Ideas Have Consequences

There he was, eyes all aflame with exhilaration. Fully confident in the knowledge that it would work, that they could pull it off. He pictured himself and his brother taking the next step, doing it exactly as he had imagined it. The idea of it made him so, so excited. Go. Now. They were going to do it.

But, at that very moment, his mother stepped into the room.  She arrived just in time to keep my oldest son Nate, then 4, from lowering his little brother Joey, 2, from the top bunk to the floor in an “elevator” he had made. Sometimes timing is everything, especially for a parent.

If Nate and Joey had been older, and maybe taken a physics or engineering class, they would have known the mathematical specifications of how and why their idea wouldn’t work. However, they weren’t, and they hadn’t. And so it was their mother who had the responsibility of instructing them in truth, even though they were “convinced” and “knew” that it would work.

Ideas - they are fantastic, and we all have them. And an idea, any idea, has consequences that sometimes reach beyond the immediate moment and the first superficial result. What damage could have occurred from a four-year old boy lowering his two-year old brother to the floor in a homemade elevator? It’s hard to say. Would it have been just a momentary hurt with a small bruise and a few tears? Or could it have resulted in some longer-term injury? Thankfully, we’ll never know.

John Locke, the seventeenth century philosopher, in reasoning through the idea of personal identity, defined the term “person” as, and I paraphrase: a thinking, intelligent being, capable of consciousness, an experiencer of thoughts and sensations, able to perform actions thereby making them moral agents.¹ 

“So what?”  We might say, “That sounds pretty reasonable, what’s that have to do with kids, elevators and bunk beds?” 

Nothing really, and it is a reasonable description at first glance. Unless of course you think about this definition of 'person' from the perspective of one who has a spouse, friend or relative in a vegetative state.  Are they still a person since they cannot “act”?  Under this definition would they still be respected and have rights?  Who decides? Me? You? The government?

Now, this essay is not a critique of John Locke and his philosophy. It is, however, a call for us to recognize that ideas have consequences, and many times unintended ones.

As we wave flags, carry banners and scream our slogans, we must think beyond the moment. Think past the superficial consequences and go deeper. What has permitted humanity and human society to flourish and survive across the millennia?  Is it money?  Is it a job, career, or the opportunities that one has or doesn’t have? Is it skin color? Gender? Sexual identity?  Am I required to fight for “mine” and you for “yours”?  Is that the meaning of life and the basis of a just society? Is this based on my definition - or yours?

In contrast to John Locke, St. Thomas Aquinas proposed that we as human beings participate in God’s pure act of “existence” or “being”. And into this idea he weaves the transcendental properties of 'being.'  Transcendental means cutting across all natures, applying these attributes to all beings, without exception.  The transcendental attributes of being are: unity – meaning that you, as a being, are an individual;  true – meaning that you, as an individual being, are knowable for what you are in reality; good – meaning that to exist, to be, is good, and lastly; beautiful – meaning that the splendor of your being, of your existence, presents itself to the world in all of its radiant goodness, truth and wonder. 

The individuality, truth, goodness and beauty of our existence occurs regardless of how the world, and even most especially, I, define it.  It just is. Period. We exist as we were made. 

Remember that we participate in, not create, existence. Our task is to look at life with eyes that objectively see the reality of it. Eyes that see the God-created individuality, truth, goodness and beauty of all creation.  And then, in charity, responsibly help others see it as well, thereby moving us all forward and maybe even lifting us a little higher. We have many ideas presented to us that we can choose from.  They are not all equal or the same.  St Thomas’s idea is that by the nature of our existence alone, we are all individuals who are true, good and beautiful. Let’s remember that.

May God’s spiritual gift of wisdom help us to see the consequences of the ideas we espouse.  To see beyond the moment, before we decide to step into an elevator of our own making and end up somewhere we didn’t anticipate.

Reference:

1 – Mumford, S., “”Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction”, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp 65 (Kindle Edition).