tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22038969358926391822024-02-08T06:10:06.631-05:00Beyond Goodness: The Art and Beauty of PerfectionWhy and how you shouldn't settle for being just a "good person."Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-73414642780763433282010-07-31T11:59:00.008-04:002011-01-03T12:18:39.751-05:00Table of Contents<p><strong>Note</strong>: Until further notice, I'm officially putting this project on hold. It was practically on hold anyways, so this is just to let you know not to expect further progress any time soon. I find myself with insufficient time to prepare and write this at this point in my life, but I hope to take it up again some day.</p>
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<p>This online table of contents will be updated as new parts are published. At that time, the relevant section below will be linked to the page. Also, since the book is still in development, this is not yet complete and things may get moved around a bit yet. Feel free to provide suggestions along those lines.</p>
<p>Introduction<br/>
<blockquote><a href="/2008/09/introduction.html">Introduction</a><br/>
<a href="/2008/09/what-to-expect.html">What to Expect</a><br/>
<a href="/2009/01/what-we-cover.html">What We'll Cover</a><br/>
First Things First<br/>
Armchair Philosopher
</blockquote></p>
<p>The Beauty of Truth<br/>
<blockquote>What is Truth?<br/>
Just Say "No"<br/>
The Beauty of Truth
</blockquote></p>
<p>Beautiful Thinking<br/>
<blockquote>Human Dignity<br/>
Love<br/>
Hope<br/>
Faith & Reason<br/>
Identity<br/>
Imagination<br/>
Freedom & Commitment
</blockquote></p>
<p>Becoming Fully Human</p>
<p>Beyond Goodness<br/>
<blockquote>He Was a "Good Man"<br/>
A Personal God<br/>
Good and Evil
</blockquote></p>
<p>Into Eternity</p>Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-76137070262287622382009-08-29T14:29:00.001-04:002009-08-29T14:29:12.285-04:00Still Here (Vol. 1)<p>Just wanted to let anyone who comes across this know that I'm still here and still pursuing this, even though I've not posted here in forever. It's partly due to the busy-ness of my life, and partly because I've been more focused on study in my free time as of late than writing. That can only be a good thing for this book. ;) Just means it will continue to be slow going.</p>
<p>-ambrose<br /></p>
Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-46146172303519932952009-01-08T21:02:00.001-05:002009-01-08T21:02:50.703-05:00What We'll Cover<p>You can readily see from the table of contents the various topics that we’ll cover. This book has been stewing in my mind for years now, and I think I’ve already written parts of it in ad hoc efforts here and there. But at one point it struck me that perhaps there is a need to consider ancient philosophies anew, to seek out that which is true and beautiful in the hopes that it will help us on our way to become better, happier, and more fulfilled people.</p>
<p>I am talking about that which leads to a good life, but even more, I think we need to go beyond that—beyond goodness—and strive for perfection. It seems that the best way to do this is by a study of and reflection on those things that we inherently perceive to be intertwined with the concept of the perfect, chiefly beauty and, in particular, the beauty of truth and those things in which that beauty is most fully found.</p>
<p>I believe that in finding that beautiful truth, we can find a way for us to become most fully human, to be, as the old Army ad said it, all that we can be, and more. It also seems to me that there is a certain limit as to the fullness of humanity that we can achieve even through a reflective life working towards goodness and the fulfillment such a life brings. In order to go beyond goodness, towards perfection, we need to seek that Beauty which is beyond ourselves, which is beyond any human.</p>
<p>Therefore, this book is structured into parts that roughly follow this approach, starting with a consideration of truth, in itself, and how it relates to beauty. It moves from there into a panorama of beautiful thinking—particular ways of thinking about things that seem to have the most beauty. In considering those, we move on to see applications, to see examples of how to become more fully human. Finally, we go beyond goodness, towards perfection, in a consideration of transcendent Beauty and how such Beauty can help us ultimately reach perfection.</p>
Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-74338481138008551672009-01-03T00:06:00.000-05:002009-01-03T00:07:14.118-05:00What to Expect<p>In asking what to expect, an author implicitly asks what is expected of you, the reader. The answer is simply that I hope for your patience and good will. I don’t expect any particular level of education. This is not a scholarly endeavor, and I do believe that any person capable of reason will have no problem following what we’ll cover.</p><p>I realize that so much of our lives these days are bombarded with information, most of which is just so much noise and wears on us, and even conditions us to some extent. Others have written about the supposed dumbing down of our culture due to the explosion of media outlets, particularly online and via mobile devices, that predispose us to prefer short bursts of information and that even contribute to forms of attention deficit disorder. So I know that writing in the manner of this book, I am gambling losing people—we will consider things of weight and importance that can’t be sufficiently dealt with in quips and talking points. That is where my hope for your patience and good will comes in.</p><p>At the same time, I suspect the supposed dumbing down is more reactionary talk than it is reality. We humans don’t change our natures so quickly. We retain the capability to stop and think seriously about things. We might get out of practice, and perhaps some have more of a knack than others, but I believe that if we try to put our minds to it, we’ll find it comes easier than we might have thought.</p><p>What I hope to write about are things that we all give at least passing thought to as we go throughout our lives. They are fundamental to the human condition, and we cannot avoid them, though we can ignore them or be distracted from them. I don’t think I have any special ability or deep intellect. For me, writing is more like thinking out loud, and reading is like having a window into the minds of others, to share their thoughts and touch their minds, thinking about things I’d not thought about before or in different ways than I’d thought of them.</p><p>So I hope that my thinking out loud will, if nothing else, help others to stop and perhaps think about things they’ve been distracted from, not things they can’t or don’t want to think about. Or maybe, if nothing else, these pages will simply show you a slightly different light on things you’ve spent much time reflecting on. In any case, I thank you for your time and for settling down with me to think on them.</p>Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-33189376273321667782008-09-27T21:20:00.000-04:002013-06-29T09:27:45.243-04:00IntroductionIt is not without some trepidation that I embark on this endeavor. Writing a book that proposes to tell you why and how to become perfect sounds perfectly egomaniacal, if not entirely ludicrous, but I hope you will stick with me for a bit to give it a chance. You see, I do not propose to prescribe any particular form of life—and that is essentially what the subject of this book is, a guide to understanding and living life to its fullest—instead, I propose to lay before you both reasoning, evidence, and, I hope, some motivation for living the good life in its deepest sense.<br />
<br />
I am not naive enough to suppose that the way I propose is complete in the sense that it considers all aspects of all human life for all time in all places, nor would I presume to believe that my exposition of life is the only one through which individual persons will find fulfillment. What fulfills you, what makes you happy and satisfied with your life at a very personal level, will vary as much as individuals vary.<br />
<br />
At the same time, I do propose that there are universals to the human condition that can be treated in a general way and from which particular modes and means of fulfillment can be derived. It is these universals that I intend to consider in this text, and I hope to present the considerations in such a way that they are relevant and comprehensible by my contemporaries, if not those who come after.<br />
<br />
Note, too, that the substance that we will consider together is not novel—I am not a guru proposing a new way of life. I have not the genius, gall, or desire to do that. Rather, what you and I will reason together about is as old as time for it flows out of the very foundations of time and existence as we know it.Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2203896935892639182.post-32660406257819987292008-09-27T18:12:00.000-04:002013-06-29T09:25:32.947-04:00Introduction to the Online VersionHi there,<br />
This site is dedicated to a book that I am slowly but surely working on. The book is called <em>Beyond Goodness: The Art and Beauty of Perfection</em>. No surprise--the site is named that, too. :)<br />
The reason I'm doing this as a blog is so that potential readers don't have to wait until it gets published to read it, and I also would be happy to get feedback from folks before the book is published--kind of like an open source editing project. I will allow comments as long as they are constructive.<br />
I am a full-time software professional and father of five, so work on the book will likely proceed at a pace in accord with my situation. (Yet another reason to publish as an online series prior to print.) I am not yet sure if the pieces will be written sequentially or not, but my intent is to roughly follow my outline and as new parts are published, link to them from there. I imagine I'll try to move sequentially just to maintain the story line for those subscribed in RSS.<br />
Okay, enough logistics. Let's get on with it!Ambrose Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14594837944119047630noreply@blogger.com