“To obtain the right training for virtue from youth up is difficult, unless one has been brought up under the right laws. To live a life of self-control and tenacity is not pleasant for most people, especially for the young. Therefore, their upbringing and pursuits must be regulated by laws; for once they have become […]
Entries Tagged as 'Aristotle'
How it is to be done
April 18th, 2018 · No Comments
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Go figure
April 17th, 2018 · No Comments
“Some people believe that it is nature that makes men good, others that it is habit, and others again that it is teaching. Now, whatever goodness comes from nature is obviously not in our power, but is present in truly fortunate men as the result of some divine cause. Argument and teaching, I am afraid, […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Keeping them in line
April 16th, 2018 · No Comments
“The natural tendency of most people is to be swayed not by a sense of shame but by fear, and to refrain from acting basely not because it is disgraceful, but because of the punishment it brings. Living under the sway of emotion, they pursue their own proper pleasures and the means by which they […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
That’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh
April 15th, 2018 · No Comments
“Pleasure is considered to be deeply ingrained in the human race, and that is why in educating the young we use pleasure and pain as rudders with which to steer them straight. Moreover, to like and to dislike what one should is thought to be of greatest importance in developing excellence of character. For in […]
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Let not their name be legion
April 14th, 2018 · No Comments
“Ought we to make as many friends as possible? Or will the mot juste about hospitality, ‘not too many guests, nor yet none,’ also fit friendship in the sense that a person should neither be friendless nor have an excessive number of friends? The saying would seem to fit exactly those who become friends with […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · The Ancients
Down, boys, down
April 13th, 2018 · No Comments
“In a way, anger seems to listen to reason, but to hear wrong, like hasty servants, who run off before they have heard everything their master tells them, and fail to do what they were ordered, or like dogs, which bark as soon as there is a knock without waiting to see if the visitor […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Hence the scales
April 12th, 2018 · No Comments
“Justice is a sort of mean, not in the same way as the other virtues are, but in that it is realized in a median amount, while injustice belongs to the extremes.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 5, Ch. 5 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
It stings and burns
April 11th, 2018 · No Comments
“Evil destroys even itself, and when it is present in its entirety it becomes unbearable.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 4, Ch. 5 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
And then ask for your pity
April 10th, 2018 · No Comments
“Only a worthless man would endure utter disgrace for no good or reasonable purpose.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 3, Ch. 1 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Put your back into it
April 9th, 2018 · No Comments
“Both virtue and art are always concerned with what is harder, for success is better when it is hard to achieve.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2, Ch. 3 Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · Lit & Crit · The Ancients · Vizarts
Tending in this direction
April 8th, 2018 · No Comments
“In our transactions with other men it is by action that some become just and others unjust, and it is by acting in the face of danger and by developing the habit of feeling fear or cowardice that some become brave men and others cowards. The same applies to the appetites and feelings of anger: […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
One and the same
March 28th, 2017 · No Comments
“The God of Plato and Aristotle, of Plotinus and Augustine, of Aquinas and Bonaventure, of Newman and C. S. Lewis; the eternal immutable, infinite, ubiquitous, omnipotent, omniscient Supreme Being, Unmoved Mover, ens realissimum, whose existence is identical with His essence and who is without body, parts, or passions, is one of the sublimest achievements of […]
Tags: Aristotle · Friedrich Nietzsche · George Scialabba · Lit & Crit · Plato
An enduring way of doing it
December 31st, 2013 · No Comments
“Homer would appear to be divinely inspired in comparison with other poets; he did not attempt to make a poem out of the whole Trojan War even though the war had a beginning and an end, for it would have become too big to be easily seen as a whole, or, even if moderated in […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
A human trinity
December 29th, 2013 · No Comments
“In every state there are three parts: the very rich, the very poor, and the middle class. So since it is agreed that the best and the mean is that which is moderate, it is evident that the best possession of goods which comes from fortune, too, is the one which is moderate, for this […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Twisties
December 28th, 2013 · No Comments
“Since those who are equal in one respect only should not share equally in all respects and those who are unequal in one respect should not share unequally in all respects, such forms of government which violate this principle are of necessity perversions.” – Aristotle, Politics, Book III (trans. Apostle and Gerson) Share this… Facebook […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Certain civic necessities
December 27th, 2013 · No Comments
