Real fraternity and solidarity emerge in a crisis despite "that confounding Southern insistence on 'freedom'..."
(https://twitter.com/OSOPHER/status/1432505479763271682?s=02)
Monday, August 30, 2021
The best & the worst
For man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all...--Aristotle
(https://twitter.com/philosophersmag/status/1432465661171806212?s=02)
(https://twitter.com/philosophersmag/status/1432465661171806212?s=02)
Better ancestors
LISTEN. We turn to Aristotle today in CoPhi, I'm also thinking a lot this morning about my upcoming MALA classes on educating good citizens. The Stagirite has things to say about that. He
disparages oligarchs, who suppose that justice requires preferential claims for the rich, but also democrats, who contend that the state must boost liberty across all citizens irrespective of merit. The best polis has neither function: its goal is to enhance human flourishing, an end to which liberty is at best instrumental, and not something to be pursued for its own sake. (SEP)
My MALA focus will be first on John Dewey, whose commitment to democracy also sought an equilibrium between personal liberty and communal well-being. Like Aristotle, Dewey also thought we are political animals. We are social beings with an inherent civic duty to respect and collaborate effectively with our peers in addressing matters of common concern... (continues)
==
Take action on climate change at http://countdown.ted.com. Our descendants own the future, but the decisions and actions we make now will tremendously impact generations to come, says philosopher Roman Krznaric. From a global campaign to grant legal personhood to nature to a groundbreaking lawsuit by a coalition of young activists, Krznaric shares examples of ways we can become good ancestors -- or, as he calls them, "Time Rebels" -- and join a movement redefining lifespans, pursuing intergenerational justice and practicing deep love for the planet. This talk was part of the Countdown Global Launch on 10.10.2020. (Watch the full event here: https://youtu.be/5dVcn8NjbwY.) Countdown is TED's global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. The goal: to build a better future by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in the race to a zero-carbon world. Get involved at https://countdown.ted.com/sign-up
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Best intros
Nigel modestly omits his own book...
“How would you introduce philosophy to someone who didn’t know anything about it?”
— Five Books (@five_books) August 29, 2021
The best introductions to philosophy, a #readinglist by philosopher Nigel Warburton (@philosophybites). https://t.co/lvIMVr9JqI …
Deja vu all over again
Right-wing talk radio hosts who believe their own bullshit dying of covid in quick succession reminds me of young rock stars believing their own bullshit dying in quick succession (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Duane Allman) 50 years ago.
(https://twitter.com/KBAndersen/status/1431947216118329350?s=02)
(https://twitter.com/KBAndersen/status/1431947216118329350?s=02)
Death of Socrates in bricks
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
School of Athens in bricks
Brick art, super thread:
— Ethics in Bricks (@EthicsInBricks) August 26, 2021
1 . The School of Athens (Raphael) pic.twitter.com/XneDQIWVqX
Who's who...
Just kidding
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stagira
Stagira, Macedonia, Greece (Founded in 655 BC by Ionian settlers from Andros island). The birthplace of Aristotle. pic.twitter.com/oFcZVMqIAA
— Ioannis Tz (@tzoumio) May 9, 2021
Saturday, August 28, 2021
TikTok
Can someone explain the public fascination/obsession with TikTok to me?
From The New York Times:
The D'Amelios Are Coming for All of Your Screens
TikTok's most famous family wants to reintroduce itself on TV. Whatever that means now.
..."We just want you to take a look into our lives and take what you want from it."
"I've heard that people like to come to our pages for a little bit of an escape," Charli said dryly.
And should that escape feels like a trap, the most popular girl on TikTok offers the simplest of solutions. "I feel like it's very important to take some time off whenever you feel like you need it," she said. "You don't even tell yourself, 'Time to take a break.' You kind of just let it go." She waggled her fingers again, as if sprinkling magic dust. "Drop your phone for a little bit."
nyt
From The New York Times:
The D'Amelios Are Coming for All of Your Screens
TikTok's most famous family wants to reintroduce itself on TV. Whatever that means now.
..."We just want you to take a look into our lives and take what you want from it."
"I've heard that people like to come to our pages for a little bit of an escape," Charli said dryly.
And should that escape feels like a trap, the most popular girl on TikTok offers the simplest of solutions. "I feel like it's very important to take some time off whenever you feel like you need it," she said. "You don't even tell yourself, 'Time to take a break.' You kind of just let it go." She waggled her fingers again, as if sprinkling magic dust. "Drop your phone for a little bit."
nyt
Friday, August 27, 2021
Questions Aug 30/31
LISTEN (*Edith Hall on Aristotle)... LISTEN (An old recording)
You'll notice lots of bonus material below the questions below. Don't feel obliged to read it all. It's lagniappe, take it or leave it. But I bet you'll enjoy the comics at the bottom. (Also, let's maybe take a moment at the beginning of class for one last look at our posted introductions.)
