Thus Let Me Live

W. Vail C.

Description

Have you ever wondered, "How can I know what to believe?" You will find an answer to that question here: what it means to be a human being -- in other words, what you and I share in common. If we will begin with what we share in common, then we will find common cause and the means to trust and rely on one another, all to the end that we all may have some share of the good life.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Assertiveness
• Human rights

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 10 juin 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781622876082
• Langue: English

Extrait

Thus Let Me Live -- An Essay in Humanism
C.W. Vail


First Edition Design Publishing
Thus
Let Me
Live

An Essay in Humanism

First Edition Design Publishing
Thus Let Me Live, An Essay in Humanism
Copyright ©2014 C.W. Vail

ISBN 978-1622-876-09-9 PRINT (PBK)
ISBN 978-1622-876-10-5 PRINT (HC)
ISBN 978-1622-876-08-2 EBOOK

LCCN 2014939215

May 2014

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .
Thus
Let Me
Live

An Essay in Humanism

BY
C.W. Vail
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
In My Own Voice
Origins
Of Human Nature
Human Ecology
The Moral Virtues
The Civic Virtues
The Religious Virtues
A Naturalistic Humanism
The Way Forward
References
PREFACE

Have you ever wondered, “How can I know what to believe?” You will find an answer to that question here. Admittedly, in a universe of infinite possibilities, it is only one answer. Also, its truths are contingent, only as reliable as the facts they are based on, with the interpretation of those facts made by a person who is finite, contingent, and fallible . Nevertheless, there is an answer to be found here, and it will suffice until better facts are revealed or better interpretations are made. Take it or leave it; you are free to find the truth in what I have written here or to discover your own truths. The choice is entirely yours.
You will find here a celebration of what you and I share in common. Foremost, all human beings—ourselves included—are inextricably both autonomous individuals and social beings. Each of us is uniquely capable of both heightened autonomy and heightened cooperation. We all share the better ways we are disposed to discover and pursue our own aims and ends and to interact with other individuals, our communities, and our surroundings. We also share a common humanity in our ability for speech and storytelling and in the unique potential that each of us has to contribute to the whole of humankind.
In other words, you will find here a thorough and detailed examination of what it means to be a human being. In addition, you will find remedies for the ambiguity and absurdity in knowing, the frustration and futility in doing, and the condemnation and feelings of alienation in your dealings with others that you likely will encounter from time to time throughout your lifetime. You also will find a recipe for the good life—one reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson’s memorable combination of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—in how to live free from fear, want, and ignorance; free to discover and pursue your own aims and ends; and free from doubt.
I freely admit that the following narrative is mine alone, a tapestry where the weft and warp are the threads of my life. You, too, will have a narrative that is uniquely your own. At their best, our life stories ultimately will put into perspective our human existence, confirm our humanity, and celebrate the worth and dignity that each of us is due and the trust and interdependence that we share. If we will begin with what we share in common, then we will find common cause and the means to trust and rely on one another, all to the end that we may have some share of the good life.
This book would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of some special people. I owe them all an enormous debt of gratitude: my wife for her patience and endurance while I researched and wrote this book; Lyle Simpson for his belief in my abilities, encouragement, and advocacy on my behalf; Jerry Stone and Howard Radest for their kindness, thoughtful advice, and inspired, thought-provoking books; and Ed Kennedy, a good friend, too soon gone but not forgotten.

