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Who can claim Aristotle?

aeon.co

11–20 of 99 posts

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#11

I think Aristotle had the greatest mind of any human who ever lived. The older I get the more I realize that there are a thousand true and intelligent things you can say about any topic. Magazines, journals, and libraries are full to the brim of intelligent people writing intelligent things. But an extremely minuscule portion of that huge mass is made of writing that gets right to the heart of the matter. And Aristot…

On the other hand deification of Aristotle's intellect and thought hampered the development of physics for almost 1500 years.

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#12
His ideas provide a useful filter with words personal qualities, and the moderation of virtues in Nichomchean Ethics pretty much describes what it means when we say someone is 'honest.' it's a foundational read, along with the stoics.

the provocative aspect of Aristotle today is that for people who see themselves as not on the level of citizens and who reject being compared by the virtues he (and later, aquinas) articulated, the judgment implies they are somehow moral or spiritual fugitives from it. if I'm not patient, friendly, magnanimous, courageous, charitable, ambitious, truthful, etc, am I really an inferior or less worthy person? according to who? in that sense, the current concept of intersectionality is a kind of secular re-blessing of people marginalized by those values so as to organize them into a movement to dismantle this dominion of judgment by ancient virtues. viewed this way, Aristotle's values and how they support a conceptual moral "kingdom of god" are this movements shared enemy. I get that normal people want to see these things as just human progress vs. quaint old ideas, and not view the value of Aristotle today through the lens of eschatology, but if one did, it illuminates some aspects that should raise at least some eyebrows.

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#13
post #11

I think Aristotle had the greatest mind of any human who ever lived. The older I get the more I realize that there are a thousand true and intelligent things you can say about any topic. Magazines, journals, and libraries are full to the brim of intelligent people writing intelligent things. But an extremely minuscule portion of that huge mass is made of writing that gets right to the heart of the matter. And Aristot…

On the other hand deification of Aristotle's intellect and thought hampered the development of physics for almost 1500 years.

You may be interested in:

"Aristotle's Physics: a Physicist's Look"

My take is that it was hard to find a better theory, the usual explanation of scholastical dogmatism is to shallow.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.4057

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#14

His ideas provide a useful filter with words personal qualities, and the moderation of virtues in Nichomchean Ethics pretty much describes what it means when we say someone is 'honest.' it's a foundational read, along with the stoics. the provocative aspect of Aristotle today is that for people who see themselves as not on the level of citizens and who reject being compared by the virtues he (and later, aquinas) arti…

Ask HN: What's a favored translation these days?

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#15

His ideas provide a useful filter with words personal qualities, and the moderation of virtues in Nichomchean Ethics pretty much describes what it means when we say someone is 'honest.' it's a foundational read, along with the stoics. the provocative aspect of Aristotle today is that for people who see themselves as not on the level of citizens and who reject being compared by the virtues he (and later, aquinas) arti…

Ask HN: What's a favored translation these days?

Penguin Classics edition of Nichomachean Ethics has a great introduction and is very readable.

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#17
post #11

I think Aristotle had the greatest mind of any human who ever lived. The older I get the more I realize that there are a thousand true and intelligent things you can say about any topic. Magazines, journals, and libraries are full to the brim of intelligent people writing intelligent things. But an extremely minuscule portion of that huge mass is made of writing that gets right to the heart of the matter. And Aristot…

On the other hand deification of Aristotle's intellect and thought hampered the development of physics for almost 1500 years.

Insofar as that's true, it isn't a fact about Aristotle, it's a fact about the mindset of scholars who came after him.

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#18
post #2

In "The Perfect Critic", T.S. Eliot wrote that "Aristotle is a person who has suffered from the adherence of persons who must be regarded less as his disciples than as his votaries. One must be firmly distrustful of accepting Aristotle in a canonical spirit; this is to lose the whole living force of him." I find it curious to see no mention of one rather large institution, the Roman Catholic Church, which for about a…

The Catholic Church does retain elements of Aristotelian metaphysics in its theology. A great example is the Catholic teaching of transubstantiation, wherein subject and accident terminology is utilized to explain how bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ while retaining the characteristics of the original elements. Church history is fascinating, even if one isn't a Christian.

The bit about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin also becomes more interesting after one realises the question was not one of determining some finite number, but finite or infinite — do angels* have volume?

(I don't think theologians distinguished countable infinities from other infinities; that's much more recent, right?)

* this is probably also a lesson that, before spending a thousand years arguing over whether class C has property P or not, it might be wise to demonstrate, first, that C is indeed inhabited?

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#19

His ideas provide a useful filter with words personal qualities, and the moderation of virtues in Nichomchean Ethics pretty much describes what it means when we say someone is 'honest.' it's a foundational read, along with the stoics. the provocative aspect of Aristotle today is that for people who see themselves as not on the level of citizens and who reject being compared by the virtues he (and later, aquinas) arti…

Ask HN: What's a favored translation these days?

The best comes from Hackett publishing.

Re: Who can claim Aristotle?

#20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand deification of Aristotle's intellect and thought hampered the development of physics for almost 1500 years.

Insofar as that's true, it isn't a fact about Aristotle, it's a fact about the mindset of scholars who came after him.

Well, their mindset evolved at least partly around the question, how far they can go with free thinking, before making the transition to free burning.
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