Self-Control vs. Endurance -- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
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October 19 - We are reading chapter 8 of NE VII, which resolves some puzzles 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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For example, an overweight woman resolves on New-Year's Day to look healthy and slim in a swimsuit in 18 months. On any day she cannot resist the pleasure of the fattening dessert, she lacks self-control; if she can resist that pleasure, she has self-control. On any day she cannot handle the pain of the ninety-minute workout with Peloton, she is soft-pampered; if she can handle that pain, she is endurant-steadfast.
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Let's follow Aristotle's train of thought.
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We will read multiple translations starting at 1150b29.
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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.
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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.