Dr Neville Buch
Abstract:
Humanity is defined by an originary de-fault, a lack of innate qualities that necessitates the invention of the “human” through technics, culture, and the articulation of memory. Within this prosthetic existence, the vices of humanity arise from an “immense regression” into Historical Forgetfulness (the Epimethean fault) and a submission of the reflective self to the technicisation of cognition, where human authorship is sacrificed to instrumental calculation and behavioural control. Conversely, virtues are understood as internalized dispositions of character that enable human authorship, freedom, and responsibility. These virtues are expressed through “thick ethical concepts” that anchor reason in the lived reality of truthfulness and intersubjective mutuality. The ultimate humanistic ascent requires the synthesis of thinking ( penser ) and caring ( panser ), restoring practical confidence and wisdom in a world shaped by both moral luck and intentional agency.
The Vices and Virtues of Humanity: An Ascent from the Technical Abyss
I. The Foundation: Humanity as a Technical and Moral Accident
The human being is fundamentally an “accident of automobility caused by a default of essence”. Unlike animals, which are endowed with specific natural qualities or “positive gifts,” humanity is “without qualities” and must invent its own nature through prosthetic supplementation. This originary de-fault means that everything essential to mankind—language, tools, and social norms—is an exteriorization of life by means other than life.
Because humanity is not self-sufficient but essentially prosthetic, the struggle of human existence is unceasingly torn between the “good êris” (competitive emulation) and the “bad êris” (fratricidal war and destruction). This tension forms the ground from which both vice and virtue emerge.
II. The Vices: Regression, Calculation, and the Loss of Authorship
The primary vice of the contemporary era is the immense regression into a state of “absolute non-knowledge”. This regression is characterized by several interrelated failures of the human spirit:
- Technicisation and the Crisis of Cognition: The global dominance of techno-economic imperatives has led to the technicisation of language and cognition. In this state, communicative action (dialogue aimed at understanding) is replaced by purposive-rational action, which favours behavioural control steered by external stimuli. This constitutes a “systemic closing” where social interests merge with the maintenance of the system, eroding the capacity for individual decision-making and authorship.
- Historical Forgetfulness: Vice manifests as the Epimethean fault—the tendency to act without foresight and to be burdened by a tradition that “pulls Dasein down”. This Historical Forgetfulness leaves humanity vulnerable to sociological propaganda and “Widely-Believed Falsehoods”.
- The Perversion of Passions: While passions drive the desire for knowledge, they are prone to perversion. Love, for instance, can reverse into a factor of destruction, and reason can lead to a “dry and reasoned isolation” where the individual is divided from anything that might disturb their self-interest.
- Populism and Ineffectuality: A notable contemporary vice is the populist rejection of goodness as “synonymous with ineffectuality”. This mindset celebrates achievement and success as their own justifications, abandoning moral character to those they deem “stupid”.
III. The Virtues: Disposition, Truthfulness, and the Practice of Care
Virtues are not mere skills but internalized dispositions of character that involve patterns of desire and motivation. They are the “ultimate supports of ethical value”.
- Human Authorship and Responsibility: The core virtue of humanism is the assertion of human authorship—the right and responsibility of human beings to give meaning and shape to their own lives. This requires reflective self-understanding and the courage to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another (“Sapere Aude!”).
- Thick Ethical Concepts and Truthfulness: Virtue is practiced through “thick ethical concepts” (such as integrity, chastity, or courage) which possess both factual and evaluative aspects. These concepts allow for ethical knowledge that is anchored in social and historical truthfulness rather than the “phantasm of ultimate ethical truth”.
- Integrity as Coherence: Integrity is an admirable human property that allows a person to act from the dispositions and motives which are most deeply theirs. It serves as a structural requisite for rational action, ensuring the agent’s genuine presence in their acts and preventing moral self-indulgence.
- Panser: The Reinvention of Thought as Care: The most sophisticated humanistic virtue is the synthesis of thinking ( penser ) and caring ( panser ). This Compassion-Focused Pedagogy (CfP) involves tending to wounds and cultivating empathy as the indispensable human complement to technological function.
- Conclusion: The Reflective Ascent
The movement from vice to virtue is a reflective ascent toward comprehension—the ability to understand the whole of a matter while filtering out fallacies. This ascent is facilitated by Spiral Historiography, which critically re-evaluates the insights of the past to navigate the complexities of the present. Ultimately, virtue lies in possessing a practical confidence that comes from strength rather than the weakness of self-deception and dogmatism.
