Aristotle is by general acceptance one of the greatest minds of all antiquity. From Aristotle we have the foundations of scientific reasoning and experimentation - the foundations of modern science. Sadly, virtually nothing he wrote himself has survived; all we have are translations of what we would now call class notes - translated from Greek into Arabic and then into Latin and Romance languages during the Enlightenment in Western Europe.
I'll address just two of Aristotle's words in this blog/chapter, words that clearly indicated an anticipation if not inspired glimpses of LDS Doctrine: Akrasia vs. Arete.
The conventional 19th Century English translation of Akrasia means something totally different in 21st Century English, so I don't even want to repeat it here. Fundamentally, Akrasia means lack of self-control. Someone may know what is right, but has a weak will and no sense of long-term goals (Telos). Aristotle generally accepted Socrates' belief that few people voluntarily do evil, but instead most who do fall into it out of lack of self-control - typically to give in to immediate pleasure. This was not vice - which is deliberate evil - but instead something a bit less "bad." It can nevertheless lead to immense and long-term damage to many other people as well as themselves. We see Akrasia afflict far too many otherwise demonstrably intelligent people in our world. The word sounds like 'crazy' - which would be a good description of some recent catastrophic falls from public esteem of certain American and French politicians lately. A few minutes of illicit sexual contact commonly leads to destroyed families and disfunctional children for a far longer period of time than the initial mistake involved. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation.
In my mind there has always been different kinds of intelligence, and political intelligence, or mathematical intelligence, or verbal intelligence do not equal Arete, do not equal moral intelligence.
I'm reminded of a former Director of the USGS, talking about Matrix Management, saying "WHAT could they possibly have been thinking?!??"
This was an important point for Aristotle: a good person will feel pleasure in doing good things. A Latter-Day Saint might reword this to say that living in conformance with God's will is the only form of long-term personal satisfaction available. In a meeting this morning, my Bishop used these words: "...that we might align our will with Thine."
To this I added a heartfelt Amen.
I'll address just two of Aristotle's words in this blog/chapter, words that clearly indicated an anticipation if not inspired glimpses of LDS Doctrine: Akrasia vs. Arete.
The conventional 19th Century English translation of Akrasia means something totally different in 21st Century English, so I don't even want to repeat it here. Fundamentally, Akrasia means lack of self-control. Someone may know what is right, but has a weak will and no sense of long-term goals (Telos). Aristotle generally accepted Socrates' belief that few people voluntarily do evil, but instead most who do fall into it out of lack of self-control - typically to give in to immediate pleasure. This was not vice - which is deliberate evil - but instead something a bit less "bad." It can nevertheless lead to immense and long-term damage to many other people as well as themselves. We see Akrasia afflict far too many otherwise demonstrably intelligent people in our world. The word sounds like 'crazy' - which would be a good description of some recent catastrophic falls from public esteem of certain American and French politicians lately. A few minutes of illicit sexual contact commonly leads to destroyed families and disfunctional children for a far longer period of time than the initial mistake involved. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation.
In my mind there has always been different kinds of intelligence, and political intelligence, or mathematical intelligence, or verbal intelligence do not equal Arete, do not equal moral intelligence.
I'm reminded of a former Director of the USGS, talking about Matrix Management, saying "WHAT could they possibly have been thinking?!??"
The other word is Arete, usually translated as "virtue." For Greeks, Arete included more than just moral and intellectual virtues, but covered a much wider range of things - including, for instance, the sharpness of a knife. Perhaps a partial translation would be "excellence." If someone or something is functioning properly, then it was exhibiting Arete. To function correctly as a human, of course, meant that you were behaving in a moral and rational way. A good person has the wisdom (Phronesis) to know how to act and comport her/himself in life as if they could see the consequences for more than a single day - and more than a single generation.
This was an important point for Aristotle: a good person will feel pleasure in doing good things. A Latter-Day Saint might reword this to say that living in conformance with God's will is the only form of long-term personal satisfaction available. In a meeting this morning, my Bishop used these words: "...that we might align our will with Thine."
To this I added a heartfelt Amen.
~~~~~
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