michael-dean-k/

Aristotle’s virtues are structured as the mean between two vices; “temperance” is the mean between indifference and indulgence; “courage” the mean between “cowardice” and “recklessness.”

I’ve been working out a system of virtues where paradox is the organizing element. It’s not about finding the mean of a spectrum, but about simultaneously straddling two opposites, two ends of a spectrum. But the spectrum here doesn’t run vice-to-vice—you wouldn’t want to be cowardly and reckless—, it covers two opposite modes of thinking: right brain, left brain.

Right brain virtues are about embodied presence, where left brain virtues are about abstracted principles. Both matter, and if I lean towards one mode or the other, I find myself untuned, either scrambling through passion, or strangled by structure. The solution isn’t to shift from order to chaos or chaos to order, but to be maximally orderly and maximally chaotic.

Kairos is about being aware of a moment and boldly taking it (it’s a military term) where agape is about unconditional love (a Jesus term), and so when I repeat the prayer “Καιρὸν θεωρῶ, ἀγάπην σπερῶ,” it’s a paradox embedded in a single phrase: “I recognize the moment, and will bestow love as a gift.”

I haven’t mapped the other virtues into sayings yet, but there is the spontaneous, generative, and wild ecstasy (ékstasis) paired with a prudent and monk-like systemization of everything, logos. There is the serene inner stillness, the now without thought, hesychia (ἡσυχία) paired with the striving towards your destiny, your purpose, your final end, your telos. There is the immersion into the inner dream-world of images, fantasia (φαντασία) paired with the builder mentality to order and craft your environment to shape your mind, cosmesis (κόσμησις).

Now that I write this, I see the difference between cosmos and cosmesis. Cosmos is an abstract, left-brained noun, the order of matter, it's physical configuration; cosmesis is the embodied, right-brained verb, the participatory act of ordering matter yourself (ie: making your bed, shaping your government, designing your church). It's important for all of these virtues to be verb words, because they are not static nouns, but actions to take. In that spirit, I should change logos to logismos, telos to teleiosis, and agape to apagan.

This is turning into a pattern language of virtue, and though there are many differences with the Essay Architecture pattern language—it’s made of spectrums and not triads—there are similarities too: each virtue telescopes into more sub-virtues, virtues are interlinked, they all combine to create a nameless quality. I think only through making many types of pattern languages, across different fields, will I be able to understand the different constraints and components of any system: the patterns of pattern languages.