Simone de Beauvoir, God, and the Blank Canvas of Values

Being an existentialist, Simone de Beauvoir once said that values exist in the world only because we attribute value to them. The world and everything in it, the trees, the creatures, are a blank canvas upon which we paint.

I thought about this as I took time out of my busy day to sit outside and smoke my pipe. It was warm and balmy today. Even though I personally dislike warm weather, nature loves it. People were out and about, playing and talking. The ants were working and exploring, and the trees were basking in the sunlight as they blossomed after a prolonged winter. The stones beneath me were warmed by the sun.

I sat and thought about these ants and these trees, about the wooden bench I sat on and the stone beneath it. In themselves, these things have no value. They are just inert matter waiting to be cognized and given importance. People often step on ants and think nothing of it, or they cut up stone and wood into shapes meaningful for them. The ants and the wood and stone themselves mean nothing and have no value except in what potential value they present us with in the act of cognizing them.

Then I thought about a lack of cognizance. I thought about no humans being around to attribute value to these things. It was a world like that blank canvas, still, unrealized, dead. It was a cold and dark world.

Then I thought about God, and I realized that even if the canvas was blank, it had a craftsman who imagined a wealth of possibilities for it. In themselves, the ants and the wood and the stone mean nothing, but they are loved by God. He attributes the quality of being beloved to them, and this makes them cognizable to us as having values beyond their functional use. But more than this, it opens up the possibility that we might see the world as its craftsman sees it, as something beloved. Even in a world without cognizance, value exists, the value of love and preciousness.

As a rational being, I may paint upon this canvas either great or terrible things. But nothing that is not contrary to love is without value, nothing is nothing in itself, because everything is loved. And because of this, I wish to love everything, even though my capacity for this kind of universal love is imperfect. I love the ants as they crawl on me; they are my sisters in the order of creation. I love the wood of the bench and the trees as they afford me comfort and beauty. I love the stone beneath me as it holds me steadily.

But even as I attempted to love the world around me as God loves it, I realized that I felt intruded upon by the person sitting across from me. I should love that person just as I love the ants and the wood and the stone, but it is more difficult for me, being someone who finds comfort in solitude. The imperfection of my love is laid before me; is it a challenge to overcome? A lesson to be learned? Or is it enough to attempt to love the world as God loves it?

Until next time, this is the Idiot, signing out.
-The Idiot