The contemplative life is built on introspection and reason. Its possessor values deliberation and scorns spontaneous, uninspected action. He develops a moral code by looking at the information life hands him and arriving at logical conclusions; he then analyzes every aspect of his own life and aligns it to his moral code. This application makes him more alive – and, sometimes, far more active – than someone who acts arbitrarily. When he does act, his action has intense meaning and potent effect. Aristotle, in his Nichomachean Ethics, discusses the goodness of the contemplative lifeand the implications of a life devoted to thought. He derives some of his philosophy from Plato – who, in The Apology, discusses the importance of rationality and illustrates the baleful consequences of a culture that undervalues contemplation. Unhappily, our world, too, undervalues contemplation; here, only the occasional brave intellectual risks the world's disapproval and lives by reason.

            Reason is crucial to the contemplative life. Without reason, “contemplation” would be a length of time sitting and feeling, deriving no benefit from the activity, and progressing only by accident. Aristotle sees logic's worth, and, in the Nichomachean Ethics, states that contemplation is good precisely because reason fuels it:  “For ... [contemplation] is the best (since not only is reason the best thing in us, but the objects of reason are the best of knowable objects)...” (Ethics, 834). He believes that “[i]f reason is divine, then, in comparison with man, the life according to it is divine in comparison to human life” (Ethics, 835).  The more a man accedes to rationality and lives by it, the more divine his life becomes; his acceptance of rationality is the basis of his contemplative life. If a man lives by reason, his life is “best and pleasantest, since reason more than anything else is man. [His] life therefore is also the happiest” (Ethics, 835).  To live this rational life, the logical man must let reason delineate his moral code and live by it, even when his society disapproves.

            Part of a philosopher's moral code is a frequent disregard for other people's opinions of him. The contemplative man generally doesn't care what society thinks or how it reacts to him; he is more concerned with the perpetual, infinite world of his thoughts. Any progress he makes will, by its nature, challenge the status quo; unfortunately, society may perceive a philosopher's innovations as threats. In Plato's The Apology, Socrates separates himself from the Athenians by challenging their societal norms. Socrates knows he's trying to help them – but they won't be helped: “There, men of Athens, is the truth for you ... And yet I pretty much know that I make enemies by doing this very thing” (Apology, 764). Socrates tries to aid his society, yet he gains only its bitter resentment. His country destroys itself by accusing him of “...corrupting the young, and of not acknowledging the gods the city acknowledges...” (Apology, 764) and “commit[s] a great wrong against the god's gift ... by condemning [him]” (Apology, 770). Plato's narrative details the most devastating result of a culture's rejection of reason.

            The Greeks valued contemplation, but not enough; their eventual disavowal of it led to Socrates' sentencing. Our culture, too, undervalues contemplation: advertisers rely on our gut reactions;  pop music encourages irresponsible impulsiveness; television shows depict wanton depravity as 'cool'; and the government hands out money to the 'disadvantaged,' encouraging their reckless behavior. As a society, we value instinct over reason. Some reject society's premises and choose contemplative lives over impulsive ones. Take, for instance, Michael Medved: throughout his college years, he passionately supported today's most powerful proponent of impulsiveness: liberalism. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to its causes and worked tirelessly on several political campaigns – but eventually, logic caught up with him. He began to see that wanton emotion drives the Left;  he wondered where the movement's reason had gone. He listened to his college friends' music; he grew disgusted with its depravity, and returned to his Debussy. Slowly, he came to see the Right as a great good precisely because it operated on logic instead of emotion. He developed a reasoned commitment to conservatism (and Judaism); his ties to liberalism had been purely emotional and instinctive.

            Before accepting conservatism and Judaism, Medved spent many years as a nihilistic writer, earning nothing, going nowhere. Today, he is an enormously successful and well-known conservative talk radio host, excellent author, and devout Jew. As a prominent intellectual, he suffers frequent attacks from the less reasoned. Any day of the week, you can tune in to his radio show and hear irate, nearly feral callers berate him for his Judaism or his political positions. But his worldview – and, thereby, his success as an individual – reversed dramatically once he accepted the values of contemplation and logic.

            Any society that undervalues contemplation and overvalues action becomes tribalistic and crass – be it ancient Greece or the United States in 2005. As a country, we act often, but  much of our action is chaotic and unfounded. Even if Britney Spears achieves something beneficial, she will have done so by accident, not because she directed herself toward any rational purpose. Exceptional individuals like Plato, Aristotle, and Medved anchor their civilizations. Without men like them, who live the rational life – without contemplation (and reason, its heart) –  a culture drifts fecklessly through time.

Wendy D. Bateman is an artist, writer, literary connoisseur, and contributor to The Rational Argumentator.

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