In part one of my meditations, I listed as cardinal virtues Self-Awareness and Creativity. Five other virtues I listed as humility, patience, courage, compassion and dignity. However, seven is not enough, so I wish to expound on seven more virtues I feel are most important.
Sacrifice - We cannot always rely on enlightened self-interest to create a good society. It is all too easy for wealth to lock itself behind vast gates, in which case it is no longer enlightened self-interest to concern itself with others. And besides, thinking that people will only do something for others if it is also in their own interests is quite a cynical position. Sacrifice, doing something for the sake of another, even at ones own expense, should be emphasized here. It is an almost mystic experience of selflessness; a transcendence of the individuated self.
Sacrifice is what makes great artists and great genii. Most people will not exchange comfort for hardship, will not exchange convention for daring, will not exchange security for freedom. Only the genius will strive after some creative passion at the cost of everything else. They are capable of so much more precisely because of their sacrifices; the life of a genius being something like one long risk.
Sacrifice taken to extremes is dangerous, as is sacrifice for a stupid cause. It can lead to horrible outcomes and supreme irresponsibility (it wasn't my fault, I was just obeying a higher power / the interests of my nation). Soldiers fighting for their beloved dictator / cabal of corporate overlords are self-sacrificing, but they are certainly not nobler for it! Yet when combined with the other virtues, sacrifice can be a driving force, a transcendent act which should defy cynicism and show our interconnectedness. A simple maxim for this virtue: Sacrifice, but for the right end.
Reliability - Repetition has a vital place in the human being. Religions have been successful at indoctrinating the masses with their maxims, and many philosophers also strive to distil their ideas into the easily rememberable. This is because repetition is important, and so is reliability.
Sacrifice - We cannot always rely on enlightened self-interest to create a good society. It is all too easy for wealth to lock itself behind vast gates, in which case it is no longer enlightened self-interest to concern itself with others. And besides, thinking that people will only do something for others if it is also in their own interests is quite a cynical position. Sacrifice, doing something for the sake of another, even at ones own expense, should be emphasized here. It is an almost mystic experience of selflessness; a transcendence of the individuated self.
Sacrifice is what makes great artists and great genii. Most people will not exchange comfort for hardship, will not exchange convention for daring, will not exchange security for freedom. Only the genius will strive after some creative passion at the cost of everything else. They are capable of so much more precisely because of their sacrifices; the life of a genius being something like one long risk.
Sacrifice taken to extremes is dangerous, as is sacrifice for a stupid cause. It can lead to horrible outcomes and supreme irresponsibility (it wasn't my fault, I was just obeying a higher power / the interests of my nation). Soldiers fighting for their beloved dictator / cabal of corporate overlords are self-sacrificing, but they are certainly not nobler for it! Yet when combined with the other virtues, sacrifice can be a driving force, a transcendent act which should defy cynicism and show our interconnectedness. A simple maxim for this virtue: Sacrifice, but for the right end.
Reliability - Repetition has a vital place in the human being. Religions have been successful at indoctrinating the masses with their maxims, and many philosophers also strive to distil their ideas into the easily rememberable. This is because repetition is important, and so is reliability.
The hum-drum is necessary and beneath no one. Predictability and mediocrity are an unsung necessities for certain tasks, and so too must we cultivate this virtue inside of us. Honesty, robustness, stability. As drab as these things are, and as mechanical as they are, I cannot help but see them as a virtue in the right circumstances.
Persistence is, as they say, the key to success. Of course, reliability can be wretched if we are reliably being wretched! Reliability comes after the fact - once we know what we need to do, we do it in the manner of a mule. It may mean that we can become inflexible, yet with regular doses of philosophy, we can avoid becoming dogmatic, one-track creatures.
A humourous maxim for this virtue might be: Turning up is half the battle won.
Spirituality - This is a virtue sullied by dogmatic aspects of religion throughout the ages, and soiled in our modern-era by exoticizing 'Eastern' mysticism. Yet we must not dismiss spirituality because of these associations. Spirituality is part of us - all of us. When we feel reverence toward the cosmos, what we might call mystic experiences, and we have faith that it is more than a brain spasm or some delusion, we are accepting our spirituality..
In reverence and awe of the cosmos; gazing up at the immensity of space, surrounded by mighty oaks, observing the complexity of a snail's shell, standing upon the site of an old battle, questioning infinity, observing ancient ruins covered in lost languages, we are anchored to the earth-cosmos-history, feeling our ever-changing place within its bosom. We are experiencing something that came before language, philosophy, civilization. A profound sense of being.
