uncertainty of chance and the anxiety of fate subside, allowing us to exhale, look around, take it all in, and and feel undoubtedly at Peace. They are surely humanitys most precious commodity- the times for which Life is worth living. The power of these moments comes from our most profound longing for absolutes- for permanence. This is the foundation of respect for the metaphysical dimension of Life. I was probably 20 years old; It was the very springtime of my life. A good friends father had been living at a nearby farm for the summer, and several of my friends had gathered there in the afternoon to eat, drink, and be merry. My future wife, Christina had come to join us. My friends father was staying in a hunting lodge near the forest at the edge of the farm. Cars lining the driveway approaching the house, my friends were all around- Smoking pork loin on patio, and joints on the porch. Drinking beer. Running around the grassy yard that sloped from in front of the lodge down to a wooded grotto at the bottom of the hill in the back yard. There I sat, under the trees. The late afternoon sun shined down from beyond the top of the hill in the front yard, illuminating the grass, as well as the low hanging branches and leaves of the first trees in the grotto. As the warm August breeze rustled the trees, sunlight and shadow flickered in my eyes while I looked across the back yard. In that instant, Christina came running across the yard, the shadow cast on my eyes made her definition clear- young, beautiful, full of life. A second later, as the branches and shade shifted, Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 26
she was silhouetted by the late afternoon sun coming down across the yard. These images flickered back and forth as she moved towards me. Time slowed down. It was not the first time I had met, or seen my future wife- we were already dating at that point. It was, however, one of the first times that I experienced an eternal moment. To this day I can not remember what happened next. Did she come over and see me? Did she run back up to the lodge? Did I get up and go to her? None of this matters to me, however. In a way, the part of me which experienced that moment refused to leave it- refused to experience whatever came next. In a way, I will always be stuck in that moment.
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Love I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. (Russell) What is Love? Is it simply attraction, or is it something more, something less explicable? There is no shortage of prophets or poets extolling the virtues of Love. Love is the emotion that causes us to form unions, families, and all of society. Love is the glue that binds us together into groups. When we are loved, we can Love ourselves; and when we Love ourselves, we can Love others. Primal and sweet, precious and bitter, Love takes different forms: sexual and Platonic, climactic and unrequited. Yet in any form, passion invigorates everything we do. It animates us, drives us forward. It is the axle of the wheel of Life- every living thing revolves around passion, desire. Affinity and aversion, as the purest desires, give us the strongest sense of our will. As such, Love, and conversely hate, have, in the ability to overwhelm all other emotions, an unparallelled power to sway the human heart. Love is the purest, deepest, most profound and emotionally compelling virtue. Love begins with our sense of Self-Respect, and continues to our drive to procreate. It yields layers of connection, from our spiritual unions to the families who spring from them, from the people we meet, to the countless strangers whose lives we share in countless subtle ways. Love teaches the Kindness and Charity that makes our communities strong, and Love, we understand. It gives comfort to a Life, to know that it was shared with another, and Love is one of our most celebrated virtues, because it provides the comfort that we are sharing the same feeling in the same moments- the sad few we have. True Love cannot be unconditional, that is, you cannot really Love someone without being loved in return. Love must be shared, and the power of love comes from that very fact. When we Love someone- truly love someone- we know that they love us in return. When we feel loved, we know that those feelings of loneliness that we all experience must be just as fleeting as the memories we long to share. And in that longing, that desire to feel the profound satisfaction and contentment of a moment in Love, it becomes clear that our lives are meant to be spent together. Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away forever. (Yes)
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Self-Esteem Do you wonder where the self resides? Is it in your head, or between your sides? And who will be the one who will decide its true location? (Andrew Bird) What is the self? Are our selves our bodies? Are our selves our minds? Which, if either is real? I exist, is a tautology. If the statement can be made to the self, the statement must be true. I do not exist, can never be a valid statement. It can never be true. The thing which says I exist, is your self, your sentience- evidence of the aseity of your free will. Neither thought, nor body alone, you are a self-propelled wheel. The self is powerful, pervasive, and complex perhaps beyond our capacity for understanding. Its very existence is built on the infinite regression of a self-referential paradox. The self guides who we are and limits what we can be, but it can be overcome. In that, our most glorious pursuit, the heavenward reach of humanity. We seek, not simply to cast aside our former selves, but to become new and better people. When we talk of the self, we inevitably invoke concepts such as our spirit or our soul. There seem to be two fundamental conceptions of the soul. The first, and most commonly understood definition of soul is that of an immortal consciousness temporarily occupying a body that will be transported upon the bodys death- in a logical temporal sequence- to some place (usually heaven or hell) in time beyond this. The second conception of the soul is more abstract, but ultimately more compelling. In this definition, the soul is also immortal, but it is not our consciousness. It is our spirit, our immortal essence- the form of us as a person- others conception of us in thought. It is the collection of attributes or qualities which give rise to others definition of each of us. Though any such image is admittedly inescapably incomplete, it is no less incomplete than our capacity for appreciation of the truth allows. Like Understanding in all things, with time others conception of our true essence trends towards accuracy. In this respect, immortality exists in the hearts and minds of humanity, in the people we spend our time with, and those who knowingly connect with the effects of our lives. How can you love the world, if you do not first love yourself? It is impossible to separate the world from your subjective perspective of it. If your perspective is tainted by the frustration and anger of personal dissatisfaction, you can never appreciate the harmony of existence. If you dont love whatever you are doing, quit right now. Whatever it is; your job, your relationship, your actions- if you are thoroughly convinced you do not love it, you should resolve to leaving it. How can you ever be happy for yourself if you do not love the things you are doing? That's not to say that the decision should be made rashly, but after considerable objective, thoughtful examination you decide that you do not love some facet of your life, you must resolve Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 29