LH 2
Study Questions
1. What did Aristotle mean by "one swallow doesn't make a summer"?
2. In Raphael's School of Athens, who reaches out towards the world in front of him?
Would you rather attend Plato's Academy or Aristotle's Lyceum? Why? Have you ever sharply disagreed with a teacher whom you nonetheless deeply admired? Is change the only constant in the Universe? Is that paradoxical? Which God seems more plausible to you, one who is personally interested in human affairs or Aristotle's contemplative and self-regarding Mover? Which seems more compatible with the world as we know it? Are forms in things, or do they stand apart and above as pure Ideas? What do you see as the value of logic? How can a person excel at "the art of living"? (275) Did Aristotle have the right idea about this? Do you have any role-models in this regard? Aristotle said we philosophize not in order to know what excellence is, but to be excellent and become good. (283) Is this a false dichotomy? Do you have to know what good is, at least implicitly, before you can be good? Is art a "cave within a cave" (286), or a source of light and truth? Or both? Do you agree with Plato that "laughing at comedies makes us cyncial, shallow and ignoble"? (289) If you side with Aristotle in preferring to study "earthly things" does that imply less interest in "thoughts of the heavens"? (290) What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness? If you were depicted in Raphael's School of Athens whose side would you be on, Plato's or Aristotle's? Or would you be in a posture more like Diogenes's? Do you agree with Aristotle that tragic events occurring after your death, like your child's tragic illness, can still impact your happiness? Are you happy? Are you a hedonist? Do you believe anything strictly on the basis of authority, whether that of a person, an institution, or a tradition? Why or why not?
1. What did Aristotle mean by "one swallow doesn't make a summer"?
2. In Raphael's School of Athens, who reaches out towards the world in front of him?
3. What does eudaimonia mean?
4. How can we increase our chance of eudaimonia?
5. Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to what?
6. How is "truth by authority" hostile to the spirit of philosophy?
4. How can we increase our chance of eudaimonia?
5. Eudaimonia can only be achieved in relation to what?
6. How is "truth by authority" hostile to the spirit of philosophy?
DQ
- What's the difference, for you, between pleasure and happiness?
- If you were depicted in Raphael's School of Athens whose side would you be on, Plato's or Aristotle's? Or would you be in a posture more like Diogenes's?
- Do you agree with Aristotle that tragic events occurring after your death, like your child's tragic illness, can still impact your happiness?
- Are you happy? Are you a hedonist?
- Do you believe anything strictly on the basis of authority, whether that of a person, an institution, or a tradition? Why or why not?
Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall...
Edith Hall on the 5 Best Books on Aristotle:I was brought up in a strict Protestant family by an Anglican priest of the Calvinist end of the spectrum. I lost my religion completely at the age of 13 and this left a yawning gap. I nearly went off the rails because I could not see why there was any advantage in practising virtue. Without an interventionist or providential deity, I could see no point in trying to be a good person. Of course, I later discovered that it was a major discussion topic in moral philosophy. I had a disturbed teens, as many of us do: I tried all sorts of weird religions and spiritualism and narcotics. I was six years in the moral wilderness and miserable because I needed to have a goal in life, and a reasoned set of guideposts to what would make me happier and those around me happier and, by extension, the whole of society happier.
The first bit of Aristotle I read was book three of the Nicomachean Ethicsfor an undergraduate essay on how characters deliberate and make decisions in tragedy. I was completely blown away by it. I realised that this was exactly what I had been looking for...
...at the risk of sounding flippant, my theory is that Plato invented the theory of the Forms because he was, in contrast [to Aristotle], short-sighted. I am very myopic myself and have had to create an advanced set of images in my head of what things look like to help me move around when I can’t find my contact lenses. I think Plato was the brainy, geeky boy born into a military-minded family of statesmen with tyrannical or oligarchic leanings. He became a philosopher because he couldn’t be a general, whereas Aristotle came striding down from Northern Greece with his 20/20 vision. So, of course Aristotle was interested in empirical study of material, physical reality and what Plato would have thought of as the superficial appearance of things...
He fled Athens because he was accused, just like Socrates, of impiety. But unlike Socrates (who wanted to be a martyr and could have left but didn’t), Aristotle sensibly removed himself back to safe exile in his maternal ancestral home. He died, probably of stomach cancer, not long after getting there, a disappointed man, at the age of sixty-two...
His theory of conscious recollection, which only humans can perform, was a support to me [when my mother was dying]. Animals have memory, he argues, but they cannot deliberately recollect. Aristotle says that this is a uniquely human skill. That idea has also influenced me as an academic: I think I’m a custodian of deliberate recollection because I write history books and consciously retrieve memories of our human past, activate our historical consciousness. But the same notion became invaluable to me, personally, as I went through my memory bank and shared with my mother all my happiest memories of childhood with her. I think that helped my mother as well.
