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Aristotle – How to live a good life

ralphammer.com

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Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're splitting hairs and attacking choices of words that were not made by Aristotle, but the author in trying to summarize Aristotle. You need to put away this sort of sophistry if you want to engage with philosophy. Like > > what is unique about humans: We have a soul that thinks and feels > Have you ever interacted with a dog for more than 30 seconds? You're engaging with half a sentence. The important part is th…

Dogs think. Someone not having this basic knowledge of the world is surprising. And I've read plenty of philosophy and engage with it just fine. I think it's perfectly fine to break apart the basic premises of something because you avoid wasting the time reading the conclusions. And in fact my criticism is to the author, not to Aristotle or Plato, although I don't agree with all that I've read that they wrote they we…

> Dogs think.

This is certainly an assertion, given it's hard, bordering on impossible to to demonstrate that other humans think.

Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#14

Aristotle lives in the old versions of the Earth. The outdated concepts may not stand up to modern thinking, but are sufficient for dealing with a simple life. Unfortunately, most people's lives are not simple.

I think in many parts most people's lives are not simple because they engage with them through muddled and complex intellectual frameworks using 16 letter words to explain 3-5 letter word concepts. You'd be surprised how much modern life begins to make sense viewed through the framework of antique philosophy.

Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dogs think. Someone not having this basic knowledge of the world is surprising. And I've read plenty of philosophy and engage with it just fine. I think it's perfectly fine to break apart the basic premises of something because you avoid wasting the time reading the conclusions. And in fact my criticism is to the author, not to Aristotle or Plato, although I don't agree with all that I've read that they wrote they we…

> Dogs think. This is certainly an assertion, given it's hard, bordering on impossible to to demonstrate that other humans think.

If your definition of "think" doesn't directly describe the cognitive processes that happen when humans process and react from the inputs they get, then what does the word mean to you? If you don't agree that humans think, then I think we just need another word. But that other word, applies to both humans and dogs and many other living things.

Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#16

Aristotle lives in the old versions of the Earth. The outdated concepts may not stand up to modern thinking, but are sufficient for dealing with a simple life. Unfortunately, most people's lives are not simple.

>>> The outdated concepts may not stand up to modern thinking

Can you elaborate ? From a quick read, the concept of good ("A good thing fulfils its unique function") and how to be a good human ("to have an excellent soul. And this excellence reveals itself in a clear intellect and a noble character.") seems timeless to me

Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#18

Aristotle lives in the old versions of the Earth. The outdated concepts may not stand up to modern thinking, but are sufficient for dealing with a simple life. Unfortunately, most people's lives are not simple.

I think Aristotle would be of the opinion that most people's lives could in fact be quite simple, but many choose to complicate because it makes them feel important, because they are confused about what they want out of life, or both.

Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life

#19
post #5

> First of all, what makes a thing a good thing? A good thing fulfils its unique function. Like a nuclear weapon?

If blasting other nations is your thing, then sure, why not?

Yeah, and that's why I'm doubting this definition is very useful.

Aristoteles should also have gotten a chicken plucked on the market square ...

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