Aristotles Unified World View...

So yesterday I expounded on Plato and his views on ethics, virtue, and how to achieve the best of them by leaving the dark cave of ignorance and searching out the truth of the the light. By this I mean the pinnacle of all knowledge. Plato believed that the best way to go about 'learning' this was to actually live with someone who had already accomplished this feat. By being near them physically, a kind of intellectual osmosis would take place over time, et voila! Hello, Sunshine!

Aristotle was a much more pragmatic sort of fellow. He felt that there were two essential virtues: intellectual and moral. The Intellectual Virtues were gleaned through teaching and were easily measured and evaluated. The Moral Virtues were cultivated through an adoption of good habits. Through the exercising of these intellectual and moral virtues, man can make cognitive decisions based on what he knows. He can achieve a 'mean', or a middle ground of life for himself and feel good about his decisions. From his point of view he will have achieved 'well-being'. He will have made a decision using all of his faculties, but yet never truly be sure that his decision has been correct. His decisions are based on subjective and relative knowledge. These choices, Aristotle saw, were based on opinions and judgment, not on the self-evident principles of Plato. The goal of finding the 'good life' of Aristotle can never be achieved with precision.

It all comes down to 'choice'. This is an entirely human concept. Plants and animals do not have choices. They react purely on the principles of pleasure and pain. Food, shelter, warmth, protection, procreation are all functions of lower beings. Only the human animal has the cognitive ability to choose, and his choices are 'better', 'worst'. or 'best'. By that I mean he can only choose the 'better' choice for the circumstance at hand, the 'worst' case scenario, or the truly 'best' answer to the dilemma facing him. An good analogy is that of philanthropy.

Last year I gave $200 to my local public radio station. I did this because I had the money to do so. This year, I would like to give that much again. That would be the 'better' choice. Unfortunately, due to the rising cost of petroleum products, my wallet is lighter, so I will not give anything. That is the 'worst' choice. The 'best' choice would be to give what I can, taking into account my need for budgeting in these tough times, but also the radio stations need for public support to keep broadcasting. That choice is based on what I know about my own life and the world around me. I am contributing to my 'well-being' (and the lives of others, by the way) by making a moderate choice that benefits as many people as possible. My good moral virtues (philanthropy) are in line with my good intellectual virtues (knowing the price of gas) and, being in line, connect me with the whole of existence in what Aristotle referred to as a Unified World View.

I hope that these last 2 days have been both informative and entertaining. Without further ado, here are the haiku...


#103.
The cool clear ocean
soaks itself along the beach,
one wave at a time.

#124.
What seems amazing
is usually revealed
to be quite simple.

#125.
What seems quite simple
is usually revealed
to be amazing.


Johnnyboy