Modern society is filled with incessant talk about the importance of good values. Yet talk is cheap and values are overrated. Much more important than values are commitments, practices, and actions.
To choose a few examples: it's easy for me to say that I value human freedom, interpersonal empathy, aesthetic excellence, and intellectual honesty. Yet am I deeply committed to those things? Have I built up practices for achieving them? Do I consistently take action to bring them into reality?
Inevitably, so much of what I read online is just words, words, words. And, to be clear, I'm as guilty as the rest! But if the unit of greatness in philosophy is a life, then whatever values I voice pale in comparison to the commitments I put into practice through recurrent actions in the context of both my long-term projects and my relationships with family, friends, workmates, and neighbors. Most everything else is, as Shakespeare said, sound and fury, signifying nothing.
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)
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