In the renaissance period, the character ideal was to be well-rounded. The various character virtues a courtier was supposed to acquire were listed in Castigione’s “Book of the Courtier.” Among them were knowledge of the classical languages, aesthetic appreciation, musical proficiency, literary knowledge and practice, poetic ability, historical knowledge, philosophical knowledge and reasoning ability, wit and good manners, wrestling. In general, the liberal arts. Plato had another similar list of virtues in his “The Republic,” and Aristotle, also, in “The Nicomachean Ethics.”
Today, it is hard to figure out what character virtues western society values. Society has become so fragmented that it is impossible to discern what the twenty-first century person is to aspire to. Consequently, people tend to stay within the prescriptions of their career and family. Emerson decried this form of society. He said, “The priest becomes a form; the attorney, a statute book; the mechanic, a machine; the sailor, a rope of a ship” (The American Scholar).
I have tried to widen my horizons by becoming more of a renaissance man, a more well-rounded individual than someone defined by his profession, geographical region, and family relations. But I have found that by being well-rounded, I am rather alienated and that I don’t really fit in anywhere. In a bar, I sound too intellectual and like I’m putting on airs; in a university, I sound too raw and unrefined; in a church, too worldly and in my denomination, too interfaith oriented; in secular society, too spiritual; among intellectuals, too uninhibited; among scientists, too literary, etc . . . I like the character I have developed in my pilgrimage on this planet. My soul is rich from having lived a variety of lives–academic, spiritual, philosophical, construction worker, poet, minister, lover and friend, scientist. But for all this, I am not a dilettante. I have a strong enough background in a discipline which I practice. But I am not only my discipline. I am not a form, a statute book, a machine, a rope, a test-tube, a hammer, a library. I am a man. A happy man. A man with wide horizons. I do not mind that I don’t really fit into a narrow social box. When I was growing up I was taught to do your own thing. I have done that, continue to do that, and my world is many worlds.
David Fekete 