Hallo, this is Dr. Bin Song at Washington College.

In the previous units of “Foundations of Morality,” we introduced the distinction and procedure of philosophy as a therapy. What lies at the center of this philosophical practice is a commitment to good human living, for the sake of which, varying philosophies are mobilized by philosophical practitioners to nurture virtues as antidotes to fallacies of human thought.

As indicated by the clinical experience of philosophical therapy, there are a number of major thinking fallacies which frequently and seriously undermine the mental health of human beings. If remaining to be addressed, these fallacies can generate varying self-defeating emotions and behaviors. So, starting from this unit, we will focus upon several of these major thinking fallacies one after another, to define what they are, how they can be refuted, what virtue is needed to rectify them, and eventually, what philosophy can provide a remedy.

Let’s start from the fallacy of “demanding perfection” vis-à-vis the virtue of “metaphysical security.”

To put it simply, if succumbing to the fallacy of “demanding perfection,” a human would project a standard of ideal human living into objective reality, and insist upon the necessary congruence of the ideal with reality, to the result that if failing to achieve the congruence, human life would be thought of as not worth living. This resulted thought would cause varying negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, anger, and depression.

In previous units of the class, we have analyzed many cases for this fallacy of demanding perfection in our exercises. For instance, a son may demand that all his performances in school must get immediate approval from his parents so that he can validate his belief that he is a good child. A student may demand that none of her courses in a discipline should get a grade lower than B+ in order to re-confirm the validity of her choice of that discipline as a major. A lawyer may demand that none of her cases should ever be lost even if this means she has to manipulate the law and argue in opposition to her conscience. A youtuber may also demand that none of her new videos should get clicks less than her old ones even if this means she has to produce controversial and ethically problematic content. Conceivably, it is impossible to have objective reality conform to these varying standards of ideal human living. As a consequence, we can anticipate that it is almost necessary for all the people in these instances to suffer from a great deal of disappointment, frustration, self-doubt, and other negative emotions because of their irrational demand of perfection.

To remedy this thinking fallacy of demanding perfection, a philosophical therapist would suggest the virtue of “metaphysical security” as an antidote. To put it concisely, a person that enjoys the thinking habit of “metaphysical security” would feel at home, viz., have a constant feeling of security, rootedness and motivation, in a deeply uncertain and imperfect world. To parse it out, this virtue of “metaphysical security” would imply the following two key components:

Firstly, a metaphysically secured human being knows how to set a standard of ideal human living as high as possible so that the ideal can never be fully and completely realized in the real world. Since the ideal can never be fully and completely realized, it would be pointless to demand the congruence of the ideal with objective reality as implied by the fallacy of demanding perfection. And because the ideal would always lie steps further than any result established by human efforts, a metaphysically secured human being would simply enjoy themselves in the endless process of trying, reflecting, relaxing, trying again, and in a word, perfecting. During the process, failures would not be interpreted as a sign of unworthy life; rather, it is simply a needed nutrition for the perfecting human beings to learn from mistakes, to acquire new ability to adapt to evolving situations, and thus, to approach their high ideal in a more dynamic and enriched way.

To continue the instances we raised above, a metaphysically secured son would not demand immediate approval from his parents on all his academic performances, because he understands the process of perfecting is more important than the result of perfection. So, he would be very dedicated to his learning, while being patient to communicate with his parents so as to build a more enduring, understanding and trustful parental relationship. By the same token, a metaphysically secured youtuber would not tie the intrinsic worth of their life to the amount of attention they demand from social media. Rather, they would embed their video products within a larger and broader context of human life, and the value of this life would far surpass any amount of instantaneous attention that they can get from social media. So, in a word, if you tend to demand perfection, please give up the irrational notion that life can ever be perfect. Instead, set a genuinely noble goal, and have it continually motivate yourself in an endless process of perfecting,

Secondly, despite no genuinely noble goal of human life can be fully and completely realized in the objective world, it can still be made true in a partial, piecemeal and deeply satisfying way. In other words, a metaphysically secured human being would be sharply aware of which part of their life is under control, and they would simply enjoy the continually emerging results from efforts they spend upon things that succumb to their free will and autonomy.

