Oct 02 2009
Wisdom is deeper and rarer than rational thought
Harakas pp36-81; Cloud: “Happiness isn’t Normal”; “Avoiding Ethical Rationalizations”; “Thoroughly Modern Mill”
“Wisdom is deeper and rarer than rational thought”[1]
Scruton shows how Mill failed to go deep enough in his moral philosophy, since relying on the intellect is to mistake the form for the content. He shows how the focus on a negotiation of ‘rights’ is an inadequate guide to ethics, whether the ‘right’ is decided by the majority (utilitarianism) or by the ‘sovereignty of the individual’ when no account is taken of the shared culture of the ‘individuals’ living together. Mill himself suffered from his early utilitarianism which left him “bereft of all emotional succour” being a “philosophy of the head which seemed to make no room for the heart.” Similarly, in “Happiness isn’t Normal”, Hayes’s criticism of cognitive therapy is that it wrongly assumes the intellect is totally in control. Like some of the advice from Orthodox Elders, he advises that focusing on negative thoughts, rather than correcting them, can intensify them. However his narrow concept of what ‘thoughts’ are, as being wholly the product of intellect interpreting emotion, and how to deal with them seems to involve a dangerous abstraction from one’s own mind – “Thank your mind for that thought.” Also, like the problems with Mill’s negotiation of moral norms, this “third wave” of psychological therapy has no basis outside the purely subjective to account for morality, although interestingly Hayes argues that he has never met a patient with “pathological values” (whatever he means by that) and that even in the case of rapists they are “being pushed around by their urges even when it’s deeply against their values.” Anyone who has wrestled with temptation will understand this (e.g. Rom. 7:19), and it is a support for the critique of cognitive therapy which suggests that a concentration on the problem in an attempt to fight it will succeed – all too often, the concentration gives the problem or temptation more power. Hayes suggests rather focusing on the positive values that one wishes to rule one’s life and accepting that there will be problems and suffering along the way – rather like taking up one’s cross and pursuing the narrow path that leads to salvation.
The dangers of trusting the intellect are also clear in “Avoiding Ethical Rationalizations.” Without wisdom, without a deeper and more expansive vision, trusting only in the rational, it is easy to get caught in the trap of justifications for one’s own unethical behaviour. This also shows how difficult it is to properly manage a system of morality which includes the concept of ekonomia. Without the proper spiritual and ecclesial context, this flexibility can always go astray, and the more the broader, shared ethos of morality is lost in a society, the more that society has no choice but to move towards greater legalism.
The “deeper” than the intellect that is missing in the above is found in the chapter from Harakas “The Ethical Relationship with God”. He shows how good and right are tied to God’s intrinsic goodness, and how they both the knowledge of good and right (in more than an intellectual sense) and the ability to live them out in practice are tied to communion with God. Morality is not just a rational, intellectual construct, but according to Harakas it is a spiritual choice – the renunciation of Satan (as is explicit in the baptismal service but is a continuing practice, not a once-for-all achievement). As a spiritual choice it is tied to faith. While belief is not a virtue, faith is – something not only held as dogma, but lived out in hope, in love, in prayer and in worship. Hope provides the eschatological context which is missing from the intellectual systems limited to this world, and thereby provides a freedom from anxiety. Love broadens out when it is seen that love for God and for neighbour are intrinsically linked, that the communion of love in the Trinity is infinitely expanded through the energies or grace of God to include all creation. Prayer, according to St John Chrysostom, is essential for virtue. It enables communion with God and the overcoming of temptation. The awe of worship casts the intellectual understanding of morality into a proper perspective, and provides the appropriate ecclesial context for its working out in practice, centred in Eucharistic communion with God.
If we are able to immerse ourselves in this ‘ethical relationship with God’ we find ourselves on the narrow path towards the wisdom that is “deeper and rarer than rational thought”.
[1] Scruton: “Thoroughly Modern Mill”
