Chapter Ten—
10. Social Metaphysics
The Nature and Source of Social Metaphysics
Entailed by the process of achieving self-esteem is a corollary process: that of forming a strong, positive sense of
personal identity—the sense of being a clearly defined psychological entity.
A man's "I," his ego, his deepest self, is his faculty of awareness, his capacity to think. Across his lifetime, a man's
knowledge grows, his convictions may change, his emotions come and go; but that which knows, judges, and
feels—that is the changeless constant within him.
To choose to think, to identify the facts of reality—to assume the responsibility of judging what is true or false,
right or wrong—is man's basic form of self-assertiveness. It is his acceptance of his own nature as a rational being,
his acceptance of the responsibility of intellectual independence, his commitment to the efficacy of his own mind.
The essence of selflessness is the suspension of one's consciousness. When and to the extent that a man chooses to
evade the effort and responsibility of thinking, of seeking knowledge, of passing judgment, his action is one of self-
abdication. To relinquish thought is to relinquish one's ego—and to pronounce oneself unfit for existence,
incompetent to deal with the facts of reality.
The hallmark of healthy self-assertiveness in a child is his visible delight in the action of his mind, his desire for the
new, the unexplored, the challenging, his refusal to accept on faith the platitudes of his elders and his insistent use
of the word "why?", his boredom with routine, his indifference toward the undemanding, his obsession with
questions, his hunger for that which will invoke