We know that Aristotle used all sorts of aides-memoires. He had a painting of his mother of whom he had been very fond. He never forgot his wife, who died young. He had a bust of Socrates and a picture of a much-loved former student in the Lyceum too. He wrote a poem in memory of the ruler of Assos who had been a close friend. He used deliberate recollections to keep links with the past, even though he didn’t believe in any life after death. I think that is moving. The man who faced death full in the face, one of the very few people in Antiquity who did that, had this brave awareness that life is not only not a dress rehearsal, but it’s the sole performance and premiere rolled into one. I found him extraordinarily helpful in one of life’s most difficult situations.
I think Aristotle is quite simply the most important intellectual who ever lived. He has foundational status in so many academic disciplines, as well as having invented a revolutionary human-centred ethics. Everybody deserves to get access to this marvellous thinker.(continues)
==
The Stagirite said...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
==
Edith Hall on the 5 Best Books on Aristotle:
The first bit of Aristotle I read was book three of the Nicomachean Ethicsfor an undergraduate essay on how characters deliberate and make decisions in tragedy. I was completely blown away by it. I realised that this was exactly what I had been looking for...
...at the risk of sounding flippant, my theory is that Plato invented the theory of the Forms because he was, in contrast [to Aristotle], short-sighted. I am very myopic myself and have had to create an advanced set of images in my head of what things look like to help me move around when I can’t find my contact lenses. I think Plato was the brainy, geeky boy born into a military-minded family of statesmen with tyrannical or oligarchic leanings. He became a philosopher because he couldn’t be a general, whereas Aristotle came striding down from Northern Greece with his 20/20 vision. So, of course Aristotle was interested in empirical study of material, physical reality and what Plato would have thought of as the superficial appearance of things...
He fled Athens because he was accused, just like Socrates, of impiety. But unlike Socrates (who wanted to be a martyr and could have left but didn’t), Aristotle sensibly removed himself back to safe exile in his maternal ancestral home. He died, probably of stomach cancer, not long after getting there, a disappointed man, at the age of sixty-two...
==
The Stagirite said...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
“One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
“The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.”
==
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “aristotle” (18)
2013-08-08 | Aristotle thought it witless. St. Augustine called it a disease. Only in the 1600s did society start to tolerate curiosity more »
2016-10-17 | Philosophy, which, according to Aristotle, begins in wonder, has embraced pedantry and protocols and office charts. Can it be saved from itself? more »
2018-05-14 | Aristotle in America. His understanding of the middle class was a truth upon which the country's founders depended when legislating their own republic more »
2017-01-14 | Because the study of logic ended with Aristotle, Kant believed, the field had run its course. But what was logic for in the first place? more »
2014-09-02 | According to Aristotle, to understand something we must grasp what it is not. We must come to terms with nothingness. But how? more »
2017-05-03 | Welcome to Scrutopia, the English countryside enclave of farmers and philosophers, Wagner and wine, animals and Aristotle. Roger Scruton calls it home more »
2014-04-29 | Can anyone 'sigh blood? or play ?whisper music? on her hair? No matter: As Aristotle knew, a command of metaphor is 'the mark of genius? more »
2017-12-06 | Equality is a modern idea. Its detractors have included Plato and Aristotle; indeed, for most Western thinkers, humanity was marked by chasms of distinction more »
2018-06-01 | Aristotle’s ethics of virtue offers a flexible philosophy for the 21st century. Yet few people read him today. The problem: his academese more »
2014-02-04 | Aristotle noted four types of lies; Augustine eight. Both frowned on fibbing. But some truths can be conveyed only through falsehoods more »
2014-06-06 | Aristotle was a big walker ? thus we call his philosophical school Peripatetic ? but is there really a connection between moving feet and moving minds? more »
2014-08-25 | Long before Cuvier, Darwin, and Mendel, Aristotle was deciphering the mysteries of the cuttlefish's abdominal tract, the ambiguities of hyena genitals more »
2013-07-17 | A philosopher's biography contends with philosophy's dismissal of biography. To wit, Heidegger on Aristotle: ?He was born, he thought, he died? more »
2016-08-15 | Aristotle called plot "the first principle." Though many revolutions have tried to replace it with intellectual or aesthetic dazzle, plot always returns more »
2018-06-08 | Did you know that Aristotle spoke with a lisp? That Socrates enjoyed dancing? The third-century gossip of Diogenes Laërtius is fascinating, if not always factual more »
2016-12-15 | What does it mean to “know” the future? The question has perplexed Aristotle, Newton, Laplace, Thomas Nagel, and quantum theorists alike. Is an answer possible? more »
2018-07-23 | Aristotle wrote an essay, “On Sleep and Sleeplessness,” wondering how and why we sleep. Maybe the real wonder is why we bother to stay awake more »
2018-08-11 | How would Aristotle cater a luncheon? What would he say about résumés or global warming? Such tidbits, among other fluff, make up a new book more »==
