For a page or so, let’s pursue this line of thought. We know that the matter in the universe itself at levels of resolution far smaller than the simplest life forms is pulled into its shapes—in fact, into its existence—by balanced sets of opposing forces. The earth in its orbit is being pulled toward the sun by gravity and flung away from the sun by centrifugal force. In this dynamic state, our planet orbits through a band of space fit for the thing we call life. The nuclear strong force and weak force alternately work to dissipate matter into nothingness or crush it out of existence. In balance, they pull the nuclei of the atoms around us into their shapes. Electrons are held in their orbits by balances of forces, like planets and stars. As we find ways of balancing courage with wisdom and freedom with love, humans mirror the universe itself.

We need internal tensions in our communities. Pluralism is an indicator of a dynamic, vigorous society. Societies that aim to be monolithic and homogenous lack resourcefulness and vigour. A democracy may seem to its critics to be enervated by the energy its people waste in endless arguing. But over time, in a universe in which we can’t know what hazards may be coming in the next day, year, or century, diversity and debate are what make us strong. Indulging in self-deluding, wistful thoughts of ending uncertainty and its attached anxieties leads us away from love for our neighbors, from pluralism and from freedom. Therefore, love is not merely nice: it’s vital. It has brought us this far, and it is all that may save us.

A basic Buddhist truth is that life is hard. Another is that only love can drive out hate. Jesus’s number one command to us all: love one another as I have loved you. These codes have not survived because a bunch of old men said they should; they have survived because they enable their human carriers to survive in the real, empirical universe. In short, our oldest, most general values have survived because they work.

   

                                                                                                              

       Socrates with Aspasia an Athenian woman (by Monsiau) (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

Courage is the human answer to entropy, the adversity of reality. Wisdom tempers courage. Freedom is the human response to (quantum) uncertainty. Love guides freedom. Diligence, responsibility, humility, and many other values are hybrids of the four prime ones. They show their value only on a huge scale as the daily actions of millions of people over thousands of years, in societies of increasing dynamism, keep evolving and getting good results. But values are not trivial theories or preferences, like preferences for specific flavours of ice cream or brands of perfume. They are large-scale, human responses to what is real.

The largest purpose of philosophers is to give ordinary folk—by precept and example— such clarity of conceptual and moral understanding that they feel renewed and inspired to keep getting up and trying again to get to build their society right.

Notes

1. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Part XXXIV, “Self-Surpassing” (1883; Project Gutenberg). 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm#link2H_4_0004.

2. Kenelm Henry Digby, The Broad Stone of Honour; or, The True Sense and Practice of Chivalry, Vol. 2 (London: B. Quaritch, 1976). https://archive.org/details/broadstoneofhono02digbiala.

3. Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, Chapter 11 (1843; The Literature Network). http://www.online-literature.com/thomas-carlyle/past-and-present/34/.

4. Melissa Lane, “Ancient Political Philosophy,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ancient-political/#SocPla.