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Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

campion.edu.au

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Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#11

Post by ignoramous » 

  The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
Reminds me of Charlie Munger's Inversion principle that he borrowed from German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi's man muss immer umkehren. https://fs.blog/inversion/

  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
As counter points, read Cedirc Chin's Problems with deliberate practice, https://commoncog.com/the-problems-with-deliberate-practice/ and Sensemaking as the heart of expertise, https://commoncog.com/sensemaking-heart-of-expertise/

  It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
This Amjad Masad comment lives rent-free in my head: "Tolerating some amount of cognitive dissonance is one of the best things that I was able to develop in myself ... people don't update their beliefs when new evidence comes to light ... The drive to avoid cognitive dissonance shackles you to your existing beliefs (see confirmation bias)". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11799477 (2016).

cf. Why people that are often right change their minds often, https://fs.blog/some-advice-from-jeff-bezos/

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#12

Post by pinnate »

Much of this is either simply not Aristotle, or a paraphrase from one of his works incorrectly attributed to another. My slop meter is pinging.

Edit:

Between the misattributions, fabricated quotes, listicle format, thin explanatory paragraphs, and use of “delve” (posted Nov 2024 - during ChatGPT’s Delve Era), this is a pretty embarrassing thing for a Liberal Arts college to post.

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#13

Post by al_be_back »

> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves."

he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#14

Post by great_wubwub »

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Aristotle never said this. It's Will Durant.

https://medium.com/the-mission/my-favourite-quote-of-all-tim...

https://old.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/s2n3s/source...

This invalidates the post for me, it takes it from academic research to fanboy posting.

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#15

Post by bwfan123 »

andsoitis wrote: post #2

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

> entertain a thought without accepting it

Entertaining an idea is understanding it. And, there is some research to show that understanding an idea is believing it. Hence, understanding an idea and not believing it is very effortful.

[1] https://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/brenner/mar7588/Papers/gilbe...

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#16

Post by sdellis »

al_be_back wrote: post #13

> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)

Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#19

Post by skinfaxi »

sdellis wrote: post #16
al_be_back wrote: post #13

> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)

Social and political are very different, unless you are overly concerned with accumulating power within your social relationships.

I would submit that all social relationships have power dynamics. Politics is about allocation of resources more than power accumulation. You may be conflating the two because more power allows you to allocate resources with less intereference.

Re: Aristotle quotes on virtue, knowledge, and happiness

#20

Post by yoyohello13 »

al_be_back wrote: post #13

> 2. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." he's quiet possibly referring to happiness as a relationship (with family, friends, colleagues, citizens etc) rather than just by oneself / isolation / individual. he famously said "man by nature is a political animal" (or social if you prefer)

I expect it’s more similar to the Buddhist idea that happiness is cultivated in your own mind. It’s driven internally rather than externally.
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