to changing it. That's also not to say that the decision should be implemented hastily. It may not be practical to up and quit your job, leave your partner, or change your ways immediately, but once the decision has been reached you must begin reasoning a course of action to realize your desires. No one can make these choices for you. We are each, ourselves, responsible for what little part we play in our fortune. Self-Esteem is something we give ourselves when our actions are in alignment with our intentions. Sometimes our self-loathing runs deep. We must not wade long in those treacherous and lifeless waters, lest we get carried away. Everyone has doubt from time to time. It is intrinsic to the unanswerable questions and paradoxes found in our experience, and a product of a natural dichotomy with confidence. Self denial and self loathing are things we must overcome. In the pain of uncertainty, overwhelmed by the emotion of desire for negation, we lose sight of the essential transformative power of our selves. By reflecting on who we are and what we want to become, we can regain responsibility for our fate. By succeeding in that charge, we can take pride in who we are. Self-Reliance and Self-Determination go hand and in hand. Self-Reliance is the virtue of personal responsibility. If we accept that we are free to pursue our desires, then we must accept responsibility for the acquisition of our desires. Though circumstance and chance will inevitably affect the conditions of possibility, if we did not take earnest responsibility for the pursuit of our desires, we could not help but regret such inaction if we were not fortunate by chance alone. In this responsibility, there exists a clear and direct correlation between Sincerity, Dignity, and earning Respect. When we take responsibility for our actions, and express ourselves Honestly, others inevitably come to Respect us, and from that Respect of others, we find Respect for ourselves. When we act responsibly and communicate with Sincerity we feel the satisfaction of knowing people have a reason to think well of us. Do unto yourself as you would do unto others as you would do unto yourself. Self-Esteem and Love for others are part of a virtuous cycle conducive to Peace. This is evident in the aim of every hero on every journey. The virtues of Self-Esteem and Self-Reliance appeal to the hero in all of us, to our inner protagonist. Loving ones self makes it possible, or even necessary to Love others. In order to Love ones self, we must first fulfill the command of the Oracle of Delphi, Know thyself. Introspection is a process of Understanding the self. It is the inward ebb of the metaphysical cycle of Introspection and Transcendence. The self is very close, but there are many roads to self. To fully know ourselves, we must explore our limits, physical and mental. We must identify our temperaments and our tastes, as well as their sources. We must come to know with confidence, not only who we are, but why we are who we are. Only once we discover what we are can we decide what we would choose to be. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 30
Self-absorption is the converse danger to self-denial, though it is the result of the opposite force, namely ego, it nonetheless presents a very real danger of an arresting, vicious cycle. Beware the gravity of self-absorption which can trap us in an infinite regress of Introspection. When we only consider ourselves, we becomes ignorant of the conditions of experience around us, thereby losing the anchor to which our selves are tethered. The effort to examine and understand the self necessarily includes expanding ones experience and therefore, Understanding, thereby transforming the self itself. As we come to know precisely who we are, the addition of this perspective inevitably changes us, making us better, fuller people. To completely realize this transformation, however, we must consciously overcome our selves. Once we have come to know ourselves, we can set about the process of shaping ourselves to our own will and desire, ultimately coming to Love the person we have become. Transcendence is this process of overcoming our selves, body and mind, the fruition of the metaphysical cycle. Transcendence is the ability to creatively destroy ones self, to sublimate ones unwanted qualities in favor of a new and better being. While Introspection is deciding what you are and what you would like to be, Transcendence is the process of bringing that being into reality. Transcendence is achieved through the virtues of willpower. As our willpower grows, so does our potential for overcoming. This is the path to becoming a better person- not only better in the sense of being more good, but also in the sense of being smarter, faster, stronger, more coordinated and graceful, in every way more capable. You can do this. It is simultaneously the most awe inspiring and natural, instinctual process imaginable- self-transformation. In the process of Introspection and Transcendence, Self-Esteem is the furnace and forge of the glory of mankind. A caution about hubris, overconfidence and underestimation. Our Self-Esteem can have a distorting effect on our sense of confidence. When we think more highly of ourselves- often in times of good fortune- we tend to overestimate our abilities as well as the possibility of further good fortune. Forgetting the role of chance, we are often lulled into a false sense of confidence by our good fortune. It is important to remember that we are beings of finite capacity, and that the nature of duality implies that we will face substantial challenges for which we will likely be unprepared. Selfishness is not intrinsically bad, as it is necessary for existence and personal fulfillment. However, greed is selfishness beyond sufficiency- beyond use, or practical application. Though our selves are absolutely indispensable, we cannot always rely on ourselves. We are all subject to probability and will inevitably falter, whether through unknowing miscalculation or through deliberate risk. In this we find the value of community, and the need for virtues that strengthen social bonds. When one individual fails, others help them so that when they themselves inevitably fail, there are still others willing to help. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 31
Marriage, Family, Friends and Fellowship There are a subset of the virtues of Love, pertaining specifically to other people- the people we share our lives with. In this respect, Marriage, Family, Friends and Fellowship are all personal virtues. They delineate the spheres of our social interaction, and reinforce the sense of Community which Love so strongly suggests. There seem to be moments in life in which all of the loose ends in the back of our minds are tied with someone else's and we no longer feel alone. We feel connected, to another person in a passage of time so intimate and fleeting we cant help but imagine if it were eternity. Memories of these moments overwhelm us with the most profound nostalgia that we can experience; the sweetest moments leave the most bitter longing. We cling to them, or they cling to us, and as we define them, in many ways they define us. They determine the places and little pleasures we hold so dear. They become the scale by which we measure our happiness. All joys pale in comparison to the joy of being in Love. Like the onset of Spring, nature calls to us in our youth, and precipitates a physical awakening to the visceral, sensual pleasure of sex. Strange and powerful feelings yield awkward moments, anxiety, tension and... eventually... finally... release- connection, unification in and with the overwhelming potential of Life. Sex can be beautiful in countless ways, yet the topic of sex is taboo in many cultures. Though allusions to sex are common, the act or its depiction are rarely tolerated in public- on neither the streets nor the airwaves. Most people dont regularly discuss sex in detail, because how we behave during sex can say a lot about who we are as people. Because sex is intimate, sex is revealing. Ultimately, this physical expression of passion and desire is the procreative will of life. The compulsion from which we form the fundamental human connection. The desire to build a world, to create and nurture life together. As Hume regarded, "the first and original principle of human society... that natural appetite betwixt the sexes, which unites them together, and preserves their union, till a new tie takes place in their concern for their common offspring." (191) Choosing to have children is perhaps one of the most significant moral decisions regularly given the least due consideration. I had a wonderful childhood; I have a great Family. It may often be that those who have had bad childhoods are compelled to refuse to accept the impact of an individuals childhood, and that those who have had good childhoods have failed to consider and truly appreciate the importance of their own. In both cases, Respect for Family is lost; In the first it is lost to defiance of destiny. In the second it is lost to desire for determination. Most of us are given, for one reason or another, to forgoing or forgetting the value of a good childhood, and the importance our families play in creating the right kind of environment in which to grow. Extended Family should give us a positive bias towards a larger sample of society- reclusive uncles, quirky aunts, cousins more-or-less like ourselves, whose parents we know well enough to gain the perspective necessary to understand how our parents can shape who we are. In the Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 32