Russell: IN the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. the third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there is a portion (Books V, VI, and VII) which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of disciples. I shall, however, ignore this controversial question, and treat the book as a whole and as Aristotle's. The views of Aristotle on ethics represent, in the main, the prevailing opinions of educated and experienced men of his day. They are not, like Plato's, impregnated with mystical religion; nor do they -172- countenance such unorthodox theories as are to be found in the Republic concerning property and the family. Those who neither fall below nor rise above the level of decent, well-behaved citizens will find in the Ethics a systematic account of the principles by which they hold that their conduct shold be regulated. Those who demand anything more will be disappointed. The book appeals to the respectable middle-aged, and has been used by them, especially since the seveteenth century, to repress the ardours and enthusiasms of the young. But to a man with any depth of feeling it cannot but be repulsive. The good, we are told, is happiness, which is an activity of the soul. Aristotle says that Plato was right in dividing the soul into tow parts, one rational, the other irrational. The irrational part itself he divides into the vegetative (which is found even in plants) and the appetitive (which is found in all animals). the appetitive part may be in some degree rational, when the goods that it seeks are such as reason approves of. This is essential to the account of virtue, for reason alone, in Aristotle, is purely contemplative, and does not, without the help of appetite, lead to any practical activity. There are tow kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral, corresponding to the two parts of the soul. Intellectual virtues result from teaching, moral virtues from habit. It is the business of the legislator to make the citizens good by forming good habits. We become just by performing just acts, and similarly as regards other virtues. By being compelled to acquire good habits, we shall in time, Aristotle thinks, come to find pleasure in performing good actions. One is reminded of Hamlet's speech to his mother: Assume a virtue if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel, yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. We now come to the famous doctrine of the golden mean. Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. This is proved by an examination of the various virtues. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness; liberality, between prodigality and -173- meanness; proper pride, between vanity and humility; ready wit, between buffoonery and boorishness; modesty, between bashfulness and shamelessness. Some virtues do not seem to fit into this scheme; for instance, truthfulness. Aristotle says that this is a mean between boastfulness and mock-modesty (1108a), but this only applies to truthfulness about oneself. I do not see how truthfulness in any wider sense can be fitted into the scheme. There was once a mayor who had adopted Aristotle's doctrine; at the end of his term of office he made a speech saying that he had endeavoured to steer the narrow line between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other. The view of truthfulness as a mean seems scarcely less absurd. Aristotle's opinions on moral questions are always such as were conventional in his day. One some points they differ from those of our time, chiefly where some form of aristocracy comes in. We think that human beings, at least in ethical theory, all have equal rights, and that justice involves equality; Aristotle thinks that justice involves, not equality, but right proportion, which is only sometimes equality...IEP: Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning. Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as the premises are true, then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic dominated this area of thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic 2000 years later.Aristotle’s emphasis on good reasoning combined with his belief in the scientific method forms the backdrop for most of his work. For example, in his work in ethics and politics, Aristotle identifies the highest good with intellectual virtue; that is, a moral person is one who cultivates certain virtues based on reasoning. And in his work on psychology and the soul, Aristotle distinguishes sense perception from reason, which unifies and interprets the sense perceptions and is the source of all knowledge.Aristotle famously rejected Plato’s theory of forms, which states that properties such as beauty are abstract universal entities that exist independent of the objects themselves. Instead, he argued that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from them, and so must be studied in relation to them. However, in discussing art, Aristotle seems to reject this, and instead argues for idealized universal form which artists attempt to capture in their work.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school of learning based in Athens, Greece; and he was an inspiration for the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum... IEP
“One swallow does not make a summer,neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.” ==Abstract: Aristotle's ethics is reviewed and his distinction between pleasure and happiness is explained.A summary of Aristotle's ethics clarifies several important distinction between happiness and pleasure.
==School of Athens -- who's who...
