The flood attending storm Harvey in Houston gave me occasion to go through old papers. I found an essay I had written as a high school senior, spring 1959. Here is an introductory diary about it.
I was at Kinkaid, a private school in Houston. I would graduate May, 1959. I wrote this essay to submit to ‘Falcon Wings’, a school literary magazine; I was one of its student editors. I wrote this piece on my own, not as an assignment in a course. Previously the magazine had published a term paper of mine about Friedrich Nietzsche. This new essay proved to be controversial and did not make its way into publication. My English teacher was the faculty editor and thought my essay was too esoteric and difficult to read. On the the other hand several colleagues of mine on the student board of editors were supportive of me. I begin to show it to many of the high school faculty. I got a range of opinions; some thought it was meaningless verbiage while others were fairly sympathetic. Finally I conferred with the school’s headmaster. He said he had a reservation that it was ”esoteric and eclectic.” He suggested I publish it elsewhere. Instead this essay has sat unseen for some 60 years.
Copying this essay to computer gave me plenty of chance to read it. Some of it I had forgotten. Do I still like it? It seems like grand style to me, but there are passages not clear to me, more that would not be clear to my readers. Some of the ideas I have left in the past. I ought to relate my personal philosophic history.
In my younger years I was very interested in the sciences. My family in 1951 read Immanuel Velikovsky’s book ‘Worlds in Collision’, which offered scientific explanations for events in the Bible, such as those happening during the exodus from Egypt. In the family encyclopedia I found an article about the positivism of Auguste Comte. My attraction to positivism was enhanced by my friendship with sons of Unitarian neighbors.
At age 14 I moved away from rationalism and toward faith — not Christianity, but Friedrich Nietzsche. In my sophomore year I wrote a term paper about Nietzsche, got an A. Some teachers did try to dissuade me from his ideas — a math teacher said the superman was an unproveable belief.
This essay of mine represents a move away from Nietzsche, away from the idea of “beyond good and evil.” In the summer before my senior year I read a library’s edition of some of the Upanishads, so that I was under much influence from India. In the fall of 1958 I wrote a term paper about the Six Classical Systems of Indian philosophy. I also borrowed some books about Kant and Hegel. I read a book by an Indian Hegelian. In my senior year I was thinking about what it meant to be a good person; I had been influenced both by India and by Immanuel Kant. When I spoke of morality in this essay I was primarily thinking in terms of government behavior.
I see on rereading this paper influence of a Hindu tradition of reconciling diverse beliefs. I was trying to reconcile my atheism with religiousness.
I also ought to relate how my thinking on writing style evolved. When I was 7 a grandmother handed down a set of works of Edgar Allan Poe. Therefore I wanted to learn to write ornately. On the other hand my teachers were intent on teaching me to write clearly. My experience with this essay was just one example.
The faculty sponsor of ‘Falcon Wings’ said I was using high-sounding language. I would say I was being rich with metaphor, influenced by Indian writing.. Some people complained I wrote German sentences. Yes, I had been reading German philosophers; I may have been influenced by Hegel’s style if not his ideas.
So after some 60 years I have found a place to publish this essay and I thank dailykos.