Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

September 7 - 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. The crucial passage is at 1149a24 through 1149b3 at which he compares and contrasts the onset of a bodily desire with the onset of an emotion. 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.
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We will read the 8 translations starting at 1149b4, where Aristotle gives three arguments for why lacking self-control in regard to emotions is less disgraceful than lacking self-control in regard to appetites.
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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.
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We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues of character.
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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, balanced-temper, …)
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.