My new book: Cultivating Character — James Baughman · Following the Stories of Real People

For those who might be interested, I have published a book that reflects one of my life’s goals to communicate the Principle in the vernacular of the people.

Cultivating Character: A prescription for happiness and success is a common-sense, secular approach to the Principle providing a practical means for all people, religious or not, to understand goodness and start on a path of personal transformation. It takes the weighty issues of morality and ethics from an academic, philosophical realm and brings them directly to the layperson and student.

Available on Amazon as an e-Book and paperback, the book offers a practical, step-by-step approach to becoming a person of conscience. It shows how through education we can learn the nature of the good, and through training we can learn how to do the good. The goal is to reach an enduring heightened consciousness which advocates loving the good for its own sake.

The work offers clear explanations about the nature of good and evil, why good character is important, what good character looks like, and the central roles that marriage and family play in developing the most refined levels of emotional and moral intelligence in children starting at an early age.

Cultivating Character provides an essential resource for people of all walks of life, including parents, students, educators, clergy and civic leaders as it provides a pathway to achieve personal transformation by developing and mastering habits of virtue and heart. These result in a paradigm shift in which we naturally and consistently use our knowledge, skills and talents for the benefit of others.

For more information about the book, visit my website at www,baughmaneducation,com

Cultivating Character: A Prescription for Happiness and Success synopsis:

According to Aristotle, “character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a person chooses and avoids.” It not only determines the reputation of an individual but also impacts on the reputation of social institutions and the nation as a whole, since these are comprised of individuals.

According to Thomas Lickona, becoming a person of character necessarily requires three sequential and integrated components: to know the good, to love the good and to do the good. This theme creates the framework of the book as it systematically explores these three components in detail.

The purpose of something is associated with the way it is designed. Its functionality determines its value. That which fulfills its purpose is considered useful and good; that which fails to do so is thought to be useless and bad.

Human beings are not only universally designed to function in certain ways physically, but also metaphysically. Our purpose is to live in accordance with that design if we are to prosper and fulfill our greatest potential. We hurt ourselves and others when we violate or contradict that design.

A key component to that design is creativity which by nature is relational and stimulates joy and contentment. The extent of that joy depends on the effort that one invests and the motivation underlying that investment.

All human activity is a creative act and can be categorized into Four Life Goals, or objectives. These include becoming a mature individual self, a mature parent, a mature citizen and a mature creator. Our purpose, then, is to experience ultimate joy through the accomplishment of these four aspirations. Anything that promotes and enhances our ability to fulfill this purpose is good; anything that inhibits me or others from doing so is counterproductive and evil.

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