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Dynamic of Cognition Analysis: The Vices of Humanity
The vices of humanity represent a breakdown in the cognitive cycle, where the self-regresses into a state of unreflective submission and systemic alienation.
| DoC Component | Analysis of Human Vice | Rationale / Source |
| Prejudice (Centre) | Mechanistic Reductionism: The conviction that human life can be reduced to quantifiable data, instrumental metrics, or a series of physical “facts” without meaning. | Rejects the phenomenal concept of mind and the subjective quality of experience. |
| Attitudes (Thinking/Extrovert) | Resignation and Fatalism: The acceptance of “what it is” as unchangeable, leading to a state where foresight is confused by afterthought (epimêtheia). | Sacrifice of human authorship to technological “destiny” or the “they”. |
| Typologies of Value (Feeling/Introvert) | Measurable Utility: Valuing knowledge only for its vocational “profit” (the “Peter” of education) while rejecting wisdom and moral character. | Leads to a discontinuous personality reliant on stimuli rather than norms. |
| Exclusion (Sensation/Intuition) | Historical Forgetfulness: The systemic banishment of history and the “unthought” of technics, leading to a loss of memory and truth. | Prevents the identification of distorted communication and the “causality of fate”. |
| Inclusion (Thinking/Feeling) | Sociological Propaganda: The uncritical inclusion of manufactured myths and false binaries (e.g., ‘native’ vs. ‘foreign’) used by “nasty politicians” to maintain power. | Replaces rational-critical communication with orthopraxy (action without belief). |
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Dynamic of Cognition Analysis: The Virtues of Humanity
The virtues of humanity represent a reflective ascent, where the self-achieves coherence through critical self-understanding and the integration of care into thought.
| DoC Component | Analysis of Human Virtue | Rationale / Function |
| Prejudice (Centre) | Reflective Self-Criticism: The starting point of all genuine inquiry: making the familiar strange and questioning one’s own assumptions. | Overcomes wilful ignorance and initiates the movement toward comprehension. |
| Attitudes (Thinking/Extrovert) | Truthfulness and Sincerity: A commitment to honest communication and the consistency between internal intention and external action. | Redreems validity claims (truth, rightness, truthfulness) in the public sphere. |
| Typologies of Value (Feeling/Introvert) | Holistic Flourishing: Affirming the complexity of the evaluating-willing being and valuing knowledge for the development of wisdom. | Ensures that ethical motivations take priority over shallow self-interest. |
| Exclusion (Sensation/Intuition) | Rejection of Reductionism: The active refusal to view human existence merely as a causal or computational mechanism. | Preserves the integrity of action and the agent’s genuine presence in their choices. |
| Inclusion (Thinking/Feeling) | Panser (Thinking as Caring): The inclusion of empathy and compassion as the necessary complements to rational-critical thought. | Achieves intersubjective mutuality (Verständigung) and builds a humane society. |
Analogy: If human life is a ship navigating a vast, unpredictable sea, vice is a broken compass and a captain who ignores the historical charts, allowing the ship to be steered solely by the whims of current stimuli. Virtue is not reaching a final shore, but the captain’s disciplined skill in reflective navigation: using the compass of integrity, the charts of historical truthfulness, and the caring vigilance required to keep the vessel and its crew whole against the storms of luck.
Reference List: The Synoptic Vision
Aristotle. (1984). The complete works of Aristotle (J. Barnes, Ed.). Princeton University Press.
Buch, N. (2018–2024). Comprehensiveness for horizon worldview(s): A perspective in western philosophies. Dr Neville Buch ABN: 86703686642.
Buch, N. (2024, March 13). Habermas and public theology in the evangelical world: At the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. Australian Catholic University (ACU).
Buch, N. (n.d.). The humanistic ascent against technical reductionism.
Dilthey, W. (1883). Einleitung in die geisteswissenschaften: Versuch einer grundlegung für das studium der gesellschaft und der geschichte [Introduction to the human sciences]. Duncker & Humblot.
Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of the European sciences and transcendental phenomenology (D. Carr, Trans.). Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1954).
Schiller, F. (n.d.). On the aesthetic education of man (Discussed as the foundation for the “play instinct” (Spieltrieb) and the reconciliation of sensual and rational impulses).
Stiegler, B. (1998). Technics and time, 1: The fault of Epimetheus (R. Beardsworth & G. Collins, Trans.). Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1994).
Williams, B. (1995). Making sense of humanity and other philosophical papers 1982–1993. Cambridge University Press.
Williams, B. (2006). Philosophy as a humanistic discipline (A. W. Moore, Ed.). Princeton University Press.
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Neville Buch
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