Being sharp, keen, and penetrating is the essence of being incisive. Most people think they do not have time to consider issues carefully. They are sloppy thinkers. We value the cultivation of incisiveness, which is the art of considering details. Details matter. In Constitutional law, for example, seemingly innocuous breaches of individual rights can lead to the destruction of the…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 18 in the season of Growth
Being Principled
Principles are rules of conduct. They are essential guides to ethical behavior but rarely can be taken as absolutes.
- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. [falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson]
- Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good. [attributed to Petrarch]
- There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. [falsely attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville]
Honesty could be seen as the art of not making excuses. Our principles include our values but they are in an inherent conflict with the value of humility. As Humanists, we do not imagine that there is a perfect cosmic order waiting to be discovered. We accept that life is messy. An ethical person navigates between a commitment to principle and humility; honesty, especially the willingness to confront the self and to change, is an essential tool in doing that.
Real
True Narratives
Examples of high principles in action:
- Gordon K. Hirabayashi, A Principled Stand: The Story of Hirabayashi v. United States (University of Washington Press, 2013).
Opinions are divided about whether Abraham Lincoln was mainly a man of principle or of compromise. Two weighty and scholarly books, among others, have addressed that question.
- In Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1959), Harry V. Jaffa argued that “Lincoln’s appeal to the ‘self-evident truth’ of equality . . . provided the moral touchstone of the American republic.”
- John Burt takes a different view in Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict (The Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2013), shifting the focus to the question whether “liberalism presuppose(s) agreement around a common moral core – all men are created equal – or is it merely a modus vivendi for people with different values and interests who consent to work together . . .” The author “reminds us that statecraft requires an attention to both principle and compromise.”
On principles on politics and affairs of state:
- Edward J. Watts, Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny (Basic Books 2018): “ . . . the principal purpose of his book is to allow ‘readers to better appreciate the serious problems that result both from politicians who breach a republic’s political norms and from citizens who choose not to punish them for doing so.’”
- Tom Reiss, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (Crown Publishers, 2012): it stands to reason that Alexandre Dumas (père), author of The Count of Monte Cristo, was a man “whose devotion to the principles of the revolution never wavered.”
On compromise:
- James Romm, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014): “Above all, he embodies the central conflict of human life: Can we be good while engaging with the imperfect world around us?”
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Sean McKeever & Michael Ridge, Principled Ethics: Generalism As a Regulative Ideal (Oxford University Press, 2006).
- Timothy Besley, Principled Agents?: The Political Economy of Good Government (Oxford University Press, 2006).
- Jeffrey W. Donnithorne, Four Guardians: A Principled Agent View of American Civil-Military Relations (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).
- David Omand & Mark Phythian, Principled Spying: The Ethics of Secret Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Sergio Gamonal C. & César F. Rosado Marzán, Principled Labor Law: U.S. Labor Law through a Latin American Method (Oxford University Press, 2019).
- Holly A. Baggett, Making No Compromise: Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, and the "Little Review" (Northern Illinois University Press, 2023).
- Jill L. Newmark, Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons (Illinois University Press, 2023).
- Alexander Ruser & Amanda Machin, Against Political Compromise: Sustaining Democratic Debate (Routledge, 2017).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, from This World to That Which Is to Come (1678, 1684) is an allegory that presents many Humanist values, approached from a hardline Christian perspective. The protagonist, Christian, travels a long road from his hometown, The City of Destruction (this world) to The Celestial City (heaven). We Humanists can construct our own allegory within an allegory to derive value and meaning from this classic work.
- Alexandre Dumas (père), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) is a tale of a man, once wrongfully imprisoned, who seeks justice with tragic consequences. The story explores the distinction between principle and foolhardiness or stubbornness.
From the dark and shadow sides:
- Dan Fesperman, Winter Work: A Novel (Knopf, 2022): “As the Berlin Wall crumbled in 1989, the Stasi, East Germany’s bloated and brutal Cold War intelligence service, began destroying the documentary evidence of its crimes, and the C.I.A., just as energetically, set about trying to obtain it. . . . amid the destruction, the C.I.A. managed to acquire the so-called Rosenholz files: 280,000 files on 381 CD-ROMs listing the identities of at least 1,000 agents of the Stasi foreign operations section, known as Hauptverwaltung A, or HVA. How the C.I.A. pulled off this remarkable intelligence coup remains a mystery.”
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Pilgrim’s Progress (1949, rev. 1952) (approx. 130-155’) (list of recorded performances) is an opera drawn from John Bunyan’s story about a man who practices virtue despite opposition and obstacles. “Vaughan Williams’ first encounter with John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress was as a young child when the story was read to him in the late 1870s. Not surprisingly, the moving prose, gripping story and vivid imagery stayed with him.” “The composer was never a Christian (he moved from ‘atheism into cheerful agnosticism’ according to his second wife, Ursula), but he felt sufficiently inspired by Bunyan's text that he kept a copy of the book with him while he served in the first world war's trenches.” “The composer himself described the work as a 'Morality' rather than an opera.” Vaughan Williams spent many years composing the work. Performances have been conducted by Adrian Boult and Richard Hickox.
