Maxima Moralia

Meditations on the Otherness of the Other

Ramin Jahanbegloo

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032256931
• eBook ISBN: 9781000592955
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

This book highlights the problem of one-dimensional, reductionistic life of the modern individual. An expression of crisis in our world, it discusses the imperative need to have a more comprehensive, non-reductionist life where the Other is incorporated, especially the relationship between the Other and the Self, based on virtues like love, empathy, equality, and compassion.

The volume sheds light on how the world has forgone the art of living for a mutilated sense of well-being, the rise of conformity and complacency in human thought, and the lack of democratic dissent and citizenry responsibility in our contemporary societies, which is now characterized by mass immaturity, propelled by a process of thoughtlessness. It discusses how humans need to be aware of the life they lead, to think about Otherness of the Other not just as another virtue but also as a crucial element in the survival of humanity, for people to coexist with the world around them as equals. Furthermore, it advocates meaningful and thoughtful existence, in touch with the Nature we coexist with, to ensure that humanity is not robbed of its noble spirit as we live to survive in our techno-capitalist societies.

An introspective read, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of moral and ethical philosophy, political philosophy, and political science.

1 Age of Mediocrity

DOI: 10.4324/9781003292777-2

1

Our age is essentially one of mediocrity without passion. Nowadays not even desperation can give meaning to our lives. The word “success” has become our banner, along with many other meaningless concepts. In the present age, of course, it would be out of the question to think. The motto of today’s world is: we were born not to think but to succeed.

2

To be sure, the present age is ridiculously false in its pretensions. Those who live in this era are safely dead and yet have the right to live like zombies. They do not mainly seek to add to humanity’s wisdom, but what they most want is to live without thinking about life itself.

3

Strangely, we die no more with death but from the ignorance of death. In an age with no passion, even the value of death is misplaced. The age of romantic or heroic deaths is past. The present is the age of individuals who die without knowing why and for what they die.

4

Where neither excellence nor exemplarity is in the game, any light-hearted move in life is like swimming in shallow waters. It’s only when our feet don’t touch the ground that we might end in the inwardness of wisdom.

5

Those who feel predestined to lead and not to listen in the world will be pushed down by history itself. Those who do not listen to the logic of history should see to it that in the process they are not thrown in the abyss of history.

6

Supposing techno-science can make us eternal-what then? It is a fundamental truth of human nature that humankind is incapable of admiring anything permanently, including eternity. Human nature lives with boredom.

7

The further it is internalized the more clearly does boredom become a poison that kills with little dosages in a long period of time. As a result, all that is despicable comes to the forefront of one’s life.

8

One cannot be loved as long as one is still execrable, except by those who credit others with their hate and contempt.

9

To what extent can we talk about love in our age of mediocrity? Perhaps the misinterpretation of love is so great that it keeps us from loving and being loved.

10

Even a simple kiss is corrupted by our political correctness. The more sanitized is the love that we teach our children, the less they know about love and how to seduce their senses.

11

What can love say where there is no Beloved Community? The paradox of love is that its true ground is itself. In other words, love is the question and the answer.

12

Even if I possess the whole world and I have no love, I am nothing. Nothing is closer to our essence than love which is the foundation of our being. As Thomas Merton puts it correctly, “Love is our true destiny.”

13

What humanity needs is a genuine revolution of love. Only loving can change its mode of thinking and create a fundamental change in human society. In reality, love is the spiritual force which gives meaning to human life.

14

Love, therefore, is the power of self-transformation. That is perhaps the main reason why love is a disobeying and dissenting force. To love is to be alive and to have the courage to redefine life.

15

Meaninglessness is an expression of the absence of love in the present age. It is an absolute threat to human civilization. It deprives humanity from its courage to exist. But humanity needs to remind itself of what it has lost or is continuously losing.

16

Love is the basis of the courage to exist. Only this courage can fight against meaninglessness and the mediocrity which follows. If life and death become meaningless, then the anxiety of fate can be defeated only by the courage to exist.

17

The paradox of every life is that it has the power to disobey and negate its own meaninglessness. The act of transcending meaninglessness is in itself a meaningful act of dissent.

18

Dissent is essential to understanding how humanity can liberate itself from the grip of meaninglessness and mediocrity. As such, there is no meaningful living without dissenting.

19

If life is an act of dissent, then the courage to exist is the art of being alerted about the Otherness of the Other. To recognize the Otherness of the Other is to accept the courage and the patience of being in fellowship, even in the grip of meaninglessness and conformity.

20

The courage to exist is not an issue of solipsism. On the contrary, it shows that each one of us needs to participate in the affirmation of the Otherness of the Other. Every act of courage to exist is the manifestation of the Other and the recognition of its Otherness.

21

Love is the vital force which marks the presence of the Other in the world. The courage to exist is rooted in the love of the Other as an experience of self-transformation. Consequently, the courage to exist as oneself is always accompanied by the courage to recognize the existence of the Other as Otherness.

22

If the courage to exist is the courage to think oneself in the world and to self-affirm oneself in life, then the courage to be as oneself is also the courage to mark the presence of the Otherness of the Other in the world.

23

Since life is neither static nor monistic, then it has a great inclination for plurality, diversity, and change. By which we mean that life is nothing but modes of being, heterogeneous, and dissimilar. Thus, the Otherness of the Other is nothing but a different Self which emerges from within the same world.

24

Curiously the recognition of the Otherness of the Other, as the presence of plurality in the world, turns the courage to exist into a moral capital. Underlying this moral capital resides the use of nonviolence as a power of compassion and love. This, in a sense, echoes what Mahatma Gandhi calls Satyagraha.

2 The Power of Agape

DOI: 10.4324/9781003292777-3

25

Satyagraha is the moral authority to say “No” to homogeneity and to say “Yes” to plurality and diversity. It is a commitment to nonviolence and truth in the name of the Otherness of the Other.

26

Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

27

Let us not forget that in times of darkness, nonviolence is the maxima moralia of humanity. Thinking nonviolence in a world of meaninglessness that would dismiss and banish all forms of originality and independent mindedness is the only way to restore the nobility and greatness of human spirit.

28

It is the characteristic of our unphilosophical age to cling firmly to violence. Violence is a truth that is recognized best by complacent and conformist minds, because the seductive power of violence exists only for the mobs. Mahatma Gandhi did not surrender to the fanaticism of the mobs. As he underl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Age of Mediocrity
• 2 The Power of Agape
• 3 The Art of Maturity
• 4 Paideia and Epistemic Humility
• 5 The Otherness of the Other
• 6 The Silence of Wisdom
• 7 An Examined Civilization
• 8 The Nobility of Spirit
• 9 Empathy and Conquest
• 10 An Ontology of Fragility
• 11 The Meaning of Life
• 12 The Solitude of Nonviolence
• Index