[flagged]
Thank modern philosophy, which unfortunately discarded all previous philosophical knowledge
Aristotle – How to live a good life
81–90 of 183 posts
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#82it feels good when reading but it's not easy when applies to real life
That’s a common experience
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#83My empirical study of happy people comes down to these three points: * Have low expectations * Enjoy simple things * Don't care too much
[deleted]
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#84The very beginning of this post contains a critical passage. What makes a good knife? Of course, a good knife is a knife that cuts well. But what does it mean to cut well? Just the sharpness of the blade? What about grip comfort? And balancing? And stickiness? And weight? And what about the thing being cut? Can a knife cut everything well? As you can see, we are already dead in our tracks, as asking what makes a knif…
[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#85The very beginning of this post contains a critical passage. What makes a good knife? Of course, a good knife is a knife that cuts well. But what does it mean to cut well? Just the sharpness of the blade? What about grip comfort? And balancing? And stickiness? And weight? And what about the thing being cut? Can a knife cut everything well? As you can see, we are already dead in our tracks, as asking what makes a knif…
[deleted]
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
At what point does the reader's interpretation stop being something in the vicinity of what was intended by the author, and instead becomes mostly the product of our own personal creativity? Sure, you can argue about the need of analogies and multi-layered texts, but if you provide me with a guide on how to do something, and your assertions are vague and questionable, how much of the final moral of the story is of my…
Sorry, can't continue the discussion, as my original comment has disappeared : (
hard to talk with someone's fist in your mouth, you know
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#87The very beginning of this post contains a critical passage. What makes a good knife? Of course, a good knife is a knife that cuts well. But what does it mean to cut well? Just the sharpness of the blade? What about grip comfort? And balancing? And stickiness? And weight? And what about the thing being cut? Can a knife cut everything well? As you can see, we are already dead in our tracks, as asking what makes a knif…
Actually, your analysis only seems to make sense because you ignored the beginning of the explanation. I'll rephrase it here in other words:
"Man's good can only consist in the 'work' that is peculiar to him, that is, the work that he and only he knows how to perform, just as, in general, the good of each thing consists in the work that is peculiar to that thing. The work of the eye is to see, the work of the ear is to hear, and so on."
So, it becomes obvious that making an analysis based on the universal concept of "knife" and judging it by its ability to literally cut anything is absurd. The more accurate approach would be to judge a "kitchen knife" by its ability to help in cooking tasks, and we can be even more specific by talking about knives for bread, meat, tomatoes, etc. And I find it quite strange to question "what does it mean to cut well?" If I give you a dull blade and a sharp one for a specific task, you'll know exactly which one cuts well
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#88Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#89Aristotle 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.
For example, our concept of 'work most of your time to afford food and place to live' for Aristotle would translate to a single word 'slave'. Good for him that he didn't have to do it and had slaves working for him instead.
Re: Aristotle – How to live a good life
#90The very beginning of this post contains a critical passage. What makes a good knife? Of course, a good knife is a knife that cuts well. But what does it mean to cut well? Just the sharpness of the blade? What about grip comfort? And balancing? And stickiness? And weight? And what about the thing being cut? Can a knife cut everything well? As you can see, we are already dead in our tracks, as asking what makes a knif…
I thought the same thing. This seems like a rhetorical technique to just shove the definition down one layer. But it sounds right.
Sometimes I wonder if Aristotle was just trying to skate by without being called. Or truth really is that nuanced and simple and can’t be defined any more distinctly.
All of these guidances seem true but also sort of vapid. Be smart, be kind, be virtuous. I’m not sure how Aristotle measured and confirmed his happiness and goodness of life.
It seems to me to be quite easy to convince myself I’m happy and have others impressed enough that they assume I’m happy; yet not actually be happy.