comfortable, escapable settings of Family reunions and winter holidays, they give us a warm place to see how people with obvious superficial differences can have quite a lot more in common than they have unto themselves. I owe an ode to my Friends, the few I have had the pleasure of so calling: fellow revelers in the joys of youth, dear acquaintances of casual chance. My Friends are the free spirits that I have partied and adventured with. Unlike family, our Friends are freely chosen. Many of our Friends tend to be close in age to our own, because of this they provide a connection to our generation. They are often people we grow up with, people whose potentials we see realized. They offer deeper insight into the hearts and minds of others, and further evidence of our innately human commonality. The virtue of Community, in each expanding sense, is that of neighbors, fellow townspeople or city dwellers, state, provincial, or regional cohabitants, compatriots, foreigners, and ultimately, all of humanity. It is the common sense that we share interests with ever widening groups and that there is a subset of those interests that are shared by every person. One of the ways we demonstrate our sense of Community is through Respect for customs and traditions. By observing and reciprocating others ways of Life, we signal Respect for their sensibilities and culture. We need not abandon our own habits to participate in the customs of others. If fact, appreciation of foreign ways of Life gives us new perspective on our own, how we are succeeding and what we might do better. In the end we find that most rituals are superficial, and beneath the differences in style and ornamentation, many cultures share quintessentially human similarities. In the concept of humanity we find closeness to one another in the metaphysical sense, but in modern networks we see can identify the actual measure of separation, we can see in real, physical, mathematical terms, just how closely connected we are to one another. Whether by six degrees of separation or more, it is a small world after all. The virtue of Kindness proceeds logically from our sense of, and desire for, Community. It is the clear and simple answer to the question of what should guide our interactions with one another.
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Kindness/ Charity "With malice toward none, with charity for all." (Lincoln) Kindness is perhaps the simplest and most ubiquitous virtue- not to say that everyone practices it consistently, but that practically everyone understands what it is, and why it is a virtue. In the most basic sense, Kindness is Good Will towards others. It flows from our love for humanity, from the kinship all people share. Good Will is the desire for universal prosperity, the sentiment that wishes good fortune and happiness for all. Kant argued that the only thing good without qualification is a Good Will. We see the logic of Kindness in the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. We implicitly understand the reciprocal nature of human relations, that we are disposed to treat others how, or how we imagine, they treat us. Understanding this, a person who wishes to be treated Kindly, necessarily treats others with Kindness. For a similar reason, we are particularly inclined to help those in need. We help the less fortunate because we understand the implications of fortune; chance, circumstance, and fickle fate. We help those in need with the rational hope that if we were in need, others would be there to help us. Kindness requires either the foresight to give of ones self before having any way to know it will be repaid, or at the very least, the understanding that positive outlook and action themselves make us feel better, regardless of the other benefits they bring. The prevalence of this sentiment is the clearest evidence for the fundamentally human compulsion towards equality and social justice. Indeed the attitude may be so widespread among humanity, that Kindness (or Charity) may be the defining characteristic of a Good person. Goodness can be easily defined as the quality of that which brings about the the things we value. By extension, Benevolence is the propensity for an individual to will goodness towards others. However, in the particular sense, these virtues are not absolute. For though goodness can always be equated with the things we value or that which produces them, the very things we value, and the degree to which we value them, are personal, subjective inclinations. Goodness is not something that exists in form or action, independent of human judgment. The taboo of the knowledge of good and evil seems meant to prevent us from identifying cognitive closure, the apparent dead end in our ability to understand. In this case, the knowledge of good and evil illuminates the explanatory gap between what is good for us, and what is good, in and of, itself. Belief in the existence of evil perpetuates a cycle of dehumanization, fear, and hatred. The problem with describing something (or someone) as evil is that it requires us to infer somethings (or someones) purpose or intention. By any basic definition, evil is based on malicious intentCopyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 34
the active, conscious desire for, or callous disregard of, another's misfortune or suffering. Evil is ill-will, the converse of Good Will. Most people, even people who do things most consider bad, do not consider themselves evil. Though they indeed may have made decisions with consequences society deems worthy of reprimand, animosity or reproach, they often express their intentions in terms of the good they were trying to achieve for themselves or others, rather than in terms of the harm they have caused. While this distinction may not seem significant, the root of the problem lies in the passion of our animosity towards evil- towards those with malicious intent. As a result of the natural feelings of hatred aroused by the perception of evil, we become inconsiderate of chance and circumstance. We forget that people inevitably make mistakes and in this passion we reduce a person to the thing for which we deem them evil. By contrast, the notion of something (or someone) that is (or has done) bad, as opposed to something evil, might be thought of differently. Someone who has done something bad, or badly, is generally thought of in a more sympathetic light. They did something wrong, but it was an incident of failure, unlike an evil action, which is indicative of an innate ill-will. A bad act is a transgression against what is good for others, but an evil act is the active pursuit of what is bad for others. Evil also poses a problem in the broadest possible sense. When considering the possibility of an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent deity, we are confronted with the problem of evil. If any supreme being were all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good, why would evil, or suffering, exist? The existence of evil makes it difficult to see subjectivity in the order of reality, for if any god were all knowing, all powerful, and all good, how could we reconcile the existence of what they would describe as evil? In this Understanding of the problem of Evil, it becomes clear why the experience of god cannot be shared. People with opposing subjective, personal experiences- the results of chance and circumstance- will always have difficulty agreeing on the ultimate nature of a god their experiences contradict. You will never get a person who has suffered fate to accept that any supreme being is good. Conversely, you will never get a person who has had good fortune to accept that any such god is not. It is precisely because of this inevitability of misunderstandings, mistakes, failures, or trespasses that the virtue of Loyalty is indispensable.
