Maui Philosophers

October 5 - We are still reading chapter 7 of NE VII, which compares and contrast self-control with steadfastness. Self-control (whether having or lacking) and steadfastness (whether holding or losing) have to do with pleasure and pain--as are all character virtues and vices, but especially and respectively, being moderate and being gluttonous-and-lecherous.
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For example, when a person has acknowledged firmly that he should no longer smoke/vape/drink (or whatever bad habit) but who in that moment of reality days later does the very thing affirmed to be bad, then that is the moment Aristotle calls that person as having a weakness of will--or lacking self-control.
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If that is a lack of self-control, under what scenario should we identify someone as being soft-pampered {malakia}? And under what scenario is someone to be considered as being endurant-steadfast {karteria}? Let's follow Aristotle's train of thought.
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We will read multiple translations starting at 1150a16.
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My summary of chapter 6 on lacking self-control with respect to emotion can be found here to help you catch up to us. https://mega.nz/file/OzYXXCZI#K6p6FHf2ohSrZ5NrMrr-H90w_TLYFng-kYpO4KmcHok Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues of character. We use mainly the English translation by Adam Beresford (Penguin Classics, 2020).
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The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
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1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
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The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.

October 7 - We are down to the last paragraph of chapter 14, which is also the last chapter of On Interpretation. It is roughly about knowing the knowable through belief. Up until now, Aristotle has been focusing on the relationship between the knowing and the things that are known. Now, he turns his attention toward the relationship between the knowing and the beliefs we craft so as to lasso-grasp the things that are known. The issue is, which belief is more opposite to the belief "A is B"; is it "A isn't B" or is it "A is C" (in which B and C are contrary concepts)? The bookmark is set at Bekker line 24b1--which is the 7th paragraph in Ackrill's translation.
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George will read and invite us to interpret the new section.
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The chapter reviews most relevant to where we are are both chapter 6 and chapter 10. Here are my reviews of them.
- § 6 - https://mega.nz/file/anJBwDZZ#MKELep93ey2WkvPXkMx42dbpPL5Exa0lAs1DnYLqGek
- § 10 - https://mega.nz/file/SzJ3gLSA#dqjbvrPZrp1m1Zo7tgHm10OgKCdfJEdPB-5VlMqf47c
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Join the meeting, keep pen and notepad at the ready, and participate.
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Organon means "instrument," as in, instrument for thought and speech. The term was given by ancient commentators to a group of Aristotle's treatises comprising his logical works.

Organon
|-- Categories ---- 2023.02.28
|-- On Interpretation ---- 2023.12.12
|-- Topics ---- 2025.10.21
|-- On Sophistical Refutations
|-- Rhetoric*
|-- Prior Analytics
|-- Posterior Analytics

(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)

Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.

Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.

Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.

Join us.

We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues.
.
The prerequisite to this book is our answering for ourselves these questions from the prior books, to which we will briefly review:
.
1. What is a virtue of character {ēthikē aretē}?
2. How does one come to acquire it? (E.g. [Aristotle’s], ambition, bravery, gentlemanliness, generosity, candor, …)
3. From a first-person perspective in being virtuous, how does one feel and what does one see (differently, discursively) in a given situation of everyday living?
4. From a third-person perspective, how is the virtuous person (of a specific virtue) to be characterized?
.
.
The project's cloud drive is here, at which you'll find the reading texts, notes, and slideshows.

(* Robin Smith, author of SEP's 2022 entry "Aristotle's Logic," argues that Rhetoric should be part of the Organon.)

Whenever we do any human thing, we can either do it well or do it poorly. With instruments, we can do things either better, faster, and more; or worse, slower, and less. That is, with instruments they either augment or diminish our doings.

Do thinking and speaking (and writing and listening) require instruments? Yes. We do need physical instruments like microphones, megaphones, pens, papers, computers. But we also need mental instruments: grammar, vocabulary words, evidence-gathering techniques, big-picture integration methods, persuasion strategies. Thinking while sitting meditatively all day in a lotus position doesn't require much instrumentation of any kind, but thinking and speaking well in the sense of project planning, problem-solving, negotiating, arguing, deliberating--that is, the active doings in the world (whether romantic, social, commercial, or political)--do require well-honed mental instruments. That's the Organon in a nutshell.

Are you an up-and-coming human being, a doer, go-getter, achiever, or at least you're choosing to become one? You need to wield the Organon.

Join us.