From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Jan 29 2004 - 15:53:03 GMT
Hi All,
I've been reading Charles Murray's book "Human Achievement, the Pursuit of
Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. His thesis is that
with a few reasonable assumptions and using well-established statistical
measurements, excellence can be quantified. That this thesis goes against
the grain of many on this site was made evident by responses to my initial
letter describing my interest in Murray's ideas. To those who question
Murray's conclusions, I can only suggest he be given a fair hearing by
reading his book. This is not the place to discuss his methodology in
detail.
Of particular interest to me and I thought perhaps to you is what Murray
has to say about values. In the later chapters of his book he tackles the
issue of what drives humanity towards attainment of ever higher values.
He poses this question:
"Is it in the nature of human beings to be drawn to excellence and, given
the chance, to pursue it, or is excellence something that must be elicited
from human beings who are naturally indifferent to it?"
His answer:
"I proceed from the view that accomplishment in the arts and sciences is
one manifestation of a characteristic of human nature discussed at length
by Aristotle in books seven and ten of 'Nicomachean Ethics.' The core
sentence for our purposes: 'Life is an activity, and each man actively
exercises his favorite faculties upon the objects he loves most."
Philosopher John Rawls distilled the sense of Aristotle's discussion into
what he labeled the Aristotelian Principle, which Rawls stated as follows:
'Other things equal, human beings enjoy the exercise of their realized
capacities (their innate or trained abilities), and this enjoyment
increases the more the capacity is realized, or the greater its
complexity.""
To put the above in my own words, human beings are born into Quality and
become most productive and happy when they accept their Quality being and
dedicate themselves to the pursuit of beauty, truth and goodness.
The point is whether you like Aristotle's or Rawl's or my description
(liberally interpreted from Pirsig), the fact that it is "our nature" to
strive to make a better world is agreed to by all. Pirsig takes it a step
further by proposing that it is the nature of the universe to be active
and "exercise its favorite faculties on the objects it loves most."
Old Aristotle had it right up to a point. It took a couple of thousand
years and a fellow named Pirsig to show us a broader, truer vista-to lift
us up like fish so we can see the ocean of Quality we swim in.
Platt
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