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Loyalty We have to recognize that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty... (West 160) There is another bond between people, similar to, but distinct from the bond of Love- the bond of Loyalty. Throughout history, Loyalty has remained a quintessential human virtue- the commitment and devotion necessary to building a cooperative society. Perhaps not surprisingly, Loyalty is the virtue most associated with mans best friend. Loyalty is Respect for an individual beyond isolated incidents of failure or betrayal. It is a reward for Trust that has been vindicated. It is an indication of the strength of our social bonds, and can only be built over time. Loyalty grows from the foundation of mutual intention, and is sustained by Honesty and Trust. Loyalty can only be proven in the face of adversity. It can only be shown when one party has broken their commitment to another, and risked the dissolution of their bond. Loyalty is a requisite virtue for the development of civilization, because challenges to our social bonds are a fact of Life. In reality, Perfect Goodness and Moral Perfection are unrealistic absolutes. Everyone is prone to imperfection, in one way or another, from time to time. Most people accept this simple truth, and yet, many people often forget that others are just as susceptible to error. The truth of Hypocrisy is pervasive. People inevitably hold others to standards that they fail to apply to themselves. Consider any driver you know that has both accidentally cut someone off, and been furious when cut off themselves. The reason for this is likely because when we transgress against others, we are innately aware of the circumstances of, and motivation for our offense; yet when others transgress against us, we are not privy to such information which could potentially mitigate our hostility towards the transgression or the transgressor. To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Pope) Forgiveness is the complementary virtue to Loyalty; Perhaps only those who demonstrate Loyalty deserve Forgiveness. Only through Forgiveness can we regain our freedom from the compulsion to hate those who have wronged us. We can all be forgiven the inevitably broken promises we made hastily in our youth, naivete, or ignorance, for those shortcomings are not the product of ill intent, but can all things be forgiven? Many things cannot be forgiven lightly. In the calculated risk of extending our trust to someone who has betrayed it, we must consider all circumstances, especially the cost of future betrayal. Atonement is the reciprocal virtue of Forgiveness. In order for others to be willing to Forgive our trespasses, we must be willing to offer Atonement- restitution for our offenses. When we are Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 36
contrite, when we are truly remorseful for the harm or threat of harm we have caused others, we must also be willing to act to restore the social bonds which our actions have strained. There are, of course, necessary limits to Loyalty. There must be some point, at which the risk and likelihood of further abuses of Trust outweigh the benefit or possibility of Loyalty. Though this line is not definite and must be subject to the consideration of circumstance, there is a point beyond which our rational self-interest outweighs our obligation to extend further Trust in those who have betrayed it.
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the Living What does it mean to be Living? Living beings comprise that rare, animated matter which consumes energy to self-replicate, flora, fauna, and fungus alike, sharing ecological interdependence. All Living beings pursue something. Spiritually. Mentally. Emotionally. Physically. All Living beings desire something. This desire is the root of suffering. The realities of probability and oscillation result in frequent reversals of fortune. Suffering and satisfaction are a continuumdifferent limits of the same function- Life. Sometimes our desires are fulfilled, sometimes our fears. But what is it that causes my desires? Given my free will, I must cause my desires. They are mine to choose- they are my will. The thing which says, I exist- me. They are me. I am my desires. I suffer because I desire. I desire because I exist. I suffer because I exist. All Living beings suffer. This is the foundation of Respect for the physical dimension of Life. The causes of suffering are physical and metaphysical. They exist along the continuum of satisfaction and suffering. The physical causes of suffering are the absence of the necessities of, or the presence of detriments to, Life. They are the desires or aversions of the body. Metaphysical suffering stems from the longing for the realizations of the future we envision, or regret over a past we cannot change. They are the desires and aversions of the mind. The virtue of Empathy lies in this capacity to identify suffering in others. In other people. In other animals. In all that lives. We feel Empathy as the transcendence of circumstance to envisage our roles reversed- as we imagine ourselves suffering the pain of others. Empathy is the emotion which says, I dont want that to happen to me. Built on the virtue of Empathy, Compassion takes our altruistic tendencies a step further, beyond recognition of the suffering of others, to the motivation to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is the emotion which says, I dont want that to happen to them. We show compassion with the Understanding that if the roles were reversed, we would want others to do the same for us- the ubiquitous foundation of the Golden Rule. Sympathy... Death What happens when we die? Will any part of us remain? Conscious? Why do we die? Is there any meaning? If there were no meaning to our deaths, could there be meaning in our lives? Who can answer these questions? Can they be answered? Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 38
This passage will be difficult; Im not sure yet how Im going to deal with Death. What we really want to know is what happens to our personal essence, our spirit when we die. Socrates has argued the immortality of the soul perhaps more convincingly than any other, Tell me, then, what is that of which the inherence will render the body alive? The soul, he replied. And is this always the case? Yes, he said, of course. Then whatever the soul possesses, to that she comes bearing life? Yes, certainly. And is there any opposite to life? There is, he said. And what is that? Death. Then the soul, as has been acknowledged, will never receive the opposite of what she brings. Impossible, replied Cebes. And now, he said, what did we just now call that principle which repels the even? The odd. And that principle which repels the musical, or the just? The unmusical, he said, and the unjust. And what do we call the principle which does not admit of death? The immortal, he said. And does the soul admit of death? No. Then the soul is immortal? (Plato) We should be mindful not to waste the thoughts, feelings, experiences of Death, so that we can best make certain the use of our time. Death must be put in the context of Respect for Life. Respect for Death becomes solidarity with the Living, the most profound existential bond. A bond we share only with all that lives. Men and women, boys and girls, from all places throughout all times share their brief moments of life before Death. Yet only things which are alive can die- the profound ecstasy of existence. In our fear of Death, we must find our greatest confidence in Life. Regardless of our personal perspective on the soul, the logical doubt of Life after Death compels us to impress ourselves upon the memories of others. We all want to be remembered. We seek to preserve something of ourselves after we are gone, and in doing so to connect ourselves with others in something greater. From these basic sentiments, the true nature of immortality arises from our Resolve, our will to Create the world around us.
