priorhouse blog

Hello Readers 

Happy Sunday. 

Today is day ONE of a Three-Day Challenge. 

 

 

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Day 1 QUOTE: Mortimer J. Adler

“Human beings – creatures of passion as well as intellect, with minds that are often clouded by their feelings, and with all other limitations to which their fallible minds are subject – must be satisfied with some measure of approximation to the ideal and not inordinately seek its complete realization, at least at not any given time or place.”

DAY 1 IMAGES:

These next two images remind me of what a good conversation feels like.

I call them Conversate 1 and Conversate 2.

Conversate 1: 

The lights and upward lift is what it feels like inside when you chat with people and the chemistry is good, topics flow, and thoughts and words are in sync:

 

Conversate 2: 

The lines and interconnected vibe feel like thought trails and ideas – layered and reaching – separate yet connected 

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Here is a little more of what Adler said in his book, “How to Speak, How to Listen”:

Adler on The Meeting of the Minds

We should not be satisfied with too little, because human beings, insofar as they are rational, should strive to attain the desired goal. They should not, through sloth or immoderate skepticism about objective truth and its pursuit, be tempted to avoid the difficulties involved in following the rules or recommendations for making conversation as good as it can be.

At the same time, we should not expect too much. Human beings – creatures of passion as well as intellect, with minds that are often clouded by their feelings, and with all other limitations to which their fallible minds are subject – must be satisfied with some measure of approximation to the ideal and not inordinately seek its complete realization, at least at not any given time or place.

We can never completely master our emotions and should not expect to, even when managing them properly is highly desirable. We can never completely get out of ourselves and into the other’s person’s shoes and see things as he or she sees them. Partisanship and partiality can never be completely replaced by the impartial attitude that enables one to take the other person’s position in the same way that he or she holds it.

Finally, let me say that good conversation calls for an exercise of moral virtue. It requires the fortitude needed to take the pains necessary to make it good. It requires the temperance needed for a moderation of one’s passions. Above all, it requires the justice needed to give the other person his due.

Adler, 1983, pp. 165-166.

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