Acquiring Character Traits -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

August 3 - We are reading NE VII.4. This chapter 4 attempts to answer the question of whether lacking self-control (aka incontinence or weakness of will) is a condition applicable to a specific weakness or temptation to an appetite (e.g., cigarette, alcohol, porn, cheesecake, ice cream, etc.) or whether it is a general weakness of one's character as a person. There are two "takes" in this chapter. Some scholars say the two takes pretty much say the same thing; others say they are different in content. Regardless, we will read 8 translations, giving us 16 takes in English.
.
So far, we have read the first take, version A, last weekend. We will read Version B this coming weekend. That should give us plenty of material to discuss.
.
My summary of chapter 3 can be found here to help you catch up to us. https://mega.nz/file/fu50RKRC#BT1rMXg2W3X-W0Fip2CDm0r-ViNIT5xVyrhWCV_wq9Q Bring your own questions about the text if you are interested in joining this Sunday's meeting.
.
----
.
We are live-reading and discussing Aristotle's ~Nicomachean Ethics~, book VII, which is about troubleshooting the virtues of character.
.
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.