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Resolve Having accepted Reason and found Respect through Understanding, we are continually confronted with the challenge of acting in alignment with our ethics. We must engage our will to pursue the necessary action Reason and Respect require. For this we need Resolve, the virtue of Willpower- the virtue of Determination. Willpower is our means to Freedom from compulsion- thoughtless, automatic, imitative behavior. It is evident in our ability to control our bodies as well as the attention of our consciousness. Put simply, Resolve is will over time. It is our ability to self-regulate, to commit ourselves now to a standard to which we hold ourselves in the future. Resolve means sticking to our inclinations despite doubt or obstacles. Resolve is rooted in passion- emotion, desire, the inexpressible and uncontrollable feelings of affinity or aversion. Though Reason guides our choices, their significance to us, and our commitment to their fulfillment depend largely on what we Respect- on their compatibility with the experiences and sentiments that guide our preferences. Resolve is possible through Self-Respect. It comes from conviction in who we are, and what we want. As we overcome ourselves, we also focus and strengthen our will. In this way, Self-Esteem and Resolve are inextricably bound. Resolve is an instrument of Peace, a tool for the realization of our highest goals. As Reason and Respect guide our intentions, Resolve brings our intentions to action, and guides our actions to success. Inner peace is found in the possession of our virtues- in an Understanding of Reason, in a Love for Respect, and with the necessary Resolve to realize the values- Freedom and ultimately Peace- that these virtues bring. World Peace and Justice are found as our communities become more virtuous. The virtues of Resolve are Endurance, Courage, Focus, Creativity, Balance, and Timing. These virtues are marks of greatness. They are a direct embodiment of our will. In them we find the power and glory of humanity. They are the virtues of passion, those that inflame it, and those extinguish it. The virtues of Resolve are demanding, they are not easily earned. Endurance requires that we bear much. Courage requires that we risk much. Focus requires the utmost concentration and Creativity requires the purest inspiration. Balance and Timing both require a finely tuned sense of the whole. The virtues of Resolve are challenging precisely because they are the last set of conditions necessary to complete the process of Transcendence and to achieve Peace. Unlike the virtues of Reason and Respect, our capacities for the Virtues of Resolve ebb and flow from day to day; to some we have a natural disposition, to others a fundamental disability. At the limits of these virtues, our values are lost. When we can no longer Endure; When we lack the Courage, Focus, Creativity, Balance or Timing, we will inevitably falter in our pursuit of Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 40
Reason and Respect. When we no longer possess the capacity for the virtues of Resolve, our wills have been broken. What we can no longer Endure often destroys us. What we cannot summon the Courage or Focus to face controls us. When we lack Creativity we cannot imagine or shape the world around us. When we lack Balance or Timing, we simply cannot command or restrain ourselves. Willpower is an exhaustible yet renewable resource; the art of cultivating it can be a Lifes work.
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Endurance For every man shall bear his own burden. (Bible) All that lives suffers. If we must suffer, then we must also Endure. Endurance is the simple virtue of withstanding suffering. It is perhaps the most common and least glamorous virtue, but it is also possibly the hardest- the shoulders on which all is carried. Consider in sum, the suffering of humanity throughout history. How many horrors and tragedies, instants of excruciating pain, lifetimes haunted by anguish, must there have been? Undoubtedly countless. Yet humanity Endures. Many of the burdens we bear are varied and personal. What is difficult to some may come easy to others, but everyone bears the weight of misfortune and despair. Many of the burdens we bear are common to all of humanity. We all endure uncertainty, fate, age, and loss. So long as we Endure, we overcome suffering. It is the first success of our Resolve. Endurance is resistance to the forces of erosion and deterioration, the gradual onset of fatigue and eventually, failure. When we Endure we abide the worst, preserving the possibility that we can pursue that which is better. We Endure the absence of our values- oppression, injustice, discord and despair. Sooner or later we all suffer separation from our desires; when the forces of fate contradict our will for the future, when others discontent leads to injustice, or when we ourselves are unable to find Peace. We Endure the failure of our virtues- ignorance, disrespect, surrender. Sometimes we are willfully unknowing. Sometimes we are intentionally inconsiderate. Sometimes we just give up. We are all subject to malignment, to misjudgment, and occasionally, even ill-will. Enduring is the first step towards overcoming, but we must also Endure the burden of our selfdetermination- responsibility for who we are, and who we will become. For that, we need Courage.
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Courage When fear of consequence surpasses confidence in success, Courage must drive the will to action. After we have known and Endured pain, it takes Courage to risk suffering in the pursuit of Reason. Courage is the second success of Resolve. Unlike Endurance, it is one of the most celebrated virtues in the history of mankind, and rightly so; We need Courage to pursue our willto risk failure that we might succeed in making our selves and our world better. Perhaps synonymous with Valor, Courage is the virtue of heroism. Though our heroes often exemplify many of our virtues, Courage is the one which is quintessentially heroic. The hero understands the importance of right action- duty, Reason- even in the face of the most dire consequences, and is willing to risk whatever is necessary to do what is right. Hero-worship is such a common practice in virtually all cultures because of our innately human appreciation of Courage. Some of our heroes are real people, and some are fictitious. I have had many heroes throughout my Life; Luke Skywalker, Bill Clinton, Steve Howe, Jay-Z, Nietzsche, Noam Chomsky, Stephen Colbert and Socrates- to name a few. Our heroes serve as the example and measure of greatness, but they too must be overcome. Though we initially aspire to our heroes seemingly insurmountable, virtuous heights, as we approach their stature, we realize that our goals must lie beyond the standards they have set. Some of the inspiration for this work was the thought of finishing the transvaluation Nietzsche could not. Be your own hero. Without Courage, we are doomed to suffer the whims of fear, both justifiable and irrational. Fear is not the only thing we have to fear, but like the rest of the dangers of which we are rightly afraid, fear is something we should safely mind, out of Respect. Fear is not something to annihilate; we will always have fear. Fear keeps us alive. Fear is something to overcome- with Courage. Consider the depths, the dark, and Death; a clear theme appears in our fear of that which conceals the unknown. Despite its near universal appreciation, it is difficult to overstate the importance of Courage in the path to overcoming. It requires Hope and Self-Esteem- belief in the possibility of the right outcome, and assurance of our capacity to achieve it. Even when we summon Courage in the face of certain, unavoidable defeat, we do so with the Hope that our right action will resonate with others or the universe, and the confidence that we can, at the very least, do what we must. Once we have Endured and summoned the Courage to pursue our desires, we must be able to Focus on their attainment.
