The term "classical" is often misunderstood.  Is classical music called classical because it is the oldest kind of music?  No, for music was unthinkably ancient before classical music was developed.  Is it so named because it is the best kind of music?  No, for people may disagree about which music is best and yet agree about which music is classical.  Because it is obsolete?  No, for a classical tradition can remain vibrantly alive, continuing to develop and give birth to new work.

“And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him.  ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’  And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.’”   (Matthew 22:35-40, RSV.)

I pointed out yesterday that the Golden Rule doesn’t replace the moral precepts, but presupposes them.  This limitation is not a defect in the Golden Rule; it merely corrects a possible misunderstanding about what the Rule is for.  As excellent as the Rule is, you couldn’t know how to live if you knew the Rule but nothing else.

The Golden Rule is the pinnacle of ethics.  But it does not replace the other moral precepts; it presupposes them.

Imagine a man reasoning, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- yeah, sure.  I wouldn’t mind if that fellow slept with my wife; fidelity is boring, and possessiveness is old-fashioned anyway.  Therefore, he shouldn’t mind if I sleep with his.”

In order to get the right results from doing unto other as you would have them do unto you, you have to want them to do the right things unto you.

Distinguish, distinguish, distinguish!  “Natural” is one of those polyvalent words that get us into tangles if we don’t keep its various senses straight.

A recent headline in the Wall Street Journal announces, “Twitter CEO Costolo struggles to define vision.”

All right, it’s a business publication.  Still, am I the only person who finds it diverting to associate the word “Twitter” with the word “vision”?

History presents to us two nearly opposite meanings of freedom.  Among the classical thinkers (bearing in mind that not all ancient thinkers were classical), the term referred not to the absence of government, but to a certain kind of governance, whether over a multitude of people, a single man, or an aspect of a man.

Query:

The phenomena you describe as the “revenge of conscience” seem a reality in our day.  I find it difficult to be optimistic about the course of events.  Forgive me if the question is too personal, but do you possess a melancholic nature?  And where do you think things are heading?

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