Of all traits of character spirituality is the hardest to pinpoint, the most unpredictable. It is always just beyond comprehension. Yet this mysterious element inside us is not to be dismissed by our scientific. age. The spiritual need only be felt and enjoyed. Such a universal wonder cannot be reliably measured and tested by the empiricist's eye. Nor can it be pigeon-holed into any one religion; which might steal away our shared inheritance.
Persistence is, as they say, the key to success. Of course, reliability can be wretched if we are reliably being wretched! Reliability comes after the fact - once we know what we need to do, we do it in the manner of a mule. It may mean that we can become inflexible, yet with regular doses of philosophy, we can avoid becoming dogmatic, one-track creatures.
A humourous maxim for this virtue might be: Turning up is half the battle won.
Spirituality - This is a virtue sullied by dogmatic aspects of religion throughout the ages, and soiled in our modern-era by exoticizing 'Eastern' mysticism. Yet we must not dismiss spirituality because of these associations. Spirituality is part of us - all of us. When we feel reverence toward the cosmos, what we might call mystic experiences, and we have faith that it is more than a brain spasm or some delusion, we are accepting our spirituality..
In reverence and awe of the cosmos; gazing up at the immensity of space, surrounded by mighty oaks, observing the complexity of a snail's shell, standing upon the site of an old battle, questioning infinity, observing ancient ruins covered in lost languages, we are anchored to the earth-cosmos-history, feeling our ever-changing place within its bosom. We are experiencing something that came before language, philosophy, civilization. A profound sense of being.
Of all traits of character spirituality is the hardest to pinpoint, the most unpredictable. It is always just beyond comprehension. Yet this mysterious element inside us is not to be dismissed by our scientific. age. The spiritual need only be felt and enjoyed. Such a universal wonder cannot be reliably measured and tested by the empiricist's eye. Nor can it be pigeon-holed into any one religion; which might steal away our shared inheritance.
Spirituality is a supreme paradox, for at once it is individualistic; no one can tell you how you should respond to these feelings, and also utterly selfless; the self is lost in the greater whole, in supreme moments of understanding. We must not deny it, we must not embrace it. We must let it be. My listing spirituality as a virtue is not to cultivate it, nor to force it, but merely to let it through as and when it comes. This can be a powerful unifying force, as all of us are prone to it. Perhaps it is the knot that will tie all of humanity together into universal kinship. Let us end on a maxim: As being precedes language, so spirituality precedes language.
Aestheticness - By aestheticness I mean two things. Firstly, the ability to literally see beauty, even where it may not be seen. It is not a given that we take notice of beauty. Natural beauty, for instance, can be easily drowned out by garish shop-fronts, bright lights and intruding billboards. It takes time and maturity to do away with the hideous and appreciate the natural splendour of the world. Secondly I mean an appreciation of good art, music, literature and so on. In this sense aesthetics is not literally a sense of beauty (although it can be). Aesthetics is taste, consideration, not being dragged along by convention. There is a world of difference between that which is popular and that which is good. This is not to say that the good is never popular, only that what is popular is often soul-draining tripe.
Aestheticness - By aestheticness I mean two things. Firstly, the ability to literally see beauty, even where it may not be seen. It is not a given that we take notice of beauty. Natural beauty, for instance, can be easily drowned out by garish shop-fronts, bright lights and intruding billboards. It takes time and maturity to do away with the hideous and appreciate the natural splendour of the world. Secondly I mean an appreciation of good art, music, literature and so on. In this sense aesthetics is not literally a sense of beauty (although it can be). Aesthetics is taste, consideration, not being dragged along by convention. There is a world of difference between that which is popular and that which is good. This is not to say that the good is never popular, only that what is popular is often soul-draining tripe.
Such arts should be despised, poorly constructed cash-ins reviled, copies of copies of copies disdained. Such works poison the word art! The good arts are those which rejuvenate the soul, which carry us on journeys and build our empathy, which connect us into them and leave us in awe, which make us feel connected to earth-cosmos-history, which enlighten us to just causes. We must cultivate such tastes.
Animal Kinship - Of all human contradictions, our attitude toward animals is the most disgraceful. There are animals for keeping, and animals for slaughtering, animals for hunting, and animals for reducing to egg-laying machines and milk pumps. Of course, different animals have different traits: we would not want to keep flesh-eating tigers in our homes as often as we would like a friendly spider-monkey. Yet what we could universally accept is that each animal is an individual, and thus an end in itself, rather than something merely useful to us. In the language of virtue, an animal should be treated with 'Dignity'.
