One of the people I admire and like to read is Tom Morris, a former philosophy professor at Notre Dame University who now runs the Morris Institute for Human Values in Wilmington, North Carolina. I like to read Morris because he thinks that philosophy is for everyone and he makes it understandable.
In his 1997 book, If Aristotle Ran General Motors, he tells a story about meeting a former colleague. Morris’ friend is lamenting the fact that she and others around her no longer philosophize and she wants Morris, a professional philosopher, to do something about it. She says: ‘Look, Tom, when I was eighteen and in college, we used to sit up late at night in the dorm and talk about all sorts of important things—life, death, love, meaning, God, happiness, the future, good and evil. Now I’m forty-five years old, and when I get together with friends all that the conversation is ever about is what the kids are doing, what’s on sale at the mall, and who Notre Dame is playing this weekend. We never talk about anything important. We’ve lived long enough to have some real questions and maybe even some answers, but there’s never any chance to talk about these big questions with other people. Would you please come into the community and give us an opportunity again to talk and think together about things that really matter? We all need a little philosophy in our lives.”
Morris is convinced (as am I and as we want you, too, to be) that philosophy is for life and practicing Socrates’ dictum to live the examined life helps us to flourish. In the last chapter of Morris book, “Usefulness and Understanding,” Morris pulls together some themes that you have wrestled with in this course. You might hear echoes of Victor Frankl, Aristotle, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Indeed, you might see glimpses of things you have mentioned in your journals or have discussed in forum with one another. As you read this excerpt from If Aristotle Ran General Motors, consider how you can bring what you have learned in philosophy into your present-day life.
Answer these questions:
1.) The Need for Usefulness
Morris notes that the Greek philosophers considered us “teleological beings;” i.e., purposive creatures with goals, a mission in life. He writes: “When we cease to feel useful, we cease to feel valuable. We no longer feel alive. This is why retirement can literally kill if it is not handled properly” (Morris, 201).
Describe one goal that you are actively pursuing that will make a difference in your life.
2.) The Importance of Meaningful, Noble Work
Morris comments that no work or work that makes little sense is life threatening. He expounds on this idea: “There is no job productive of any good, whether product or service, that does not merit a noble description. Too many of us walk around with trivial, reductive, demeaning descriptions of what we do in the backs of our minds, haunting us and denying us the deep satisfaction that we deserve in our jobs” (Morris, 203).
Write a job description of your present situation that is “noble,” i.e., a job description worthy of you and your purposeful life-work.
3.) The Depth of the Need
Morris writes: “The most surprising account I have heard of the spiritual need for usefulness comes out of the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, where the inmates on death row have been allowed to leave their cells and go to work making uniforms for the prison guards. Now, at first blush, you might think that this is cruel to the point of being slightly sadistic — prisoners are put to work clothing the people who are going to kill them. You might think that this would surely exterminate any shred of positive human feeling that otherwise manages to exist in such circumstances. But journalists who have visited Huntsville have reported a noticeable increase in morale among the prisoners doing the work. Even prisoners need to feel as if they’re contributing, no matter how extreme the circumstances. Everyone has a deep spiritual need to feel useful” (Morris, 205-206).
Write a paragraph relating this story to Frankl’s Logotherapy.
4.) The Need for Understanding
Morris recounts an episode from his personal life when he perceived that colleagues were living a sham: When I was a graduate student at Yale, I was surprised to find that hardly anyone I met seemed to be pursuing wisdom. Nearly everyone appeared instead to be intent on cultivating cleverness. We were all likely to become show-offs than sages” (Morris, 207-208).
Morris makes a strong statement: “We are in danger of losing sight of some of the most ancient goods for human life, whose role is being usurped by some modern imposters or counterfeits that purport to be identical with those true goods but that are poor imitations. Let me give a few examples of what I mean (cf. 207)
ANCIENT GOOD MODERN COUNTERFEIT
Wisdom Cleverness
Dignity Glamour
Truth Expediency
Beauty Titillation
Goodness Pleasantness
Character Personality
Reputation Fame
Respect Fear
Choose an ancient good that you would like to possess. List three concrete actions that you will take in order to cultivate this ancient good in your current life.
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