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Focus Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs. (Emerson) How long does your attention last? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? What about days? Weeks? Years? How about a lifetime? Focus is the presence of mind on a single object, or the continual reduction of objects approaching a singularity. Focus is the ability to ignore or disregard all but the object of our desires, thereby increasing our concentration and power to bear in its pursuit- spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically. It may be the greatest measure of sheer will, requiring the utmost concentration to sustain. Focus is one of the most challenging, and therefore rarest, virtues. It is difficult to maintain when so many things beckon our attention. This book has been an exercise in Focus, it has taught me a great deal about tending the abiding passion that gives us the strength to concentrate. Motivation must be cultivated, it cannot be demanded, or expected, without limit. Motivation seems to be the product of several factors, our sense of purpose, and our estimation of probability. We tend to be more motivated to do something when we not only understand, and agree with, why we are doing it, but also when we believe it is likely to succeed. To foster the deepest sense of Motivation, therefore, we need to develop the most profound sense of purpose. We find purpose in the Reason, in the moral or ethical Understanding, of our actions. In order to find Reason, we must engage in the act of reasoning, or Contemplation. Contemplation is parsing our thoughts, scanning and reflecting on our cognitions with respect to the object of our Focus. It is simply taking time to think about something. Though subject to the limitations of all human understanding and expression, the more we think, the more accurately our thinking tends to reflect whatever it is we are thinking about. Over time, Contemplation leads to Understanding and makes possible the mastery of our fate. Vigilance is parsing external phenomena, surveying and reflecting on the world around us with respect to the object of our Focus. As Contemplation is the application of Reason, Vigilance is the application of Respect. Where Contemplation requires looking inwards, Vigilance entails looking outwards, immersing ourselves in the sensations around us, all the while, keeping the object of our Focus in mind. It is not the total abandonment of thought to experience, but the reduction of thought to a singularity, and consideration of the singularity with respect to our experience. Discipline comes from a commitment to doing what must be done, regardless of our aversion to the task. It is the thoughtful organization and regiment of Life necessary for the ratcheting of attention to increase Focus. By incrementally changing and choosing our habits and routines we are able, over time, to reduce the amount of willpower it takes to perform common tasks. Instead of having to decide whether to brush our teeth every morning, for example, we do it out of habit, Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 44
freeing our conscious mind to move on to the days events, and conserving our exhaustible willpower for more substantial tasks. To bring our Freedom to fruition, we must Create.
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Creativity Creativity seems clearly to be an attribute of all known existence, firmly rooted in our understanding of change. To the boundaries of our knowledge, the universe was creative of our galaxy, and intern our solar system. Our world was creative of Life. Life is by extension, essentially creative. However, rooted in its self-referential existence, Life is, by nature, reproductive. Life is that which re-creates itself. While Life has many dimensions, it also has many modes of creation. Physically, as parents reproduce offspring, or as all living beings shape their environments in countless ways. Yet only humanity is demonstrably creative in another dimension, through another means; Humanity is capable of metaphysical creation by means of cognition and Reason. The tools of language and the arts are founded in Reason, and allow for the expression of complex emotions, thoughts and abstractions- the whole culture of humanity. In this distinctly human realm of ideas, the seemingly infinite gap between our physical selves dissolves and we are united. Through our mutual experience and reflection we share Understanding. The greatest art lies in the combination of both physical and metaphysical creation- in the execution of craft and concept. By dedication to technique the artist demonstrates conviction, by dedication to meaning, the artist demonstrates intention. Art can take countless forms, but all share the common function of articulating human experience and its reflection. As we articulate the source- the primordial continuum of experience - through the metaphysical world we share, we are connected to each other. This transcendent quality imbues a sacred reverence for art, culture, and all human Creativity. It is the truest source of immortality, metaphysical procreation- giving birth to something whose essence is not physical and therefore temporal, but is rather timeless. Through every expression, gesture, or creation we share, in every subtle and profound way, every person to have lived is woven into this heavenly fabric of humanity. Immortality of the soul lives in the cultural consciousness, in the metaphysical reality we share, created by Reason. We find this capacity for unification- for bridging the gap between artist and observer, for appreciation- rooted in identification of the source, or truth, in the metaphysical component of art, its ideas. A joke is funny because of the subtle reality it relates. A love song is compelling because of its believable expression of desire. In my experience, Creativity requires getting out of the way. In order to get into the zone, we practice to build mastery through Focus. As we master an action- painting, sculpting, writing, playing an instrument, dancing- it becomes automatic. When we have this command of an action, we can let go of ourselves, surrendering to the whims of the creative forces within, performing the action with a composure and fluidity that can only be regarded as genuine and natural. The joy found in art is perhaps only comparable to that found in the discoveries and mysteries of science. It is simply wonderful. In one dimension, through our appreciation of particular works of art we come to better understand ourselves. In another dimension, our appreciation of Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 46
differing arts produces an understanding of the shared archetypes of disparate cultures, fostering a true Respect for humanity. Consistent themes appear, rooted in the nature of our experience, tension and resolution, unanswerable questions, passions, fate. Out of profound respect for the immeasurable contributions of so many great works of art, I must give homage to at least a few among the most precious to me in order to demonstrate the extent of my appreciation for their influence. These reflections also illustrate how I think about art and what I have learned from it, in order to hopefully demonstrate why I feel art is so important. They come in chronological order. Forrest Gump, a movie starring Tom Hanks based on the book by Winston Groom. Forrest Gump was perhaps the first piece of art for which I understood that there was a meaning intended beyond the explicit events of the story. As a child, my original understanding was essentially the good fortune of a fool, the idea that given an honest and open-hearted acceptance of the world and our place in it, even a fool could lead an amazing life. Close to the Edge, an album by the English progressive rock band, Yes. I discovered the music of my father at a time of my own exploration and experimentation. It instilled in me an aspiration for something that would take me years to define, and a sheer love for the joy of music. Analyzing the lyrics of Close to the Edge also served as my introduction to Buddhism, and inspired me to read Herman Hesses novel, Siddhartha. The music of the title track was instrumental in my first genuine transcendental experience. And You and I, will always remind me of my first truly profound feeling of Love. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a novel by the late-nineteenth century German writer and philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Reading this book was perhaps my first exposure to the sheer brilliance of which humanity is capable. Its poignant prose conveys a force of will that is almost overwhelming. It is an empowering work, and reading it- in the hot and oily pit at Jiffy Lube- was a significant milestone in my personal journey towards overcoming. There are passages, like the Tomb Song, or the following chapter, On Self-Overcoming, that were so compelling to me that I revisit them over and over. Through numerous segways and interludes, Nietzsche weaves together some of the most profound considerations imaginable. The central story tells, in allegory, the process of Zarathustras enlightenment, and serves me as a reminder of the challenges and rewards of the path to self-determination. Blueprint, an American rap album by New York rapper and entrepreneur, Jay-Z. This album represents for me the perfect image of Nietzsches Apollonian in music, artistic personification of the self empowered- a statue, an icon, something concrete. Like all of Jay-Zs music, it is the product of ego, confidence and pride, as well as a testament to their strength. JayZ embodies triumph, overcoming adversity through persistence and intelligence. The title of the Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 47
