reality. But metaphysical efficacy is not confined, in its expression, to any particular form of activity: it is
applicable to, and expressible in, every form of rational endeavor.
Self-esteem (or metaphysical efficacy) is not a value which, once achieved, is maintained effortlessly and
automatically thereafter. As in the case of every value of a living organism, action is necessary not only to gain it,
but also to keep it. Just as the breathing a man does today will not keep him alive tomorrow, so the thinking a man
does today will not preserve his self-esteem tomorrow, if he then chooses to evade, to stagnate mentally, to arrest
and subvert his rational faculty.
Man maintains his metaphysical efficacy by continuing to expand his particularized efficacy throughout his life—
i.e., to expand his knowledge, understanding, and ability. Continual intellectual growth is a necessity of self-
esteem—as it is a necessity of man's life.
"Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action."^2 The nature and range of the actions possible to
man far exceed those of any other living species—and so does his capacity for growth and self-development. The
capacity for development possessed by an animal ends at physical maturity; thereafter, its life consists of the
actions necessary to maintain itself at a fixed level; after reaching maturity, it does not continue to grow in efficacy
to any significant extent, i.e., it does not increase its ability to cope with its environment. But man's capacity for
growth does not end at physical maturity; his capacity is virtually limitless. His mind is man's basic means of
survival—and his ability to think, to learn, to discover new and better ways of dealing with existence, to expand the
range of his powers, to grow intellectually, is an open door to inexhaustible possibilities.
Man survives, not by adjusting himself to his physical environment in the manner of an animal, but by transforming
his environment through productive work. If life is a process of self-sustaining action, then to think, to produce, to
meet the challenges of existence by a never-ending effort and inventiveness, is the distinctively human mode of
action and survival.
When man discovered how to make fire to keep himself warm, his need of thought and effort was not ended; when
he discovered how to fashion a bow and arrow, his need of thought and effort was