On this thanksgiving day, I wish to express my gratitude to all who have participated in this weblog during its first months. Thanksgiving is an act of acknowledging something good for which others are responsible. Values, as we are normally busy with them are material and intellectual/cultural. One way of expressing the goal of this … Read more
Team practice Have you ever experienced a community where character growth was expected and effectively supported? If how, what do you do—or could you do—to promote such an environment in communities that you are part of? This philosophy of living addresses individuals, not social systems. It harmonizes with a phrase from the Confucian … Read more
Woman photographing herself in a mirror Have you tried to love yourself? What has been your experience? I am into love now like never before in my life. I neither love myself nor try to love myself. I have heard some people say that they love themselves, and more who express frustration about trying to … Read more
Love’s simplicity unfolds into a multiplicity. There is a long-standing discussion about different types of love. If divine love (agape) has the primacy that we have suggested, then we could say that divine love can be expressed in friendship (philia) and in a romantic bond (eros). In friendship or romance there may arise a … Read more
Love can pervade our character so fully as to motivate the exercise of all the virtues implied in the previous discussed segments of this philosophy. As we grow we become more like God, who enables us to participate in his goodness. This truth the Sufis celebrate: when someone loves God, “God beautifies his character traits, … Read more
Truly great people have appropriate expectations for the rest of us. Darwin did not expect every amateur who assisted his inquiry to dedicate his or her life to science. Socrates did not expect every conversation partner to drop his occupation and become a full-time philosopher. Jesus did not expect all of his followers to commit … Read more
The writings of Russian revolutionary and Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968) show him as a great theorist of love who realized the intimate connection between love and truth, beauty, and goodness. Sorokin’s life displays all the components emphasized in this philosophy, beginning with a realization of beauty in nature and the arts, truth in … Read more
Abraham Lincoln 1864 There is much to say for the idea that we become good by doing good. As the proverb goes, “Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” Another truth goes deeper. We truly do good on the basis of being good. And … Read more