PODCAST: The School of Athens
In Our Time Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The School of Athens – the fresco painted by the Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael, for Pope Julius II’s private library in the Vatican. The fresco depicts some of the most famous philosophers of ancient times, including Aristotle and Plato, engaged in discussion amidst the splendour of a classical Renaissance chamber. It is considered to be one of the greatest images in Western art not only because of Raphael’s skill as a painter, but also his ability to have created an enduring image that continues to inspire philosophical debate today. Raphael captured something essential about the philosophies of these two men, but he also revealed much about his own time. That such a pagan pair could be found beside a Pope in private tells of the complexity of intellectual life at the time when classical learning was reborn in what we now call the Renaissance.With Angie Hobbs, Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Warwick; Valery Rees, Renaissance scholar and senior member of the Language Department at the School of Economic Science; Jill Kraye, Professor of the History of Renaissance Philosophy and Librarian at the Warburg Institute at the University of London
Athens in the 5th to 4th century BCE had an extraordinary system of government: democracy. Under this system, all male citizens [excluding women, slaves, non-property-owners...] had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. Further, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process... (AHE)
Aristotle was born around 384 BC in the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia where his father was the royal doctor. He grew up to be arguably the most influential philosopher ever, with modest nicknames like ‘the master’, and simply ‘the philosopher’. One of his big jobs was tutoring Alexander the Great, who soon after went out and conquered the known world.
Aristotle studied in Athens, worked with Plato for several years and then branched out on his own. He founded a research and teaching centre called The Lyceum: French secondary schools, lycées, are named in honour of this venture. He liked to walk about while teaching and discussing ideas. His followers were named Peripatetics, the wanderers. His many books are actually lecture notes... (SoL, continues)
== Correct Deviant One Ruler Kingship Tyranny Few Rulers Aristocracy Oligarchy Many Rulers Polity Democracy
Aristotle on democracy. Although Aristotle classifies democracy as a deviant constitution (albeit the best of a bad lot), he argues that a case might be made for popular rule in Politics III.11, a discussion which has attracted the attention of modern democratic theorists. The central claim is that the many may turn out to be better than the virtuous few when they come together, even though the many may be inferior when considered individually. For if each individual has a portion of virtue and practical wisdom, they may pool these assets and turn out to be better rulers than even a very wise individual... (SEP)==Aristotle's Politics. Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the
"Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one, "
whom Homer denounces- the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.
Now, that man is more of a political animal than bees or any other gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift of speech. And whereas mere voice is but an indication of pleasure or pain, and is therefore found in other animals (for their nature attains to the perception of pleasure and pain and the intimation of them to one another, and no further), the power of speech is intended to set forth the expedient and inexpedient, and therefore likewise the just and the unjust. And it is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state.
Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part... (ICA)==Aristotle's "Golden Mean" ...every ethical virtue is a condition intermediate (a “golden mean” as it is popularly known) between two other states, one involving excess, and the other deficiency (1106a26–b28). In this respect, Aristotle says, the virtues are no different from technical skills: every skilled worker knows how to avoid excess and deficiency, and is in a condition intermediate between two extremes. The courageous person, for example, judges that some dangers are worth facing and others not, and experiences fear to a degree that is appropriate to his circumstances. He lies between the coward, who flees every danger and experiences excessive fear, and the rash person, who judges every danger worth facing and experiences little or no fear. Aristotle holds that this same topography applies to every ethical virtue: all are located on a map that places the virtues between states of excess and deficiency. (SEP)
The Ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah:"Can I Stay Friends With Someone Who Voices Racist Views?"
“Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue,” Aristotle said in the “Nicomachean Ethics.” That is, and was meant to be, a pretty demanding standard. Given that your friend’s racist views, by contrast to your antiracist views, represent a vice, you are not alike in virtue. I find Aristotle’s standard too demanding, though. For one thing, perhaps because I was raised with a Christian consciousness of original sin, I am aware that no one is wholly virtuous... (continues)==For the Aymara people living in the Andes, the past lies ahead and the future lies behind. Laura Spinney looks at how different languages reflect, and shape, our conception of timeThe old man shields his eyes against the fierce light of the Altiplano and considers the question. When he talks about his ancestors, does he mean the Incas? No, he replies in a sort of Spanish creole, he means his great-great-grandfather. And with his right hand he makes a rotating gesture up and forwards from his body. The Incas, he adds, came way earlier. And with the same hand he sweeps even further forward, towards the mountains on the horizon.
In the next video clip, the researcher asks a woman to explain the origins of her culture. She starts by describing her parents' generation, then her grandparents', and so on, extending her arm further and further in front of her as she does so. Then she switches to talk about how the values of those earlier generations have been handed back to her (her hand gradually returns to her body from out front), and how she will in turn pass them on to her children (she thumbs over her shoulder).
