If, however, no other art
professes the teaching and transmission of virtue, though there are some which
are concerned solely with man's body and what is useful for it, while others
which touch the mind aim at everything else but making it self-controlled, yet
philosophy alone makes this its aim and occupies itself with this, how a man
may avoid evil and acquire virtue, if this I say is so, what else would be more
serviceable to a king who wished to be good than the study of philosophy?
How better or how otherwise could
a man be a good ruler or live a good life than by studying philosophy? For my
part, I believe that the good king is straightway and of necessity a
philosopher, and the philosopher a kingly person.
If the
Stoics are indeed correct that virtue is the highest human good, then it will surely
also follow that the ability to lead in virtue is the most suitable quality of
those who are called to guide other men.
Now what
sort of insight, what type of skill, what kind of gifts will be necessary to
achieve this end? We may think too little of people, and assume that they will
instantly and selfishly pick the tricks of their own particular trades as being
the most important, but let us try to leave the door wide open for whatever
might be best.
What
sort of discipline is required to improve our moral worth?
Perhaps
the businessman may say it is the ability to make money, or the lawyer may say it
is the expertise to win in a courtroom, or the doctor may say it is the power
to extend our lives.
Don’t
forget the professional academic, who may say it involves getting published and
earning tenure.
These
can all be wonderful things, but whether they are of benefit or harm to us will
depend upon more fundamental values. Money, power, long life, or honor are
never good or bad in themselves; they become good or bad by how they are used.
That is,
I would argue, the very point of the whole Stoic argument: nothing in life is a
gift without the direction of character.
And
there can never be character without wisdom, since doing well requires knowing
well. The love of truth is the calling of the philosopher.
“Wait,
only philosophers know how to live, and only philosophers know how to lead?
That doesn’t seem right at all!”
It will
seem that way only if we think of philosophy as a rather narrow trade, not as a
universal human calling. Not every man can be a businessman, or a lawyer, or a
doctor, or an academic; yet every man can be a philosopher.
Philosophy,
you see, stands behind every career, every manner of making money, every other
occupation. It provides the very meaning to anything and everything else we do.
By all
means, fight this all you like, but please understand that the reason you may
fight it comes down to the very first principles we use to define a worthy
life. Even if you think
it
is all about money, or power, or fame, or pleasure,
you will still need to
give an account of your reasons why, and an account of the reasons why is already
the realm of philosophy.
“But studying
philosophy? How does that help?”
Perhaps
too many years of soaking up Stoicism have numbed my sense of the popular definition
of what it means to “study”. Read about it, go to classes, earn a degree? Quite
nice. Grapple with it, go into the world, earn merit through action? That hits
the nail on the head. Study is complete commitment, the application of
principle to practice.
“I am qualified
to run for office, because I earned a law degree from Harvard, and I made lots
of money on Wall Street, and I wrote a New York Times best-selling book about
how important it is to support the community.”
No, that
qualifies you as a worldly achiever, and really says very little about your deeper
philosophy. Without platitudes and soundbites, tell me what truly matters in
all our lives.
I’m still
here, and I’m listening. . .
Written in 9/1999
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