Dialogue ~ 38

Previously, I asked “how does the concept of the mother, as ‘justice’ (an organising element) participate in the synergy of ‘striving for excellence’ (which could also be interpreted as an inclination towards) and ‘concordance’ or harmony?”

If we understand justice as that which embodies right conduct or principles, then it makes sense that this higher function of the intellect is the aspect which upholds and brings our thinking into coherence with our better nature. If we were to ignore this aspect of ourselves and simply strive for excellence, it would be as if we were acting without a rudder (or moral compass) in life, prone to whichever way the wind seemed more favourable for our talents or inclination.

Interestingly, the allegory of Plato’s charioteer portrays the streams of our thinking (or will): as that which pursues an active path of excellence, of perfecting ourselves (in our own image of ourselves or according to how we would prefer for others to see us); also that where we are attentive to the principles (or virtues) which are guiding our being in the world. We each of us have free will as to how we engage with these dynamics within ourselves and who it is that we become.

Interpreting justice in this way reveals that it isn’t some kind of exacting, fearful character which is finger wagging or condemning us for our actions in life; instead it holds the ‘space’ so that we might comprehend the truth of ourselves within an experience of life and recognise excellence as that which is in service of the whole.

Previously, I wrote about the ‘mos maiorum’ or traditional ethos of the early Romans as was embedded throughout their private, political and military way of life. I am considering whether there was a different approach as to how virtue was imparted through the traditional ethos of the Roman community (pre Empire) than of when it became a more philosophical enterprise of the humanities.

Being raised from childhood so as to grow ‘into’ or to allow for what constitutes the virtues to emerge from within oneself as one moves into maturity, is very different from the virtues being taught as a way of thinking in adult years, when one has to almost wrestle with oneself as to whether any given virtues are demonstrable or not.

It is not simply that trying to live according to one’s ideal of virtue can generate conflict within the psyche; there is a sense of honesty about instinctively doing the right thing because it is an expression of one’s own character, than there is from having constructed an image of oneself and of striving for ‘excellence’ of that from within a context of perpetual judgment. Did the humanities or indeed philosophy shift the locus of one’s perception of being in the world into abstract?

Why has there been such angst between virtue and vice? I acknowledge that Christianity in the time period of which I have been writing was struggling with the pagan model of the world. Still, is there something more fundamental than the difference of ‘religious banners’ which can explain why the virtues which had been identified as exemplary models of excellence were not being universally put into practice, particularly when it came to encountering differing spirituality or worldviews than one’s own? Does that which is experienced as the ‘dissonance of perceiving difference’ with regards to what constitutes ‘truth’ overwhelm one’s ability for compassion?

Previously I wrote, “… what happens when that which perceives the physical world exhausts its ability to receive the goodness of life (not as it has discerned it to be but in actuality)?  The world grows dim. Does it seek to extract value from light and to project or to emulate these virtues into the world, rather than of being willing to embody its qualities? What happens as an individual or group begins to coalesce around this energy stream? The concept of goodness is put onto a pedestal and effort is required to attain. Force is not natural to life but it is a language that is learned”.

The goodness of life and the truth of one’s being are eternally present. The only way that one could lose touch with goodness in this sense would be through judgment; to judge in this respect is to give credence to a flawed or incomplete idea of how reality is and that would mean that one’s spiritual axis or orientation in the world has shifted significantly. What is the ‘fall’ of which much has been written in religious texts? Is it literally a shift of one’s perception of the world and if so, how did this shift of one’s identity arise from knowledge? In John 14:2 Jesus says “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places”. 

Earlier, I questioned whether it was philosophy which had shifted the locus of one’s perception of being in the world into abstract. Philosophy in being a ‘love of wisdom’ is surely not in itself to blame? Unless it is that wisdom is viewed as a double edged sword, in that it requires context in order for it to be experienced or else there would simply be knowledge.

An ability to contemplate life and self are the foundation of any religious, spiritual or ontological quest to grow more deeply into one’s humanity. If my interpretation of justice is correct, in that ‘it embodies right conduct or principles and is a higher function of the intellect; as that which upholds and brings our thinking into coherence with our better nature’, then surely this ‘inner compass’ as it were, together with a natural inclination towards experiencing one’s truth will inevitably reveal life’s ‘goodness’?

The timing and complexity of events in life can present many opportunities for divergence or so called ‘forks in the road’. For reasons unknown to us at the time, we will travel along a trail which we will later question as to whether it was wise. We will doubt or berate ourselves at times, if only because we do not consistently ‘know’ why an event or choice in life could have been necessary. Somehow an understanding of its purpose reveals itself, which is why we say that wisdom is often in hindsight.

It is a given then, that at various junctures in our collective past, we will have made choices to travel along particular paths with regards to knowledge and of how it is collectively perceived. We cannot say that we have made progress as a species however, unless it is that whatever knowledge we have gathered as a consequence of our choices has also moved us into wisdom.

Striving for excellence or goodness of life is legitimate as part of any gathering of knowledge and of comprehending who we are in the midst of life – but at the same time it is only valid if we allow for its being in its proper context of that which remains unknown.

The time lapse between knowledge of something and of its proper context in the world is rapid but we can be stubborn and insist on ‘having things our own way’ – yes, we literally want the world to be a particular way and try to mould it ‘in our own image’ with whatever resources (or filters) are available. Our pride is before us and we are afraid to acknowledge that we have made an error in our judgment. If we are unwilling to look at those occasions where this has occurred, then it isn’t a love of wisdom which is guiding us towards being just, so much as it is a continuing corruption of knowledge and reason itself has been subverted.