Taking intellectual humility seriously

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I've always adored Rembrandt. From the time my grandfather first took me to the art museum, I was entranced by the grandmaster's ability to capture not only the features of his subjects but the essence of their souls. To feel pigmented oil arranged on canvas so deeply stirring the human heart testified to the divine genius of artistry.

Van Gogh was a different matter. Compared with the realists, his paintings appeared to me like childish fingerpainting. So, too, as much as I delighted in the bright colors of Monet's water lilies, I found nothing compelling about his spotty brushstrokes. The entire impressionist genre struck me as little more than artsy self-indulgence.

Realizing just how wrong I was provided me a valuable lesson in intellectual humility: Don't make judgments about anything or anyone before you've made a serious effort to understand them.

Standing in an art gallery one day — I can't remember where — I paused before an impressionist masterpiece and tried, yet again, to fathom why the world held the art and the artist in such high esteem. The room was empty except for two other patrons and I couldn't help overhearing what one was saying to his companion.

"Step close to the painting," the speaker instructed, "then slowly back away until you see the jumble of disconnected splotches fuse together into a coherent image."

Curious, I tried it myself. In the next moment, my disdain transformed into wonder. Four decades later, the experience inspires me to welcome this week's addition into the Ethical Lexicon:

Impressionism (im*pres*sion*ism/ im-PRESH-uh-niz-uhm) noun

The 19th-century art movement focused on subjective experience, fleeting moments and the shifting effects of light and color.

There are two ways we fail to perceive the world around us. One is by missing the forest for the trees. The other is by missing the trees for the forest.

By fixating on details, we lose sight of context, significance and meaning. By marveling only at the broad view, we neglect structure, subtlety and nuance.

Impressionism compels us to reconcile the divide between micro and macro by over-emphasizing the component parts. Only when we take a step back, literally and figuratively, do we behold the big picture while grasping the complexity that created it. The genre reminds us that the details and the whole are one and the same, even if we cannot perceive them simultaneously. By overvaluing either one, we undervalue the other.

Almost as fascinating as the impressionist movement itself is the history of its origins.

Later in their careers, both Edgar Degas and Claude Monet suffered deteriorating eyesight. Their advancing blindness accounted for the blurred impressionistic style of their later works.

As Edouard Manet grew older, he endured leg pain and loss of muscle control. These affected his concentration and brushstrokes, inducing him to abandon his earlier realism and adopt the looser style for which he is best known.

Crippling arthritis confined Pierre-Auguste Renoir to a wheelchair and left him unable to pick up a paintbrush on his own. He pivoted to the softer lines and the brighter color palette that produced his dreamlike images. Renoir himself acknowledged that his infirmity set free his impressionistic style.

The stories of these impressionist masters reflect the essence of impressionism itself. If we focus only on the obstacles life strews in our path, we may never discover our own ability to circumvent or transcend them. We need to look beyond where we are toward where we want to be.

Conversely, if we regard the sprawling panorama of our world without perceiving or contemplating its component parts, we won't appreciate the wonder of its texture and multiplicity. We also won't recognize the power we have to make a difference.

The genius of the impressionists inspires us to embrace, if not resolve, the eternal conflict between the head and the heart. Facts without context mislead us at best, deceive us at worst. Intuition divorced from reality leads us into folly, if not catastrophe.

True, the whole picture may be greater than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, by recognizing that the whole remains inseparable from those parts, we find ourselves one step farther along the path toward authentic wisdom.

Rabbi Yonason Goldson graduated from the University of California at Davis with a degree in English, which he put to good use by setting off hitchhiking cross-country and backpacking across Europe. He eventually arrived in Israel where he connected with his Jewish roots and spent the next nine years studying Torah, completing his rabbinic training as part of Ohr Somayach's first ordination program. After teaching yeshiva high school for 23 years in Budapest, Hungary, Atlanta, Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri, Rabbi Goldson established himself as a professional speaker and advisor, working with business leaders to create a company culture built on ethics and trust. He has published seven books and given two TEDx Talks, is an award-winning host of two podcasts, and writes a weekly column for Fast Company Magazine. He also serves as scholar-in-residence for congregations around the country.

Previously:

• What are we?
• Are we Pillaging our own Moral Depository?
• Why Sharp Tongues Lose the War of Words
• Good Intentions Never Prevail Over Cold Reality
• Sarcastic Wit Carries Too High a Cost
• Character, not as a bank account. Rather, an investment portfolio
• Are We Programming Ourselves Out of Existence?
• The bigger they come, the harder we try to make them fall
• How to Transform Fallacies Into Actionable Reality
• How to make life worth living --- no, REALLY!
• What Do Opposites Attract? Truth and Wisdom
• Groucho Marx and Embracing Tension
• Toward a more civil civilization
• Break Down Barriers of Thought to Build Towers of Innovation
• 'Tis the Season for Reflecting Beyond your Reflection
• Why Antisemitism Is Not Just a Jewish Problem
• The rank stupidity of 'Just let it go'
• To create a functioning, biblically-based civilization
• The difference between optimism and hope
• The Next Piece of the Puzzle Might Fill the Hole in Your Heart
• Self-Esteem Isn't Given -- It's Earned
• Remember the Past to Promote a Successful Future
• Are We Making Failure the Price of Success?
• Demoralization Is More About Culture than Feelings
• The Lesson We're Missing From the Death of Charlie Kirk
• Invest in Your Own Success by Building Up Others
• The Most Valiant Heroes Fight on a Different Battlefield
• How Pundits Came to Give Punditry a Bad Name
• The Wisdom of Knowing What You Don't Know
• Success Thrives in the Light of Purpose and Passion
• When Seeking Peace, Don't Release the Dogs of War
• Greta Thunberg Sails Toward Moral Hypocrisy
• Checking More Boxes Is Not the Solution
• Why Sometimes NOT Seeing Is MORE Believing
• A Healthy Diet for the Brain Promotes Ethical Clarity for the Mind

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