How can we know the Good?

Like many of us, I want to be good and wise and happy.

Like many of us, I want to live in service of love and truth and beauty. I want to live a life that is sincerely turned towards the Good.

Now, that may not be your language for these things. That's fine. But whatever your preferred words, perhaps you have your own version of those desires?

If you do, then I have a question for both of us, a question that has begun to bother me quite a lot. It's a rather simple question.

Would we recognise those things if we were given them?

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About 20 years ago, I was in Amsterdam on a work trip - some kind of meeting of the world’s alumina traders. On the first evening, the the organisers rented the Rijksmuseum and engaged guides to take us on personal tours through the Rembrandt exhibition.

Now, I have to say, paintings normally bore me. I can even make a conceptual argument for this: if watching paint dry is meant to be boring, how much worse is it to watch paint that has already dried? But that night was different.

My guide was full of knowledge and love, and he was able to help me see Rembrandt's paintings through his eyes (a little). And as I did, I began to see many things that I simply was not able to see on my own.