October 10, 2004

Rev. Henry Ticknor
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley

Six Questions of Socrates

During my years in public education I had lots of job titles. Some like teacher and principal were fairly self-explanatory. Others, like hearing officer, I.E.P. specialist and placement specialist would require more explanation; especially to anyone not familiar with the maze of administrative offices that make up one of the largest school districts in the country.

However, there were two job titles that really did stick out. For eight months during the Carter administration I was granted a leave of absence to take the job of Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education. The highlight of this job was the one time I drafted a memo for the secretary’s signature. The recipient was the president himself. Now that was pretty cool!

The other job title that I really liked was the last one I had before I retired. For two years I was the Director of Character Education for the Fairfax County Public Schools. Now the great thing about this title was that no one, including myself, knew exactly what it meant. Virginia, like most other states, had jumped on the character education bandwagon and required each local school district to have programs that addressed ideas such as integrity, courage, perseverance and loyalty.

Unfortunately, like so many state mandates this one was unfunded so we had to create a system-wide program with basically no money—something that is always a fun task. But I’ve been thinking lately that perhaps our political process needs a bit of “character education.” We need to revisit our understanding of leadership and what it means to be a leader.

Earlier this year a small book titled Six Questions of Socrates by Christopher Phillips made it to many of the bestseller lists. In this book Phillips presents a series of conversations that are centered around six basic questions: What is virtue? What is courage? What is justice? What is piety? What is moderation and what is good?

I think that the 3 weeks left leading up to the election on November 2 might be an excellent time to consider these questions and to consider for ourselves what issues each one raises.

The first question Phillips asks is what is virtue? According to Phillips even Socrates wasn’t sure whether virtue was a distinct quality or whether it was made up of other equally important characteristics of justice, moderation and piety. Phillips writes that Socrates was not concerned about what the individual elements of virtue might be and what personal gain might come to the virtuous individual; but rather he sought to look at virtue in a broader sense and to explore how virtuous behavior advances humanitarian ends. Socrates suggested that an individual can only improve the world through “right action” and “right thinking.”

I wonder if in our modern age the aim of virtue isn’t to create a more harmonious world. Shouldn’t the means we employ to achieve our goals unite people rather than to divide them. Shouldn’t our leaders seek to create mutual understanding rather than mutual distrust? Don’t politicians and citizens alike have a responsibility to reduce our collective addiction to materialism, to encourage a greater respect for all forms of life, and to stem the tide of human-on-human violence that threatens our very existence? Don’t governments and individuals alike need to seek ways to be respectful of the environment and to reject the biblical injunction that we humans should exercise dominion over all the land and all the creatures? When I think of living a virtuous life I think of living in ways that create greater harmony not greater discord. To live in ways that encourage individuals to come together to solve mutual problems in mutually fulfilling ways.

The second question that Phillips addresses is “What is moderation?” He examines this question through the experiences of an Afghan woman and students in South Korea. The Muslim woman equates moderation with modesty saying, “the virtue of modesty is supposed to be practiced by all devout Muslims, to please God. A person strives to live by modest means, like the prophet. If she has more than she needs, she is to give it to others in need. She is modest about her own humanity, humble about her frailty. A modest person knows that her heart is no greater or smaller, worth no more or less than that of any other person…True Islam is a religion of the middle way. The Prophet shunned all forms of extremism. When we recite our prayers five times a day, we ask Allah to show us the straight path, the middle path. This is a path of grace, of tolerance, and reasonableness.

The Korean students spoke of the Confucian concept of the “middle way.” “If you adhere to the ideals of Confucius, you believe that to be moderate is to discover the ideal mean in guiding your actions…According to Confucius going too far is as bad as not going far enough. Moderation and modesty seem to be ideals far from our American way of life.

We have an endless craving for material goods. We consume 25% of the world’s energy. By the time most Americans are 65 they will have spent 9 years watching television (Mozart composed his first symphony at age 9). According to the World Watch Institute:

• The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel resources—burning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas.
• As of 2003, the U.S. had more private cars than licensed drivers, and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles were among the best-selling vehicles.
• New houses in the U.S. were 38 % bigger in 2002 than in 1975, despite having fewer people per household on average.
• In 2002, 61 % of U.S. credit card users carried a monthly balance, averaging $12,000 at 16 % interest. These amounts to about $1,900 a year in finance charges—more than the average per capita income in at least 35 countries.

These statistics would seem to suggest that indeed there come a time when enough is enough. These statistics would seem to uphold the old saying about moderation in all things. However, one young woman in Phillip’s book says, “but there are things I can never get enough of. Never enough love, never enough knowledge, never enough time in the day. Is it always bad to feel as though you can never have enough (of something)?” Or as Mae West once quipped, “Too much of a good thing, is wonderful.”