The man and woman belong to an Amerindian group called the Aymara, who inhabit some of the highest valleys in the Andes - in their case, in northern Chile. The researcher is Rafael Núñez, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego, who is interested in how we develop abstract ideas like time. Núñez now believes that he has definitive evidence that the Aymara have a sense of the passage of time that is the mirror image of his own: the past is in front of them, the future behind... (Guardian, continues)
==
2013-08-08 | Aristotle thought it witless. St. Augustine called it a disease. Only in the 1600s did society start to tolerate curiosity more »
2016-10-17 | Philosophy, which, according to Aristotle, begins in wonder, has embraced pedantry and protocols and office charts. Can it be saved from itself? more »
2018-05-14 | Aristotle in America. His understanding of the middle class was a truth upon which the country's founders depended when legislating their own republic more »
2017-01-14 | Because the study of logic ended with Aristotle, Kant believed, the field had run its course. But what was logic for in the first place? more »
2014-09-02 | According to Aristotle, to understand something we must grasp what it is not. We must come to terms with nothingness. But how? more »
2017-05-03 | Welcome to Scrutopia, the English countryside enclave of farmers and philosophers, Wagner and wine, animals and Aristotle. Roger Scruton calls it home more »
2014-04-29 | Can anyone 'sigh blood? or play ?whisper music? on her hair? No matter: As Aristotle knew, a command of metaphor is 'the mark of genius? more »
2017-12-06 | Equality is a modern idea. Its detractors have included Plato and Aristotle; indeed, for most Western thinkers, humanity was marked by chasms of distinction more »
2018-06-01 | Aristotle’s ethics of virtue offers a flexible philosophy for the 21st century. Yet few people read him today. The problem: his academese more »
2014-02-04 | Aristotle noted four types of lies; Augustine eight. Both frowned on fibbing. But some truths can be conveyed only through falsehoods more »
2014-06-06 | Aristotle was a big walker ? thus we call his philosophical school Peripatetic ? but is there really a connection between moving feet and moving minds? more »
2014-08-25 | Long before Cuvier, Darwin, and Mendel, Aristotle was deciphering the mysteries of the cuttlefish's abdominal tract, the ambiguities of hyena genitals more »
2013-07-17 | A philosopher's biography contends with philosophy's dismissal of biography. To wit, Heidegger on Aristotle: ?He was born, he thought, he died? more »
2016-08-15 | Aristotle called plot "the first principle." Though many revolutions have tried to replace it with intellectual or aesthetic dazzle, plot always returns more »
2018-06-08 | Did you know that Aristotle spoke with a lisp? That Socrates enjoyed dancing? The third-century gossip of Diogenes Laërtius is fascinating, if not always factual more »
2016-12-15 | What does it mean to “know” the future? The question has perplexed Aristotle, Newton, Laplace, Thomas Nagel, and quantum theorists alike. Is an answer possible? more »
2018-07-23 | Aristotle wrote an essay, “On Sleep and Sleeplessness,” wondering how and why we sleep. Maybe the real wonder is why we bother to stay awake more »
2018-08-11 | How would Aristotle cater a luncheon? What would he say about résumés or global warming? Such tidbits, among other fluff, make up a new book more »
==Russell: IN the corpus of Aristotle's works, three treatises on ethics have a place, but two of these are now generally held to be by disciples. the third, the Nicomachean Ethics, remains for the most part unquestioned as to authenticity, but even in this book there is a portion (Books V, VI, and VII) which is held by many to have been incorporated from one of the works of disciples. I shall, however, ignore this controversial question, and treat the book as a whole and as Aristotle's. The views of Aristotle on ethics represent, in the main, the prevailing opinions of educated and experienced men of his day. They are not, like Plato's, impregnated with mystical religion; nor do they -172- countenance such unorthodox theories as are to be found in the Republic concerning property and the family. Those who neither fall below nor rise above the level of decent, well-behaved citizens will find in the Ethics a systematic account of the principles by which they hold that their conduct shold be regulated. Those who demand anything more will be disappointed. The book appeals to the respectable middle-aged, and has been used by them, especially since the seveteenth century, to repress the ardours and enthusiasms of the young. But to a man with any depth of feeling it cannot but be repulsive. The good, we are told, is happiness, which is an activity of the soul. Aristotle says that Plato was right in dividing the soul into tow parts, one rational, the other irrational. The irrational part itself he divides into the vegetative (which is found even in plants) and the appetitive (which is found in all animals). the appetitive part may be in some degree rational, when the goods that it seeks are such as reason approves of. This is essential to the account of virtue, for reason alone, in Aristotle, is purely contemplative, and does not, without the help of appetite, lead to any practical activity. There are tow kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral, corresponding to the two parts of the soul. Intellectual virtues result from teaching, moral virtues from habit. It is the business of the legislator to make the citizens good by forming good habits. We become just by performing just acts, and similarly as regards other virtues. By being compelled to acquire good habits, we shall in time, Aristotle thinks, come to find pleasure in performing good actions. One is reminded of Hamlet's speech to his mother: Assume a virtue if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel, yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. We now come to the famous doctrine of the golden mean. Every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. This is proved by an examination of the various virtues. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness; liberality, between prodigality and -173- meanness; proper pride, between vanity and humility; ready wit, between buffoonery and boorishness; modesty, between bashfulness and shamelessness. Some virtues do not seem to fit into this scheme; for instance, truthfulness. Aristotle says that this is a mean between boastfulness and mock-modesty (1108a), but this only applies to truthfulness about oneself. I do not see how truthfulness in any wider sense can be fitted into the scheme. There was once a mayor who had adopted Aristotle's doctrine; at the end of his term of office he made a speech saying that he had endeavoured to steer the narrow line between partiality on the one hand and impartiality on the other. The view of truthfulness as a mean seems scarcely less absurd. Aristotle's opinions on moral questions are always such as were conventional in his day. One some points they differ from those of our time, chiefly where some form of aristocracy comes in. We think that human beings, at least in ethical theory, all have equal rights, and that justice involves equality; Aristotle thinks that justice involves, not equality, but right proportion, which is only sometimes equality...
