Offhand, Aristotle is perhaps the last person in the world from whom one might expect anything insightful regarding social diversity as we understand it nowadays. What on earth could this man from a very homogenous society, which he prized, have to say about diversity? Well, to be sure, he does not have all that there to say about diversity. But then who does? Just so he does have something instructive to say about it, as I now hope to illustrate.
Famously, Aristotle held that there is one way to be excellent, but many, many ways to be lacking in excellence. This claim should not be confused with a different claim, namely that excellence itself is very limited. Consider the case of music. There are many musical types or genres: from classical to opera to gospel to country to hip-hop. At its best, each constitutes a form of excellence. Marvin Gaye was no Luciano Pavarotti. But it is equally true that Luciano Pavarotti was no Marvin Gaye.
So notice how applicable Aristotle’s remarks are to music. Even if the songs are sung in key, countless are the ways in which black gospel songs or opera or hip-hop music can be sung badly; whereas singing each musical type well is rather limited. For it is true, in fact, that each musical type has its own—dare I say it—rhythm.
Aristotle never claimed that excellence is limited. And there is no evidence whatsoever that he thought that. It stands to reason that excellence is infinite in its scope. But the thesis that excellence is infinite in its scope is not at all the same as the claim that anything can count as excellent. Aristotle would never ever have embraced the claim that anything can count as excellence.
It seems to me that contemporary democratic societies confuse these two theses:
(1) Excellence is infinite in its scope
and
(2) Anything can count as excellence
We should certainly be open to new forms of excellences. Indeed, it is surely ludicrous to suppose that all forms of excellence have already come to pass.
By definition, however, not anything can count as an excellence. An excellence is not what anyone can do if only he should try. That is why we do not regard being able to speak or walk as an excellence. For what requires explaining is not that a person can walk or speak, but that an individual cannot do one or the other.
Likewise, this is why singing off-key is not an excellence; for anyone can do that rather effortlessly and without training. By contrast, to be able to hit a note flawlessly on-demand time and time again requires enormous skill as well as a measure of practice even for talented individuals.
In the following way, these remarks apply rather interestingly to social diversity. Social diversity does not mean—indeed, it cannot coherently mean—that anything that a non-white does counts as an excellence. Rather, it has to mean the very important but quite different thesis that there are forms of excellences that have not been produced by whites—excellences which have their origin in the traditions and lifestyles of non-whites. Nor, again, can social diversity mean “This or that behavior that we do is excellent because, damn it, we say it is!”
Aristotle thought that human beings at their best were about realizing excellences. All members of every ethnic group are human beings. So, according to Aristotle, all members of every ethnic group should be about realizing excellences.
I am, of course, aware that Aristotle thought that slavery was natural. It should be remembered however that he did not think that it was natural that the slaves should be black. Although Aristotle was mistaken about what counted as a full-fledge human being, he was not mistaken about the idea of what such creatures should strive for.
Aristotle further understood that when human beings were not striving to realize excellences this meant that something had gone terribly wrong in their socialization. This point is extremely significant because it tells us what, at yet at another level, we already know, namely that excellences do not just happen. They have to be cultivated.
It is interesting in this regard that religious diversity underscores Aristotle’s point. Whether we are talking about Judaism, or Christianity or Islam: each of these religious practices can be configured in such a way as to constitute a most magnificent excellence. And one sign of this, surely, is that some of the most magnificent music ever written, namely Christmas music, was inspired by the hopes of Christianity. One does not have to be a Christian to appreciate the magnificence of Handel’s Messiah.
In a similar vein, the orchestration and execution of a synagogue service has a grace and aplomb that is truly moving. Time and time again, I marvel at the ways in which all the parts come together and fit together.
I do not have to attend a mosque in order to imagine that a like claim can be made for Muslim services.
What do we have here? The answer is three great religions and three opportunities for marvelous forms of excellence in worship. I I have not claimed that we always have excellence with either religion. Clearly we do not. But the reality of these flaws does not detract one iota from the truth that what we have in each case is the possibility for three forms of extraordinary religious excellence.
Freedom that eschews excellence is freedom that is bankrupt freedom. And it is this immutable truth that all members of the human race must find a way to embrace. The de-coupling of freedom from excellence has been one of the most damaging things that have come about with the contemporary idea of equality. And this, alas, has a most ironic result, namely that freedom from racism does not in the end constitute all that we really want. This is because freedom from racism is worth much less than we might suppose unless that freedom is none other than a call to be excellent.
Aristotle thought it natural that people who are naturally slaves could not answer the call to be excellent (except perhaps in very limited ways). And he thought that a corrupt society was a sure impediment to non-slaves answering the call to be excellent. We who claim to be non-slaves, namely all of us, would do well to heed Aristotle’s insights about humanity and excellence. Human excellence, like a marvelous garden of flowers, has to be cultivated.
