People understand the world and conduct their everyday lives in many different ways.
Different people speak different languages, live as different bodies, hold different faiths and play different games, inhabit and transform different climates and terrains, assemble and communicate in different ways as different selves in different social groups with their different traditions and practices and institutions, pursue different goals near and far, experience different satisfactions and justices and triumphs, and suffer different disappointments and outrages and losses. From an anthropological perspective, pluralism—these multiple differences in and among our lives—is simply a fact.
Philosopher John Stuhr refers to these different ways of understanding and living in the world as fashions of living. The word “fashion” does not mean something shallow or something that comes and goes every few years. Fashions of living are deeply important to people. Fashions of living can remain relatively unchanged for decades or centuries. Fashions of living refer to people’s worldviews and everyday activities.
Stuhr describes two different responses to the enormous variety of people’s fashions of living.2
- One response is to treat fashions of living as disagreements about reality and truth. This response assumes there is only one reality and one truth. Different fashions of living are better or worse at reflecting the one reality and the one truth. The goal of this response is to find some way of proving which fashion of living best reflects the one reality and the one truth. People endlessly debate why their own fashion of living is real and true, while all other fashions of living are mistaken and false.
- A second response is to treat fashions of living as expressions of human lives. Fashions of living reflect different people doing the best they can to get through their short, complicated, and challenging lives. Different fashions of living allow people to understand the world and conduct their everyday activities in ways that suit their environments, circumstances, educations, experiences, and personalities. The goal of this response is to learn about different fashions of living, to sometimes borrow useful ideas or behaviors from other people’s fashions of living, and to live in peaceful co-existence with people who have different fashions of living.
I prefer the second response for dealing with different fashions of living. I try to be very pluralistic when it comes to different fashions of living.
Chance circumstances greatly influences people’s fashions of living.3 Let me use my own fashion of living as an example.
My fashion of living reflects where I was born. I was born in North America. Had I been born somewhere on the other side of the planet, my fashion of living would be different. I might now be living an ordinary life similar to other people living in Tanzania, India, Malaysia, or Japan.
My fashion of living reflects when I was born. Had I been born in North America 2,000 years ago, my fashion of living would have been very different than it is today. I would have lived in an ancient Native American tribe, following their customs, and using their tools and equipment.
My fashion of living also reflects my unique life circumstances. Had I been born to different parents, received a different education, or made different choices during my life, then my fashion of living would be different than what it is today. I might have been born to Amish parents, received my education in an Amish school, never have attended a public university, worked on a farm, and not used modern technologies.
Realizing how chance circumstances influence fashions of living helps me respect each person’s fashions of living. My fashion of living might have been very similar to another person’s fashion of living if the circumstances of our lives had been similar—if we had been born in the same place, in the same historical period, to the same parents, receiving the same education, facing the same difficulties and limitations, and making similar choices. If I imagine walking through life in another person’s shoes, then that person’s fashion of living often makes better sense to me, just as my fashion of living makes sense given the circumstances of my life.
Before criticizing the fashion in which another person lives, I will do my best to keep these five promises:
- I promise to speak in a timely manner, not too late to prevent others from being harmed.
- I promise to speak honestly, not distorting or lying about the circumstances.
- I promise to speak gently, not using harsh or hurtful words.
- I promise to speak in ways that benefit others, not in ways that mislead them or cause them loss.
- I promise to speak with a calm and caring attitude, not with feelings of anger and discontent.
If I fail to keep these promises, then I will admit not living up to my ethical and spiritual commitments. I will ask forgiveness from anyone harmed by my failure. I will try to make amends and quickly return to keeping the promises.
I value the personal quality of tolerance. I strive to have a tolerant mind that appreciates peaceful co-existence in a world filled with many worldviews and many ways of living. Tolerating different fashions of living and appreciating peaceful co-existence with others is what I mean by “live and let live.”
- John Stuhr (2016). Pragmatic Fashions: Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd (American Philosophy). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Quote taken from page 34.
- John Stuhr (2016). Pragmatic Fashions: Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd (American Philosophy). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
- John Stuhr (2016). Pragmatic Fashions: Pluralism, Democracy, Relativism, and the Absurd (American Philosophy). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.