Philosophy of living

Sensitive to beauty.

And dominated by goodness.

These are the central themes in the emerging philosophy of living sketched at the end of paper 2.

In a recent presentation, I introduced students of The Urantia Book. The following segment of this document grows out of that presentation.

What are the roles of philosophy in the spiritual life? That was the topic of the September 7, 2019, Thought Leaders Forum hosted by Urantia University Institute. At that event I referred to the following list of philosophical disciplines.

The only well-developed philosophy of living constructed along the lines of paper 2 is Jeffrey Wattles, Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (LTBG, now available in a new printing with 230 corrections and additions). Here’s a .pdf that you can download of the front part of the book: Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Through Chapter 1 . Further down this page you will find links to pages that bridge between this book and The Urantia Book.

In my Forum presentation, I encouraged each participant to set aside a few minutes a day to read and ponder one new paragraph of philosophy. But since no sequence of paragraphs fits everyone’s project and philosophical interests, I present an incomplete but otherwise systematic array to afford you a spectrum of options and a way of getting an overview.

Some philosophical disciplines

Philosophy of science: so that you can reflect on the philosophical assumptions in the sources of factual information that you rely on
Logic: how to reason accurately—and fairly!
Philosophy of thinking: for a quality of thinking whose process embraces intuition, reason, and wisdom (see LTBG chapter 2)
Phenomenology, describing experience
Hermeneutics: interpreting meanings
Metaphysics–reality-ology
Philosophy of religion: for example, what to do about the fact that we can’t tell whether the gleaming input that has come into consciousness is from the superconscious or the sub-conscious?
Aesthetics: how to find the Supreme in the beauty of physical harmony; coordinate spiritual beauty with beauty in nature and the arts—including artistic living.
Ethics: questions of morality and character, plus applied ethics, for example, topics associated with feminism

Responses to some of the chat questions beginning 9.7.19

At the end of paper 2 on the nature of God, we find the paragraphs that sketch the emerging philosophy of living.

The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.

The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.

All truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good. All real beauty — material art or spiritual symmetry — is both true and good. All genuine goodness — whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry — is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.

Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and eternal on the higher and divine levels.

These four paragraphs continue to stimulate thrilling new realizations for me after decades of working on the project of constructing the new philosophy of living.

If you have read this are and are still in the game—smile—and could use some teamwork . . . contact me at UBProjectsJHW@gmail.com

The new philosophy must be appealing as well as new and uplifting. For that, our lives must be appealing, so as to attract inquiry. But the complexities of the new philosophy can be overwhelming, so balance is essential: The way of simplicity and paths of thoroughness.

At the present time, the only well-developed published contribution to the new philosophy is Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (Cascade Books, 2016) by Jeffrey Wattles. Here’s a quick summary of the book. And here are documents that bridge between that book and The Urantia Book.

Preface: On experiential education

Introduction: The significance of this philosophy

Living the truth, walking in beauty, participating in divine goodness. Intellectually speaking, the hardest part to learn is living the truth—cosmic truth—the wise synthesis of scientific living and spiritual living. Struggling with the concept of cosmic truth and need a couple of practical examples?

Finally, the study of truth, beauty, and goodness prepares us to enter the morontia schools of thinking, feeling, and doing. Here a way to read the Urantia Book as a school of thinking. The concept of cosmic truth embraces the truths of science and here is an extensive, organized collection of what The Urantia Book offers regarding the truths of science. The concept beauty—divine, cosmic, and lived—is presented in The Urantia Book in the of universe beauty as embracing the beauties of nature and the charm of intellectual art.

Are you interested in experiential education? I have room to take on a couple of students or–if the demand is there–to plan a class in the new philosophy–though that would not begin until 2020. The class would not be primarily about reading stuff but about a series of growth projects. The projects are very part-time, because they are, for the most part, not a foreign addition to an already full schedule, but a way of adjusting your approach to what you’re already doing.

What I do is share with you the best I’ve found thus far (except that I can’t keep up with the sharing, because new insights dawn almost every day).

Your job is to select what resonates with you, let go of what doesn’t fit, and modify until you have a concept or teaching that you are ready to put into practice.

Then you find creative ways to apply that concept or teaching to a personal growth need of yours.

What growth need? If you are up for it—and if it is psychologically reasonable for you—then tackle your front-burner issue, the number one growth challenge you face that would have ripple effects throughout your entire personality if you could make real progress on it.

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