album itself, Blueprint, indicates his intention to share this plan for personal success. The Pieta, a sculpture by the prodigious Florentine sculptor and painter Michelangelo. The craftsmanship and detail in this statue are beyond compare. It is truly an exemplary execution of an exemplary execution. In the context of the story, the Pieta is a vivid and compelling portrayal of the price Jesus is said to have paid for the sins of man. Regardless of the context of the story, it is a tragic depiction of a mother holding her dying son, a stark reminder that all sons and daughters are destined for the same fate- a compelling meditation on mortality. Break It Yourself, an album by American avant-folk virtuoso Andrew Bird. They say you dont look Theres only one way On back from, on back from here They say you dont look They say you dont look Cause itll disappear (Andrew Bird) Andrew Birds musicianship is impeccable; his violin playing, learned and yet free; his singing, whistling, and glockenspiel playing, fluid and intuitively melodic, even when improvising. His guitar playing is also distinct and superbly musical. His lyrics are clever yet emotional, questioning and knowing. For me, Andrew Bird represents the essence of the Dionysian immersion in music. He is the hardest artist to pin to a singular work, and the most deserving of mention. He represents my personal ideal of a transcendental musical artist. Though Break It Yourself is one of his later albums, like much of his earlier work, the album relies more on musicianship than production techniques or effects. The folksiness and warmth, haziness and density are strangely evocative of a midsummer night. the Death of Socrates, a painting by neoclassical French painter of the Enlightenment, JacquesLouis Francois. This painting is an amazing combination of historical, philosophical and dramatic themes. It is yet another exemplary execution of an exemplary execution. Of course, it is not just the painting that is endearing to me. It is also the story the painting tells of perhaps my greatest hero, Socrates. The story of Socrates teachings, arrest, trial, and execution addresses many of the weightiest philosophical and moral thoughts ever considered. Like Jesus, Socrates death represents the climax of his story, and demonstrates the strength of his conviction. Francois painting of this scene is extraordinary from the composition to the technique- his use of imagery and colors, his depiction of emotion in the expressions of the witnesses. The rendering of Socrates himself captures, for me, perhaps the most profound sense of righteousness and conviction. Forrest Gump, revisited. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 48
I later came to recognize the framing of the central philosophical question of Freedom, contrasted in Forrests Momma and Lieutenant Dans outlooks on life. Forrests Momma believed that we make our own destiny. Lieutenant Dan believed he was destined to die in Vietnam, as his forefathers had died before him in every American war. In the movie, this tension is captured in riveting clarity as Forrest speaks to Jenny at her grave, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. (Forrest Gump) Good art grows with us, and is worth coming back to. Comedy and tragedy are two faces of a coin, one smiling, one sad, natural duality expressed in the human condition- Joy and folly, Love and loss. Yet some of the most beautiful experiences in Life and art are comedic or tragic, and so at last we find the fullness of Peace in Balance.
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Balance What can be said of Balance that is not apparent in every form and function of nature? Balance exists when opposing forces, dimensions, or considerations are equal, producing stability. All things trend towards Balance, it is the result of entropy, the product of diffusion. In equilibrium we find Peace; Balance is the key to Harmony. It is the culmination of all virtues. We find Balance when we possess the necessary virtues in the requisite proportions. With these virtues we find Freedom and Inner Peace within, as well as Justice and Peace in the world around us. Balance is best in all things; Material and immaterial. Physical and mental. Intellectual and emotional. Reasonable and passionate. Professional and personal. Skeptical and open. Egocentric and altruistic. The principles of Balance in action are Restraint and Release. Restraint is self control, realized by pure willpower. It is the ability to give yourself a command powerful enough that you will obey it in the future, regardless of what you desire at that time. Restraint is often considered synonymous with prudence or rationality, because willpower requires strong Reason. Through Restraint, we are able to overcome the Ghost in the Machine- our natural urges and instincts. We are rightfully wary of the dangers of decadence and overindulgence. They are a vicious cycle of the superego, which unchecked, weaken our ability to survive the strains of austerity. To prevent this lethargy, Balance encourages sustainable consumption. And yet, the very renunciation of a pleasure, turns into a pleasure of this renunciation. The regulation of pleasures turns into a pleasure of regulation. (Zizek xlv) We must understand that perpetual restraint leads to uncontrollable compulsion. Release is our ability to surrender, if only temporarily, to the pure and primal pleasures we crave. Its virtue arises from an understanding of the corrosive nature of persistent repression. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. (Blake 13) Through indulgence and self-gratification we find temporary reprieve from the burden of selfcontrol, as well as the experience necessary to honestly compare the goodness in Life. Though the more enlightened among us know that Peace is preferable to visceral pleasure, we are all occasionally in need of reminding the comparison. In order to realize the highest and most profound bliss, we must know that wanton pleasures are less preferable. Therefore we must indulge ourselves- if only to the degree that Restraint, and ultimately Balance, permit. Like all things in Balance, Restraint and Release run their due course in Time.
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Timing But bid life seize the present? It lives less in the present Than in the future always, And less in both together Than in the past. The present Is too much for the senses, Too crowding, too confusingToo present to imagine (Frost 305) Timing is Balance in another dimension. Timing requires balancing the past and future in the present. It is blossoming like a flower at exactly the right moment, when conditions are perfect. Timing is a sensitivity to the conditions of possibility, and the ability to identify the opportune time for success. Without it, we are doomed to the frustration of prematurity or lateness. Time itself is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in human experience, like Truth, it is integral to our everyday experiences, and yet, a conclusive definition seems perpetually elusive. Time plays tricks on the mind. Its passage is relative- the stillness of boredom and the fleet passing of excitement. The summers of my youth were eternities; Seasons will pass you by. It seems that it may take an entire life to understand the passage of time. Nostalgia is retrospectively accentuating the positive, and to a degree, whats wrong with that? After all, if we want to build a clear vision of what will be good for us in the future, the best thing to begin with is what was good for us in the past. The danger of nostalgia is being distracted by that vision of the past, obsessed with reliving it in impossible detail, to the abandonment of the present, surrendering the possibility of strange new and better experiences to come. History shows that we have suffered for our innate desire for Freedom, Justice, and Peace. Though we may be doomed to repeat many of the same mistakes as those who have come before us, historical figures can inspire us. They set the standards of greatness to which we strive. However, history should be taken with a grain of salt. It is important to remember like all of human creation, history is incomplete and imperfect. If history teaches us anything, its that events unfold together, as a series of interconnected moments, people, places and things. History makes it clear that everything happens in the context of what is happening around it. Nothing can happen before its time. To achieve Timing, we must pursue our will at the right moment. Before conditions allow the realization of our desires, we must have Patience. When the time comes, we must have Haste. Patience has long been considered a virtue- waiting to act. It is the Endurance of time and will. Patience is based on the Understanding that we cannot force something to happen before conditions allow, and that by expending our will in the futile attempt to do so, we potentially compromise our ability to achieve success when circumstances are more favorable. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 51
Haste is simply, acting quickly with urgency. Unlike Patience, Haste is not as commonly considered a virtue. While it is true that the faster we attempt to complete something, the greater our risk is of mistake, there are times when the risk of mistake is outweighed by the potential loss of opportunity. Surely in an ambulance, Haste is a virtue. The question we must ask ourselves now is, Is there Reason for urgency?