IEP: Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, making contributions to logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance and theatre. He was a student of Plato who in turn studied under Socrates. He was more empirically-minded than Plato or Socrates and is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms.
As a prolific writer and polymath, Aristotle radically transformed most, if not all, areas of knowledge he touched. It is no wonder that Aquinas referred to him simply as "The Philosopher." In his lifetime, Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises, of which only 31 survive. Unfortunately for us, these works are in the form of lecture notes and draft manuscripts never intended for general readership, so they do not demonstrate his reputed polished prose style which attracted many great followers, including the Roman Cicero. Aristotle was the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines such as mathematics, biology, and ethics. Some of these classifications are still used today.
As the father of the field of logic, he was the first to develop a formalized system for reasoning. Aristotle observed that the validity of any argument can be determined by its structure rather than its content. A classic example of a valid argument is his syllogism: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore, Socrates is mortal. Given the structure of this argument, as long as the premises are true, then the conclusion is also guaranteed to be true. Aristotle’s brand of logic dominated this area of thought until the rise of modern propositional logic and predicate logic 2000 years later.
Aristotle’s emphasis on good reasoning combined with his belief in the scientific method forms the backdrop for most of his work. For example, in his work in ethics and politics, Aristotle identifies the highest good with intellectual virtue; that is, a moral person is one who cultivates certain virtues based on reasoning. And in his work on psychology and the soul, Aristotle distinguishes sense perception from reason, which unifies and interprets the sense perceptions and is the source of all knowledge.
Aristotle famously rejected Plato’s theory of forms, which states that properties such as beauty are abstract universal entities that exist independent of the objects themselves. Instead, he argued that forms are intrinsic to the objects and cannot exist apart from them, and so must be studied in relation to them. However, in discussing art, Aristotle seems to reject this, and instead argues for idealized universal form which artists attempt to capture in their work.
Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, a school of learning based in Athens, Greece; and he was an inspiration for the Peripatetics, his followers from the Lyceum... IEP
“One swallow does not make a summer,
neither does one fine day;
similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.”
“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
==
Abstract: Aristotle's ethics is reviewed and his distinction between pleasure and happiness is explained.
A summary of Aristotle's ethics clarifies several important distinction between happiness and pleasure.
==
School of Athens -- who's who...
In Our Time Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The School of Athens – the fresco painted by the Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael, for Pope Julius II’s private library in the Vatican. The fresco depicts some of the most famous philosophers of ancient times, including Aristotle and Plato, engaged in discussion amidst the splendour of a classical Renaissance chamber. It is considered to be one of the greatest images in Western art not only because of Raphael’s skill as a painter, but also his ability to have created an enduring image that continues to inspire philosophical debate today. Raphael captured something essential about the philosophies of these two men, but he also revealed much about his own time. That such a pagan pair could be found beside a Pope in private tells of the complexity of intellectual life at the time when classical learning was reborn in what we now call the Renaissance.With Angie Hobbs, Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Warwick; Valery Rees, Renaissance scholar and senior member of the Language Department at the School of Economic Science; Jill Kraye, Professor of the History of Renaissance Philosophy and Librarian at the Warburg Institute at the University of London
Athens in the 5th to 4th century BCE had an extraordinary system of government: democracy. Under this system, all male citizens [excluding women, slaves, non-property-owners...] had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. Further, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they themselves made the decisions by which they lived, but they also actively served in the institutions that governed them, and so they directly controlled all parts of the political process... (AHE)
Aristotle studied in Athens, worked with Plato for several years and then branched out on his own. He founded a research and teaching centre called The Lyceum: French secondary schools, lycées, are named in honour of this venture. He liked to walk about while teaching and discussing ideas. His followers were named Peripatetics, the wanderers. His many books are actually lecture notes... (SoL, continues)
==
Correct Deviant One Ruler Kingship Tyranny Few Rulers Aristocracy Oligarchy Many Rulers Polity Democracy
Aristotle on democracy. Although Aristotle classifies democracy as a deviant constitution (albeit the best of a bad lot), he argues that a case might be made for popular rule in Politics III.11, a discussion which has attracted the attention of modern democratic theorists. The central claim is that the many may turn out to be better than the virtuous few when they come together, even though the many may be inferior when considered individually. For if each individual has a portion of virtue and practical wisdom, they may pool these assets and turn out to be better rulers than even a very wise individual... (SEP)
==
Aristotle's Politics. Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the"Tribeless, lawless, hearthless one, "
whom Homer denounces- the natural outcast is forthwith a lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.
