The Institute for Cultural Evolution is a partner in the Shaping An Omni-American Future online event taking place on October 24th and 25th. This event is being put on by the American Sephardi Federation, the Jazz Leadership Project, and the Combat Antisemitism Movement, and is going to feature artists and thinkers who are inspired to create a more unitive approach to anti-racism based on the teachings of Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison. Institute for Cultural Evolution Senior Fellow Greg Thomas will be presenting at the event along with a host of other public leaders in this space that we admire, including John Wood Jr., Chloé Valdary, and Thomas Chatterton Williams. This free event promises to be a watershed moment in the evolution of our national conversation about race and culture in America, and we are proud to be partners. You can register at the link below:
Character Development Exercise
What Does “Transcendence” Mean?
“Transcendence” or “the transcendent” generally refers to the people and things that are ultimately more important than yourself or your perceived self-interest. For example, that which is transcendent for you could include: Your family, humanity, your deepest convictions, the environment, God, Oneness, your country, animals, freedom, adventure, art, science, a better world, or anything you consider authentically “higher.” Your personal ideals of transcendence are grounded in the people and things that you’re dedicated to, and might even lay down your life for, if it became necessary. Your ideals of transcendence therefore help define your life’s higher purposes.
The word transcendence is used in this exercise as an umbrella term that is friendly to both spiritual and secular notions of transcendent higher purposes. In other words, you don’t have to be religious to recognize the significance of transcendent ideals. Our attraction to a greater good that lies beyond ourselves—our ceaseless striving to serve something higher and create something better—is a fundamental part of what makes us human.
The connection between your ideals of transcendence, your virtues, and your basic moral obligations—to self, to others, and to the transcendent—is illustrated by the graphic below. The specific virtues shown in this graphic are the 7 fundamental virtues, but the specific 7 virtues you choose in this exercise may differ from these classical 7.
For more on virtues and their relationship with transcendence, see the book Developmental Politics, by this exercise’s author, Steve McIntosh.
Three specific examples of completed Portraits of the Good
Example 1 of 3
Example 2 of 3