Our treatment of animals is the epitome of moral good, and this has been said from Kant, to Gandhi, to Bentham. Not only is it compassionate to take an animal into your home, and by extension into society, it is also beneficial to us if we are willing to appreciate them, their ways, their vices. I would call Animal Kinship a cardinal virtue, as it is our closest path into nature: as our societies evolve, so do our attitudes toward nature. We shape nature, as we are shaped by it; we are part of it, not separate. An animal for kin, communicating with another species - what else could indicate this truth more?
Intelligence - Intelligence, to my mind, can be boiled down to this - how well we use the knowledge and resources available to us in order to survive. It is a cardinal virtue relating to our brute survival and sanity. It is the thoughtful development of our technology to make the physical world more bearable. A humourous maxim for this virtue could be: Curiosity + Caution = Intelligence! We take it for granted that we have the basic intelligence to survive, and will continue surviving into the future. I do not think we should take this for granted - humanity is a deeply stupid beast, capable of making immensely idiotic decisions.
Animal Kinship - Of all human contradictions, our attitude toward animals is the most disgraceful. There are animals for keeping, and animals for slaughtering, animals for hunting, and animals for reducing to egg-laying machines and milk pumps. Of course, different animals have different traits: we would not want to keep flesh-eating tigers in our homes as often as we would like a friendly spider-monkey. Yet what we could universally accept is that each animal is an individual, and thus an end in itself, rather than something merely useful to us. In the language of virtue, an animal should be treated with 'Dignity'.
Our treatment of animals is the epitome of moral good, and this has been said from Kant, to Gandhi, to Bentham. Not only is it compassionate to take an animal into your home, and by extension into society, it is also beneficial to us if we are willing to appreciate them, their ways, their vices. I would call Animal Kinship a cardinal virtue, as it is our closest path into nature: as our societies evolve, so do our attitudes toward nature. We shape nature, as we are shaped by it; we are part of it, not separate. An animal for kin, communicating with another species - what else could indicate this truth more?
Intelligence - Intelligence, to my mind, can be boiled down to this - how well we use the knowledge and resources available to us in order to survive. It is a cardinal virtue relating to our brute survival and sanity. It is the thoughtful development of our technology to make the physical world more bearable. A humourous maxim for this virtue could be: Curiosity + Caution = Intelligence! We take it for granted that we have the basic intelligence to survive, and will continue surviving into the future. I do not think we should take this for granted - humanity is a deeply stupid beast, capable of making immensely idiotic decisions.
Self-destruction seems to be hard-wired into us. Just not destroying ourselves is a supreme achievement which we should praise highly: it is only by cultivating intelligence that we might develop the long-term thinking necessary to survive into eternity.
Temperance - The elder cousin of humility, temperance has rightfully been called a cardinal virtue since the ancients. Indeed, the arch-master of temperance, Mr. Epicurus, predicted the atomizing misery which material excess (consumerism) would bring two and a half thousand years ago! The self-restraint of an Epicurean springs from the real pleasures of life; friendship, independence and an analyized life; filling oneself with goodness. Luxury and debauchery is seen only as a very occasional indulgence, and not something to hate oneself for.
Temperance must be distanced from the romance of religious asceticism, of bodily self-hatred, self-righteous sacrifice and devotion to 'the divine'. We are not practicers of temperance because we are humbling ourselves before some 'divinity'. We practice temperance because it gives us happiness here, on earth.
Excess is dismal, foolish, destructive. Temperance negates excess. One who honestly believes in the virtues must have the temperance to disdain from their destructive appetite; one of the greatest vices threatening our future on this planet. I do not put the sorry state of our moral place in the world entirely down to 'evil' or powermongery, but to the rampant desires of ordinary people, with their false promise of satisfaction. In this day and age temperance is possibly the most important virtue of all.
Temperance - The elder cousin of humility, temperance has rightfully been called a cardinal virtue since the ancients. Indeed, the arch-master of temperance, Mr. Epicurus, predicted the atomizing misery which material excess (consumerism) would bring two and a half thousand years ago! The self-restraint of an Epicurean springs from the real pleasures of life; friendship, independence and an analyized life; filling oneself with goodness. Luxury and debauchery is seen only as a very occasional indulgence, and not something to hate oneself for.
Temperance must be distanced from the romance of religious asceticism, of bodily self-hatred, self-righteous sacrifice and devotion to 'the divine'. We are not practicers of temperance because we are humbling ourselves before some 'divinity'. We practice temperance because it gives us happiness here, on earth.
Excess is dismal, foolish, destructive. Temperance negates excess. One who honestly believes in the virtues must have the temperance to disdain from their destructive appetite; one of the greatest vices threatening our future on this planet. I do not put the sorry state of our moral place in the world entirely down to 'evil' or powermongery, but to the rampant desires of ordinary people, with their false promise of satisfaction. In this day and age temperance is possibly the most important virtue of all.