Now, that man is more of a political animal than bees or any other gregarious animals is evident. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift of speech. And whereas mere voice is but an indication of pleasure or pain, and is therefore found in other animals (for their nature attains to the perception of pleasure and pain and the intimation of them to one another, and no further), the power of speech is intended to set forth the expedient and inexpedient, and therefore likewise the just and the unjust. And it is a characteristic of man that he alone has any sense of good and evil, of just and unjust, and the like, and the association of living beings who have this sense makes a family and a state.
Further, the state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual, since the whole is of necessity prior to the part... (ICA)
==
The Ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah:
"Can I Stay Friends With Someone Who Voices Racist Views?"“Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue,” Aristotle said in the “Nicomachean Ethics.” That is, and was meant to be, a pretty demanding standard. Given that your friend’s racist views, by contrast to your antiracist views, represent a vice, you are not alike in virtue. I find Aristotle’s standard too demanding, though. For one thing, perhaps because I was raised with a Christian consciousness of original sin, I am aware that no one is wholly virtuous... (continues)
==
For the Aymara people living in the Andes, the past lies ahead and the future lies behind. Laura Spinney looks at how different languages reflect, and shape, our conception of timeThe old man shields his eyes against the fierce light of the Altiplano and considers the question. When he talks about his ancestors, does he mean the Incas? No, he replies in a sort of Spanish creole, he means his great-great-grandfather. And with his right hand he makes a rotating gesture up and forwards from his body. The Incas, he adds, came way earlier. And with the same hand he sweeps even further forward, towards the mountains on the horizon.In the next video clip, the researcher asks a woman to explain the origins of her culture. She starts by describing her parents' generation, then her grandparents', and so on, extending her arm further and further in front of her as she does so. Then she switches to talk about how the values of those earlier generations have been handed back to her (her hand gradually returns to her body from out front), and how she will in turn pass them on to her children (she thumbs over her shoulder).
The man and woman belong to an Amerindian group called the Aymara, who inhabit some of the highest valleys in the Andes - in their case, in northern Chile. The researcher is Rafael Núñez, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego, who is interested in how we develop abstract ideas like time. Núñez now believes that he has definitive evidence that the Aymara have a sense of the passage of time that is the mirror image of his own: the past is in front of them, the future behind... (Guardian, continues)
==
Because William Blake was right: Every living thing is holy.
...How lucky I am to live in a home with windows. Against all odds — the encroachments of construction companies and lawn services and exterminators — these windows still open onto a world that stubbornly insists on remaining wild. I love the bluebirds, and I also love the fierce hawk who reminds me that the peace of the backyard is only a fiction. I love the lizard who looks so much like a snake, and I also love the snake who would eat her if it could.
And my friend the mole, oh how I love my old friend the mole. In these days that grow ever darker as fears gather and autumn comes on, I remember again and again how much we all share with this soft, solitary creature trundling through invisible tunnels in the dark, hungry and blind but working so hard to move forward all the same. Margaret Renkl, nyt==Aristotle investigates some pre-Socratics (more Existential Comics featuring Aristotle here)
Because William Blake was right: Every living thing is holy.
...How lucky I am to live in a home with windows. Against all odds — the encroachments of construction companies and lawn services and exterminators — these windows still open onto a world that stubbornly insists on remaining wild. I love the bluebirds, and I also love the fierce hawk who reminds me that the peace of the backyard is only a fiction. I love the lizard who looks so much like a snake, and I also love the snake who would eat her if it could.
And my friend the mole, oh how I love my old friend the mole. In these days that grow ever darker as fears gather and autumn comes on, I remember again and again how much we all share with this soft, solitary creature trundling through invisible tunnels in the dark, hungry and blind but working so hard to move forward all the same. Margaret Renkl, nyt
And my friend the mole, oh how I love my old friend the mole. In these days that grow ever darker as fears gather and autumn comes on, I remember again and again how much we all share with this soft, solitary creature trundling through invisible tunnels in the dark, hungry and blind but working so hard to move forward all the same. Margaret Renkl, nyt
==
Aristotle investigates some pre-Socratics (more Existential Comics featuring Aristotle here)
CSI: Athens
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)