Could it be that the challenge of finding a middle way is just how hard it is to achieve harmony and moderation? Perhaps the great Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing said it best when he wrote:

    To live content with small means,/ to seek elegance rather than luxury,/ and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy not rich,/ to study hard, think quietly, talk gently,/ act frankly,/ to listen to stars and birds and babes and sages, with open heart,/ to bear all cheerfully,/ do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never--/in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,/ grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

What will be your symphony? When will you hear the music of the spheres? When will you be content with life? When will you be able to walk in the beauty of wild things?

The next question in Phillip’s book is “What is Justice?” He discusses such issues as atonement , righting wrongs, fairness, racism; but what stood out for me was his discussion of machiavellian justice. According to Phillips it was the Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli who used the Latin word virtu to represent the capabilities a leader needs to best maintain a political system. Phillips writes, “As far as Machiavelli was concerned the means a ruler might employ to achieve his ends can be unscrupulous or immoral and yet be considered just as long as they preserve and defend the state…in order to maintain his state (the ruler) is often obligated to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion. Indeed, Machiavelli says that a ruler’s sole purpose is to act in ways that preserve his country.

Unlike Machiavelli, says Phillips, Socrates believed that all of our actions, both those of the ruler and those of ordinary citizens should strive for the ideal of acting from a strong moral foundation. According to Socrates, if we act in a way to further solely our own interests at the expense of others then we have not acted justly because, “We have further fractured society, depleting our store of collective virtue rather than adding to it. In this vein, a just person is one who, in conducting himself in the world is ever mindful to act in ways that help liberate and elevate other members of society; while one who is unjust acts in ways that oppresses and demeans.”

To paraphrase the writing of Lao-Tse: If there is to be justice in the world, there must be justice in the nations. If there is to be justice in the nations, there must be justice in the cities. If there is to be justice in the cities, there must be justice between neighbors, if there is to be justice between neighbors, there must be justice in the home. And lastly, if there is to be justice in the home, there must be justice in the heart.

The next question asked in Phillip’s book is what is piety? Conservative religion is again a central focus of this year’s presidential campaigns. Phillips tells the story of St. Francis of Assisi who spent his youth in extravagant living and pleasure seeking, but in 1206 he underwent a dramatic character change. He donated his family fortune to the poor and began his life work of teaching and preaching. In Francis’s case piety centered on such values as compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and love.

Not so many years ago I received a Christmas card from one of the teachers at my school. The card contained the usual holiday greeting and one very surprising, at least to me, closing message. The send of the card wrote, “Henry, you are one of the most Christian men I know.” Now how does a committed UU deal with a message like that? Or on another occasion when I commented on how quickly my body had healed after my bout with heart failure and my administrative assistant shot back “Didn’t you know how many people were praying for you?” Clearly the message was you may be well; but it didn’t happen by accident.

I offer these two examples because I’m not sure that piety necessarily has anything to do with organized religion; but is has everything to do with how we live. Socrates defined piety as “doing the work the gods want done….Piety is doing the gods’ work to benefit human beings…Socrates believed that by undertaking those works and deeds that best utilize our talents to benefit humanity, we are also doing that which is of the most benefit to ourselves. I like the idea that the way I live my life is in part doing the work the gods want done; that I am indeed utilizing my talents to benefit humanity.

During these weeks of high political debate the candidates will often speak in churches. The most common biblical reference used by politicians comes from the Book of James which says in part: If a brother or sister is ill clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works and I by my works will show you my faith…for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.”

As Unitarian Universalists let us demonstrate our belief in the importance of good works by being open about our mutual regard and respect for one another. Let us find ways each day to give expression to what we hold most dear; let us embrace what Robert Coles has called the “circles of human moral connectedness” so that each of us can participate in the process of growing, transforming and serving the communities to which we belong.

Let us confront the powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love. Let each one participate in the democratice process according to her or his conscience.

The two remaining questions are what is good and what is courage and I have decided to put them together. Phillips tells us that “In his book The Good Society: The Human Agency, John Kenneth Galbraith equates a good society with one in which ‘voice and influence’ are not ‘confined to one part of the population,’ as is the case in the United States, where ‘money, voice, and political activism are now controlled by the affluent. and business interests.’

To remedy this lopsided condition Galbraith calls for “a coalition of the concerned and the compassionate and those now outside the political system.” He goes on to say that “All…citizens have personal liberty, basic well-being, social and ethnic equality, the opportunity for a rewarding life.”

I believe what draws many of us to Unitarian Universalism is just that call to be a force for good in the world. To work toward a society of liberty and justice for all. Our motivation must come from concern for the condition of our environment, for our inner cities, for our rural health and educational systems, and for our basic needs of respect, equality, and equal opportunities in life.

To be able to stand up for a good and just society we must have courage. We must have the courage to get up each morning and we must have the courage to be. We must have the courage to face our fears and to fight to right the wrongs we see. Courage means living a life that embraces our UU Principal of respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all persons.

At a time in our country’s history when we are as polarized as ever—economically as well as politically—we need the courage to be and to stand up for what we believe is right and we need the courage to participate in a process of healing and reconciliation.

As Paul Robeson said, “I will take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of fear and despair. My weapons are peaceful; for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. “