C. W. Vail
6 January 2014
Chapter One
IN MY OWN VOICE

When I was thirteen, my mother, thinking to improve both my social skills and physical coordination, signed me up for ballroom dancing lessons. My instruction in waltzes, polkas, and such concluded one evening at a grand soiree complete with live music and refreshments. We instructees were introduced to a panel of judges and shown a tableful of trophies that were to be awarded later that evening to those of us judged worthy. I truly was disappointed not to win a trophy, but not inconsolably so, until, seeing my partner’s trophy, I realized her name already had been engraved on the plate affixed to the wooden base under the small, brass loving cup.
It is said that a man will make his mark in life by the time he is thirty-five years old or not at all. At thirty-five, I had neither money nor prospects. I thought myself—college-educated, an officer, and a gentleman—ready, willing, and able to work and to earn a place in society, but all this was not enough. Instead, I found myself on the outside of life looking in, without tradition or community, without mentor or advocate, and clueless. It was as if I had been set adrift on and lost in an endless sea of indifference. It seemed, like so many years before, that other people’s names already had been engraved on all the trophies before I ever got to the dance.
Before those unhappy times, I was a somewhat indifferent churchgoer, mostly an untroubled and unquestioning believer. Starkly faced with the prospects of a dismal present and a no less dreary future, I sought to remedy my situation, turning to my minister and others for guidance. Their pathetically inadequate advice, in summary, was that life simply is not fair and that I should learn to embrace suffering. All were stumped to explain, even if I was a sinner deserving of God’s retribution, why my wife and two young children should have to suffer as well. So, if God was not simply absent, he was, at best, silent or unfathomable, and at worst, capricious or cruel.
Ask any man who he is, and after naming himself, more likely than not, he will immediately tell you what he does or where he works. It is as if we adult males come to know and value ourselves principally by our work. We wear our work and accomplishments like medals of meritorious conduct, while unemployment or underemployment leaves us lacking, tainted with some unspeakable inadequacy, or even worse, with an overwhelming, destructive sense of nonbeing. Take away our ability to work and to provide for our loved ones and ourselves, and we too easily loathe or lose ourselves.
There I stood, bereft of complacent expectations of a middle-class life, left with only the discomforting blandishments of an impotent faith, and essentially lost to myself. I was confused, filled with a bewildering sense of uncertainty, questioning everything that I thought I knew and long had taken for granted. I was frustrated, suffering a paralyzing sense of futility, thinking myself inadequate to the task of living. And I felt abandoned, at a complete loss to understand what I had done to alienate so very many people, either to earn either their outspoken condemnation or their silent indifference. As my misery deepened, confusion became doubt, frustration became despair, and feelings of abandonment became feelings of desolation.
If I had otherwise lapsed complacently into a comfortable, middle-class life, I might have remained blissfully ignorant of the human condition, perhaps arrogantly assuming that I was entitled to my good fortune or indifferently dismissing other people’s doubt, despair, or desolation as somehow deserved. Denied the comfort of privilege or prejudice, yet refusing to surrender to suffocating indifference, I set out to discover just how I should live. Dissatisfied with the usual wheezes and platitudes, I began to read. Some years and several tens of thousands of pages later, I began to discern what might be an antidote to my doubt, despair, and desolation.
I had studied the natural sciences in college years before and had been exposed to the scientific method and the philosophy of science. Lewis Mumford (2010, 326) writes, “To acknowledge the limitations imposed by science, to subordinate the wish to the fact, and to look for order as an emergent in observed relations, rather than as an extraneous scheme imposed upon these relations—these were the great contributions of the new outlook on life.” So, I elected to seek naturalistic explanations how I might know and understand myself and my situation and thus how I thus might strive to live my life.
The value of this ability to experience reality and know objective truths cannot be overestimated. I can trust my own life experiences with a reasoned, hence a reasonable, degree of certainty, and thus dispel my own doubts. I can use the same approach and standards for reading and judging what others have written, opening up the nearly endless thoughts and insights contributed to human culture down through the ages. And just as importantly, wherever I can enter into civil dialogue with other people—using precise language, logic, and persuasion—we reliably can share meanings with one another.

What I Read and Learned

Based on all that I have read so far, this, in summary, is what I have learned: I found the means to explain what and who I am as well as where I fit into my surroundings. I found virtues that I might live by, how I might act in my own best interests as well as how I might interact with other individuals and the communities and places wherever I may find myself. I found a basis for experiencing a larger reality, transcending my own