Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

August 31 - We are reading NE VII.6, which is about the problem of self-control in regard to emotions. Aristotle in this chapter 6 attempts to outline a description of how we react emotionally to things observed in the environment. Being short in temper, for example, is anger that listens to reason but mishears it. Aristotle likens it to a dog that starts barking when it hears the slightest noise before finding out if the noisemaker is a friend. How to re-calibrate our emotions to be more in tune with reason. That's partly the topic of self-control.
.
My summary of chapter 5 on beastliness can be found here to help you catch up to us. https://mega.nz/file/nmAFlShI#8W230CZmaUZYfqzLma0qTYE9gxpLvV9vvz1pQDyN6tE Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting. We will begin reading at 1149a24.
.
----
.
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.