For instance, it would be an extremely lofty goal for Buddhist practitioners to vow to save all human beings from sufferings, as the Buddhist teaching of universal compassion requires to; however, whenever motivated by the goal, any of a Buddhist practitioner’s determinations to actually save a concrete form of human suffering will lead to a deep feeling of self-satisfaction and fulfillment. In this case, it is not necessarily the result of the targeted human suffering being eliminated that brings the self-satisfaction, since many factors are out of human control in order to realize this result; instead, it is the self-motivated determination, dedication and process of acting and perfecting that matter the most to the practitioners, since whether to have this attitude of dedication entirely depends upon themselves. In an ultimate term, the awareness towards the sheer fact of being and living here and now already brings a certain degree of self-satisfaction to a Buddhist’s life since all beings, according to the Buddhist teaching, are interconnected; and the realization of all-interconnection is exactly what can eliminate human sufferings which derive from the self-isolation of each human individual.

So, in a word, rather than demanding perfection, we should simply enjoy the process of perfecting. And while in the process of perfecting ourselves, we are simultaneously being motivated by a sublime, never fully realized goal, and being satisfied by our partial, piecemeal and solid accomplishments. If putting ourselves into this balanced growing mindset and behaving ourselves accordingly, we would nurture a virtue of “metaphysical security” to live peacefully and joyfully in a deeply uncertain and imperfect world.

There are many world philosophies and religions that can help to nurture this virtue of “metaphysical security.”

Apart from the mentioned Buddhism, there is a common methodology on how to treat ideals in varying world religions. On the one hand, religions quite often prescribe sublime, transcendent goals which no humans can fully, completely, and everlastingly fulfill. Think about the Christian goal of being God-like; yes, humans can be God-like, but none of us can be a God. However, on the other hand, religions also provide methods of ritual-performance, spiritual practice, and communal living so as to make sure that those sublime goals are not completely out of reach. For instance, I believe many church-goers would not deny the good intention and warm feeling towards other human fellows which they can nurture in varying ceremonies and rituals. These nurtured inner-feelings and their corresponding actions are how the sublime religious goals are realized partially and momentarily.

Not only religions, philosophies can also help. For instance, the principle that we focus upon controllable things while remaining indifferent to things out of control is the golden rule in ancient Stoicism. And Confucius once described his mental state when he turned into 50s in such a way that he knows his mandate of heaven. This means that, firstly, he knows his ultimate goal of human life, viz., an awareness of a mission to continually motivate his life; secondly, he knows the limit of human life. These are factors of human life that are not succumbing to his control. And thirdly, he knows his talent and what he can do to better his life and the society. Overall, Confucius teaches his students to perfect their talents to continually fulfill the mission of their life, while both acknowledging and trying best to overcome obstacles down the road. In this way, to nurture the virtue of metaphysical security, Confucianism would work together with Stoicism to provide inspiring philosophical wisdom.

So, my friends and students, what philosophy and religion fit you to help you nurture the virtue of “metaphysical security” in face of this deeply uncertain and imperfect world? I would like to hear you and look forward to being inspired by your answers.

Required Readings:

Elliot Cohen, The New Rational Therapy, pp. 27-45.
Elliot Cohen, Logic-Based Therapy and Everyday Emotions, pp. 30-34.

Quiz:

(1) According to Confucius, what are the meaning of “mandate of heaven” for human individuals?

A, each individual has their mission of life.
B, each individual has their talent to discover and nurture.
C, each individual needs to acknowledge the limit and obstacles of their life.
D, each individual is determined by an uncontrollable cosmic power to be in a certain situation.

(2) For Thomas Aquinas, human excellence is different from perfection, and he used a metaphor to describe the distinction: “shooting for the stars” is a method of self-improvement, but you cannot demand to land on them. Is this statement true or false?

(3) We may “fail to perceive the beauty of a total pattern in which the particular parts, which seem ugly to us, blend in so harmonious and beautiful a way.” And this view can be used to remedy our demand for physical perfection. Which philosophers hold this view?

A, Augustine,
B, Thomas Aquinas
C, Socrates

(4) To remedy the fallacy of demanding perfection, Spinoza suggests to change people’s absolutistic, unrealistic, musts and shoulds to ()

A, Preferences.
B, Illusions.
C, Visions.

(5) According to Stoic philosopher Epictetus, what are not under human control?

A, our body
B, property
C, reputation
D, office
E, everything that is not our own doing.

(6) Have you ever demanded perfection to your life? If you have, if your friends/family did that, what’s your philosophical advice to yourself or them?