“Without wealth and freedom a state cannot be managed at all, and without justice and military virtue it cannot be managed well.” – Aristotle, Politics, Book III (trans. Apostle and Gerson) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Teach your children well
December 26th, 2013 · No Comments
“The nurture and pursuits of the young should be regulated by laws, for when they become habitual they are not painful. Getting the right nurture and care while young, however, is perhaps not sufficient; but since young men should pursue and be habituated to these also when they have become adults, laws would be needed […]
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
They are few and evil and we allow them to be ours
December 24th, 2013 · No Comments
“Aristocracy passes over into oligarchy by the badness of the rulers, who distribute the goods of the state in violation of merit, taking most or all of the goods for themselves, and paying attention to wealth most of all. Accordingly, these rulers are few and evil, instead of being the most equitable.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Friending is virtual, befriending is real
December 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
“Friendship is a virtue or something with virtue, and, besides, it is most necessary to life; for no one would choose to live without friends, though he were to have all the other goods. Also those who possess wealth or have acquired authority or power are thought to need friends most of all; for of […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
What justice is, in case anyone’s forgotten
December 20th, 2013 · 2 Comments
“Justice is a disposition in virtue of which the just man is said to be disposed by intention to do what is just and to make a distribution, either between himself and another or between others, not so as to get more of what is choiceworthy for himself and to give less of it to […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Train ’em
December 19th, 2013 · No Comments
“Of things which come to us by nature, we first bring along the powers and later exhibit the corresponding activities. This indeed is clear in the case of sensations; for it is not by seeing often or hearing often that we acquired the corresponding power of sensation, but conversely: we used the power after we […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
The hard and the soft of it
December 17th, 2013 · No Comments
“The investigation of truth is in one sense difficult, in another easy. A sign of this is the fact that neither can one attain it adequately, nor do all fail, but each says something about the nature of things; and while each of us contributes nothing or little to the truth, a considerable amount of […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
It does seem to exist when one is late
December 13th, 2013 · 2 Comments
“That time is either altogether nonexistent, or that it exists but hardly or obscurely, might be suspected from the following: One part of it has come to be but no longer exists; the other part will be but does not yet exist; and it is of these two parts that infinite time, or any time […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Getting things in the proper order
December 9th, 2013 · No Comments
“Nothing can be more true than scientific knowledge except intuition.” – Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Book II (trans. Apostle and Gerson) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients
Up to and including summary execution
June 23rd, 2013 · No Comments
“Above all, in every state it is necessary, both by the laws and every other method possible, to prevent those who are employed by the public from being venal.” — Aristotle, A Treatise on Government (trans. Ellis) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
A maxim we’ve been minimizing
June 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
“It is a general maxim in democracies, oligarchies, monarchies, and indeed in all governments, not to let any one acquire a rank far superior to the rest of the community, but rather to endeavour to confer moderate honours for a continuance than great ones for a short time; for these latter spoil men, for it […]
Tags: Aristotle · Economics · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Snowden & Manning, LTD.
June 22nd, 2013 · No Comments
“Governments are sometimes preserved not only by having the means of their corruption at a great distance, but also by its being very near them; for those who are alarmed at some impending evil keep a stricter hand over the state; for which reason it is necessary for those who have the guardianship of the […]
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
No jaywalking, now
June 21st, 2013 · No Comments
“In well-tempered governments it requires as much care as anything whatsoever, that nothing be done contrary to law: and this ought chiefly to be attended to in matters of small consequence; for an illegality that approaches insensibly, approaches secretly.” — Aristotle, A Treatise on Government (trans. Ellis) Share this… Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Email Print
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
So whadderya gonna do about it?
June 21st, 2013 · 2 Comments
“Those who would establish aristocratical governments are mistaken not only in giving too much power to the rich, but also in deceiving the common people; for at last, instead of an imaginary good, they must feel a real evil, for the encroachments of the rich are more destructive to the state than those of the […]
Tags: Aristotle · Politics & Law · The Ancients
Eat your carrots or you’ll be hit with this stick
June 7th, 2013 · No Comments
“This must be noted, that it is the nature of such things to be spoiled by defect and excess; as we see in the case of health and strength (since for the illustration of things which cannot be seen we must use those that can), for excessive training impairs the strength as well as deficient: […]
Tags: Aristotle · The Ancients