Self-Control As Neither Vice Nor Virtue -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
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November 9 - We are reading chapter 9 of NE VII, which resolves puzzle #3 about self-control and steadfastness. Self-control (whether having or lacking) and steadfastness (whether holding or losing) have to do with, respectively, pleasure and pain.
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Take this case: An overweight man resolves on New-Year's Day to be healthy, strong, and looking good with six-pack abs in 18 months. On any day he cannot resist the pleasure of the fattening dessert, he lacks self-control; if he can resist that pleasure, he has self-control. On any day he cannot handle the pain and hassle of the ninety-minute workout at the gym, he is soft-pampered; if he can handle that pain, he is endurant-steadfast.
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Here is the puzzle #3: Can it be that he is actually wrong when having self-control and that lacking self-control is how he can reach his eventual goal, especially if the dietary guidelines or fitness routines he has learned are nothing but junk science? Let's follow Aristotle's train of thought.
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We will read multiple translations starting at 1151a29.
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My summary of chapter 8 on solving puzzle #5, about who is or isn't curable, the decider or the one lacking self-control, can be found here to help you catch up to us. 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.
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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.