Vaughan Williams composed his Symphony No. 5 in D Major (1943) (approx. 37-42’) (list of recorded performances) out of fear that he would not complete “The Pilgrim’s Progress” before he died. “. . . this music, completed in 1943 as the Second World War raged, moves into an alternate world of radiant light, quiet serenity, and sublime mystery. Following Vaughan Williams’ ferocious and dissonant Fourth Symphony, it returns to the eternal, pastoral reassurance of England’s metaphorical ‘green and pleasant’ countryside.” “The scholar Julian Horton has argued that, from its uneasy opening harmonies to its concluding passacaglia, seraphic at the last, its rarefied blend of archaic modes and modern tonalities created a new musical order,’ a way out of a musical and civilization collapse.” Vaughan Williams composed the symphony to ensure that his musical ideas would not be lost to posterity. Top recorded performances are conducted by Barbirolli in 1944, Vaughan Williams in 1952, Boult in 1953, Previn in 1971, Handley in 1986, Thomson in 1987, Andrew Davis in 1992, Bakels in 1996, Hickox in 1998, Boyd in 2012, Manze in 2017, Collins in 2019, Brabbins in 2020, and Pappano in 2025.
Felix Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 5 in D Major/D Minor, Op. 107, MNV N15 “Reformation” (1830, rev. 1832) (approx. 30-35’) (list of recorded performances), was composed in honor of the 300th anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession, in which Luther announced his departures from doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Of Jewish heritage, Mendelssohn considered himself a Christian, so “when he wrote the 'Reformation' Symphony . . . Mendelssohn was celebrating his culture.” “. . . the ‘Reformation’ Symphony affords an instructive look at Mendelssohn’s compositional priorities during a time when he was under the spell of Lutheran church music.” “The ‘Reformation’ Symphony was thus conceived as celebrating the triumph of Protestantism, represented in the finale by Luther’s chorale ‘Ein feste Burg,’ over Catholicism, which is depicted very briefly at the beginning of the Symphony in beautiful, but symbolically old-fashioned Palestrinian polyphony.” Top recorded performances are conducted by Toscanini in 1953, Munch in 1957, Mitropoulos in 1957, Karajan in 1972, Abbado in 1984, Gardiner in 1996, Colin Davis in 2004, Gardner in 2014, and Nézet-Séguin in 2017.
Other works:
- Giovanni Sgambati, Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 16: (1881) (approx. 44’) is a bold, forward-driving symphony from the late nineteenth century.
- Giacomo Puccini, Gianni Schicchi (1918) (approx. 53-62’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances): the characters are unprincipled, and one of opera’s most gorgeous arias (O, mio babbino caro) is motivated by dishonesty. A recording with video is conducted by Chailly. Top performances are by Taddei & Rapisardi (Simonetti) in 1949; Gobbi & De Los Angeles (Santini) in 1959; & Alagna & Gheorghiu (Pappano) in 1999.
- Edwin York Bowen, Rhapsody Trio, Op. 80 (1926) (approx. 24’): this work expresses the yin and yang of principle and compromise.
- Arne Nordheim, Solitaire, electro acoustic (1968) (approx. 11-12’) – Nordheim discusses the work here.
- Scott Wheeler, Naga: (2016) (approx. 90’) is an operatic “musical account of a restless man setting out on a spiritual quest in a world polarized between good and evil forces that are not easily distinguishable one from another”. “A Young Monk renounces his wife and worldly existence in his quest for spiritual enlightenment. Observing his tormented departure, Madame White Snake resolves to make him her own against the protestations of Xiao Qing (Green Snake), whose unrequited love for her has led him to abandon human form.” “The chorus and principles, not yet representing their characters, sing through a scriptural collage referencing manifestations of the Snake in creation myths: Judeo-Christian (Satan), ancient Egyptian (Apophis), Hindu (Vasuki), Chinese (Nuwa).”
- Symon Clarke, Three Orbits (2014) (approx. 25’): “Each of the three ‘orbits’ concerns a different moon of the planet Saturn (Iapetus, Hyperion, and Tethys, in that order). By using arch form, each movement (like that of the first movement of the Cello Concerto) ends in an analogous, if not identical, place to where it started (like the completion of an orbit); this arch form operates also on a macro level across the three movements. A single strand holds all three together . . .”
Albums:
- Vasco Trilla, “Unmoved Mover” (2021) (40’): this album of percussion music brings to mind the primal forces of nature – a grand principle of a sort. “Each of the eight tracks . . . appear to have a specifically selected instrumentarium, focused concept, and structure (or form of development) that comprises the unique musical identity of each track.” “There is nothing demonstrating performer accomplishment more completely than to explore an instrument in depth and detail, and there can be nothing more beautiful than this album of improvised percussion on which Trilla does just that.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Bob Marley, “Get Up Stand Up” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
Film and Stage
- A Man for All Seasons: Sir Thomas More
- Born Yesterday, about a woman who was not as clueless as she seemed
- Shadow of a Doubt illustrates the interrelationship of sincerity and intellectual honesty, as a young woman confronts a brutal truth about her adored uncle