“In all circumstances,” says Philosophy, “I will keep the Governing Principle in accord with Nature.”
Whose Governing Principle?
“His, in whom I am.”
How then am I to prevent my brother from being angry with me?
I regularly hear people tell me that philosophy is “useless” to them, and how reflection clearly can’t “get” them what they want. Such dismissive exclamations no longer frustrate me as much as they once did, since I recognize a bit more about how often I have acted without careful understanding, and thus foolishly ended up pursuing all the wrong goals.
What, pray tell, makes something useful for me? Where am I finding the benefit or the harm? Before I go out and get it, wouldn’t it be a good idea to know why it is worth getting in the first place?
I may arrogantly brush aside the philosophy, and yet the philosophy provides the very standard by which I distinguish true from false and right from wrong. I am already being philosophical whenever I arrive at a conclusion, and the only question now is whether I am doing so soundly.
The profit seekers and power brokers are, however, quite correct to say that philosophy isn’t terribly efficient in gaining riches or winning fame, but they are confused in thinking that philosophy would ever wish to make such a claim.
No, philosophy will rather be the method by which we can learn to master ourselves, and so no longer be enslaved to the whims of fortune. If I am being properly philosophical, I will have a different sense of what is useful, and I will no longer be anxious about getting anything else at all.
Put simply, if I listen to what philosophy has to say, I can be content with offering my complete love to my brother, and I no longer need to make any attempts to control how he thinks or acts. If he chooses to be angry, I encourage him to consult his own conscience, but it is not my place to deny him his freedom, or to make my happiness contingent on his attitude.
My brother may be throwing punches like an impassioned member of an Eastern European parliament, and only he can ultimately allow philosophy to help him change his ways. I, in turn, ask philosophy to help me bear with him, and to be the best example I can possibly be.
Philosophy permits me to keep myself in harmony with Nature, and that is enough. Once I ask her how to “make” someone else love me, or to “get” the world to do whatever I prefer, she will kindly but firmly remind me that I am asking misguided questions.
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