|
THE GREAT IDEAS ONLINE April 2000 Issue 77 One can have all the intellectual virtues to the highest degree and for lack of moral virtue fail to lead a good life. --Mortimer Adler In this issue: Virtue as an End and as a Means, by Mortimer Adler. Letters from Dick Wolfe, Paul Harrison, Rob Ryan, and Terrence Berres. Free Answering Machine.
Virtue as an End and as a Means Intellectual virtues -- the goods of the mind -- occupy a high rank, if not the highest, in the scale of real goods. Moral virtue, while involving no form of knowledge, has an intellectual aspect, for it manifests the role played by reason and will in the control and moderation of the passions. Together these virtues represent the greatest human perfections that can be achieved by learning and personal growth. These are the goods of mind and character that the pursuits of leisure aim at. They constitute the ends for which leisuring is the means. But while they are ends, desirable for their own sake, they are also means to a good life. They are among its most important ingredients or components. A life not enriched by these goods would be greatly deprived, just as a life devoid of leisuring would be a contracted one. Only happiness itself -- a whole good life -- is an ultimate end, never a means to be sought for the sake of some other good. Happiness, being the sum of all real goods, leaves no other good to be desired. That is why happiness should never be referred to as the summum bonum (the highest good), but rather as the totum bonum (the complete good). The virtues may be the highest of all human goods, but taken all together, they are certainly not the complete good. One can have all the virtues and still lack freedom, friendship, health, and moderate amounts of pleasure and of wealth. A virtuous person deprived of all these things would certainly be prevented from living well or achieving happiness in the course of time. I have explained how the virtues are both ends, desirable for their own sake, and also means, desirable for the sake of a good life. I must now go further and explain how moral virtue, from which prudence is inseparable, differs from the intellectual virtues as means. All the real goods are means to a good life in the sense that they are constitutive components of it. But moral virtue is more than that. It is one of the two operative factors -- one of the two efficient causes -- of our becoming happy. The other consists in such good fortune as befalls us and confers on us the real goods we cannot attain through free choice on our part and solely through the voluntary exercise of our powers. In the light of all these considerations, we must finally face the question: Which is primary -- the intellectual virtues or moral virtue? As constitutive components of good life, they are on a par as personal perfections. But if, with a view to becoming happy, one had to choose between strengthening one's moral virtue or increasing one's knowledge, one's skills, one's understanding, and even one's philosophical wisdom, there is in my mind little doubt as to what the answer should be. It is better, in the long run and for the sake of a good life, to have strength of character than to have a richly cultivated mind. It is impossible to live without some knowledge and skill, but without moral virtue it is impossible to live well and to become happy. One can have all the intellectual virtues to the highest degree and for lack of moral virtue fail to lead a good life.
Dear Max, Of all the hundreds of Mortimer's real disciples, you are the one who has truly kept the faith, and kept the lamp burning. That is how history will view you, and I, though not quite history yet, think of you. I suppose that you might sometimes ask yourself, "Should I have been more than an interpreter of Adler. Could I have added something new, myself?" To which I would reply in two veins: 1) You ain't dead yet, and 2) There is nothing wrong in making what is really "controlling insight" accessible to a growing number of people around the globe. Nobody is knocking St. Paul. Your friend, Dick Wolfe
Dear Max,
I was reading Schiller's "On Simple and Sentimental Poetry" from the Gateway to the Great Books and found two instances interesting. In one place (pg 164, volume 5) he states, "Without telling what is false, people often speak differently from what they think; ..." This is a direct contradiction to Adler's idea of what a lie is. As he quotes, "Misplacing one's ontological predicate.The definition of lying that Dr. Adler quotes, viz. "misplacing one's ontological predicate", means saying that something is when one believes that it is not or vice versa. It seems to me that the main clause of Schiller's statement, viz. that "people often speak differently from what they think", has the same meaning, and that Schiller's qualification, viz. that one may lie "without telling what is false", makes a separate point that lying refers to a state of affairs in a person's mind (i.e. a disparity between one's beliefs and assertions) and that either one's belief or one's assertion of something contrary may represent the true state of affairs in the world that both purport to represent as true. In short, liars who intend not to tell the truth may nevertheless say things that are true.
Paul Harrison
Max, Last night I listened to the first of Dr. Adler's Great Ideas audio series and found that the concentration required made me absolutely forget the dull repetitions for a significantly longer period of time than I could tolerate previously while exercising. In addition, the tapes are about the right length to motivate a good workout. My shoulders and legs are a little sore but I got the message.Think of it. The philosopher who hates exercise motivates a man who needs it. Mortimer's passion must be contagious if it can lift barbells. His Wisdom contains value for everyone, in ways we could never predict. Who knows, if Mortimer rapped and got a little funky on his tapes, maybe there's a mass market for philosophy after all? Rob Ryan
Max, In the course of the on-line seminars, you have posted a proposed comprehensive list of what is needed for happiness, based on Dr. Adler's study of Aristotle. Here is a somewhat different list, taken from Stanley Bing's "New Year's resolutions for the next 1,000 minutes." I'm going to be happier. I've noticed that joy has very little to do with external matters but instead is driven from within. Of course, this presumes that the basics of life are taken care of, and by this I mean the things that do not themselves create happiness but without which happiness cannot begin to get started. These include food, beverages, friends, a good car that does not break down in bad weather and makes you look good when you drive it, nice housing in a neighborhood you can bring friends home to without wincing, a certain level of physical beauty both in yourself and your significant others, at least one Pentium III computer so that you can play games with huge 3-D graphics, a laptop of less than five pounds with a state-of-the-art modem and good battery life, a couple of decent bottles of wine in the basement for when you feel like complementing that saucy little Brie you found at the gourmet supermarket, and lots of credit so that you can buy stuff when you're feeling unhappy. Beyond these few basics lies a world of spiritual bliss free of material considerations. I want to go there.Terrence Berres P.S. Re: Extension 720, Center members can listen to these programs over the Internet at http://wgnradio.com/listen/liveWGN.ram if they have RealPlayer or similar software. If they have problems with that link, there are troubleshooting suggestions at WGN's site, http://wgnradio.com/listen/index.htm
Here is a nifty device for those who do not have a dedicated phone line for the Internet. Now, you can surf the Internet on your single phone line without worrying about missing important calls. That's because the Free Internet Answering Machine makes it possible to hear who's calling while you are surfing the Web, chatting on America Online, or bidding on eBay! Check it out at http://radicalacademy.com/emporiumcallwave.htm Jon Dolhenty
The Great Ideas Online is published free of charge to its members by the Center.
As always, we welcome your comments.
We reserve the right to edit all submissions for relevancy
and concision and to publish them at our discretion.
|