Summary Thoughts on the LOTR Part I

No doubt we can learn a great from the Lord of the Rings. For any reader with an open mind and an open heart approaching this great masterpiece, he will find many examples and ideals of love, virtue, friendship, service, sacrifice, duty, honour, wisdom, hope, Goodness, Justice, and faith. But what are these things good for, he might ask? Surely, they are good for something. They are good for something, perhaps in the sense that we cannot live a good life without such things. What kind of life would someone lead if it were devoid of love or sacrifice or hope? Such things as virtue perhaps can be said to be a means to an end, the end being living well. We can learn about these things from the written word and we can become inspired by the written word to live according to the ideals and standards imbedded in the written word.

Yet, it also seems wrong to characterize such things entirely in terms of their utility. If virtue is nothing but a means to an end, then the nature of virtue is not essential to living well. If we value virtue only for its utility in bringing about some desired end, living well, then we could, presummably, acquire some quite different means if we happened upon them, which took us to the same end in a similar or perhaps better manner. This seems wrong to me. There is something about the items listed above- virtue, duty, Goodness, etc.- that seems more than purely a means. I shall to go back and read some Plato and Aristotle to get clear on this. 

So, reading books like the LOTR is good for something, it helps us learn more about those things which we need to cultivate and master in order to live a good life. Yet, I am also inclined to say that reading books like the LOTR is a good in itself. Why think that everything that is worthwhile  must be a means to some further end? Are not some things worth pursuing for their own sake and nothing else? Happiness is like this. Some might pursue money to find happiness, but no one pursues happiness to find some other good. 

Some kinds of knowledge and some kinds of activities, I think, are truly ends in themselves. Aristotle thought so. He divide first philosophy from practical philosophy, the former being metaphysics which seeks to know about the sturcutre of being for its own sake. The latter seeks to know for the sake of some end or goal and encompases things like ethics and politics. And so perhaps this is one tentative conclusion of my project so far: What happens when you read great books? 1) What happens is that you experience the joy and fulfillment of a great Good nestled deep within the pages that is worth having for its own sake. 2) One also learns about, and becomes inspired by, the ideals, standards, and qualities required for living well, depending on the book of course. 

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