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Integrity Human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. (Aristotle) The virtues are symptoms of Integrity- not just moral character, but the ideal functioning of the whole mind/body human system. Pursuit of the virtues leads to a robust and well-rounded individual. Possession of the virtues are indications of desirable qualities such as intelligence and strength. Identifying and measuring our universal virtues is a necessary and continual process for the alignment of our actions with our intended outcomes, and the continued progress of humanity. We must take the time to contemplate, discuss, and mutually define these guiding principles. Only together can we build the necessary conditions for universal Freedom, Justice, and Peace. Responsibility belongs to each of us. As an inseparable dimension of our subjective, personal experience, Freedom is the necessary basis of choice, and therefore, moral action. We are conscious, sentient, and free beings, responsible for the effects of our actions. We must regard this as a self-evident and solitary hope if we wish to shape the world around us, and realize the fulfillment of Justice, and ultimately, Peace. As specific causes produce specific effects, our actions can be guided by specific principles to increase the abundance of our values. There is a necessary set of universal virtues which corresponds to our universal values. For the realization of Freedom, Justice, and Peace, we need the virtues of Reason, Respect, and Resolve. As the sole means of predictably guiding our actions, expressing ourselves, or understanding each other, Reason is humanitys greatest virtue. It arises from our cognitive capacity. Respect is the application of Reason to our personal, subjective, conscious experiences. It arises from our social capacity, and is the consideration of our own sense of self and others. Resolve is will over time. It arises from our desire to use our cognitive and social abilities, guided by our virtues, to realize the values they support. Though consciousness and causality shape our values as well as our virtues, there is an apparent limit to the human capacity for Understanding, evident in the contradiction of these principles. Failure to identify this cognitive closure is the primary source of ideological conflict, self-doubt and political struggle. Though the weight of these words gives them gravity, they are only a beginning. To see our virtues bloom, and our values to fruition we must continually begin this process of Reasoning, together. We must define and redefine, ourselves and the world around us, to fit changing circumstances and newly discovered perennial truths. Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013 53
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Aspirations It has take me 29 years and 29 chapters to make it this far, but we have a little further to go. This essay is an attempt at recreating the philosophical foundations of epistemology and moralitywhat we can know, and how we should choose to act in light of those facts. The far greater challenge that remains is developing a naturally proceeding political philosophy- determining how to go about building a society, together around our common interests. Yet, that is the subject of a much greater work. I most assuredly have not given perfect voice to these virtues, like all words, their definitions are fluid and complex. I hope to further refine my Understanding as time goes on. I hope that others will take the definitions I have expressed, correct my mistakes and build upon them. Cultivating any virtue, like cultivating Understanding, is a continual process. It does not produce something you can possess; virtues are ideals that can only be aspired to, they can never be fully realized. Though accepting this inevitability may seem defeatist, once we realize that we cannot be virtuous all of the time, it becomes easier to recognize that we are virtuous most of the time, and in the satisfaction of this reflection we find the true incentive to be more virtuous still. In the end, these virtues can only guide our actions, and circumstance will inevitably lead to error in their application. Sometimes we will not have enough information, or enough time to consider that which we have. Sometimes we will have bad information. Pursuit of the virtues will not guarantee acquiring our values, but through time, it will increase our odds. Though chance carries misfortune, it also bears success. Virtues will also inevitably conflict. Life requires, at different times, principles and actions which will contradict those necessary under different circumstances. Navigation of these contradictions is a lifes work, and requires the application of Reason and Respect, an Understanding of the need for Balance. Despite these inevitable limitations, the earnest pursuit of these virtues will lead to the better and fuller realizations of Freedom, Justice, and Peace. It is common wisdom that no one is perfect. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Mother Teresa evangelized the gospels despite considerable personal doubt in her faith. The concept of a paragon of virtue is ultimately an illusion. Although that is not to say that Thomas Jefferson or Mother Teresa did not demonstrate perhaps many appreciable, exemplary virtues. That is only to say that we are all subject to the whims of fate- that we all inevitably suffer and fail from time to time.
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Will we be Virtuous? What is the point? This is a wonderful adventure, and we are the protagonists. We are, like it or not, in this boat together. The modern world was built by men and women of Reason. I did not create these virtues. These are our virtues. These are the virtues of humanity. We just need to remember them. We need to remember why what is right is right. It seems to me that we have already figured it out. Freedom. Justice. Peace. Reason. Respect. Resolve. These words fill me with something golden, something malleable and untarnishable- the true natural light of human Reason, unphased by the passage of time. This is not a theory of how things are (in an of themselves). It is one possible, and my personal, model of how things could be (to us), if not now, then by our own decision to make them so. We can make the world a better place, together. This is just the beginning, and after all, only a book of words. What ideas would you propagate? What message would you spread? Though it may seem that many have forgotten the hard earned lessons of experience and history, I can testify to what I have shown throughout the book, that people can be, and often are virtuous. If you will be virtuous, you will not be alone. Our time is now. The Dark Ages preceded the Renaissance. The sun sets, yet the dawn returns.
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a Virtuous Manifesto

Robert DeVaughn Jr.

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

freedom, justice, and peace.

principles to increase the abundance of our values.

universal virtues which corresponds to our universal values.

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

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Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

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Copyright Robert DeVaughn Jr., 2013

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