Thursday, February 10, 2011

Class Synopsis Feb. 9

In class, we talked about the relation of the rational part of the soul and the non-rational soul. The rational part of the soul is the highest virtue, the virtue of thought. The non-rational part of the soul has a vegetative and desirous character. We went into further discussion on how the vegetative character can not be trained, but the desirous character can be trained and must be trained early. If you can not train your desires early, virtue might be impossible for you.

We went on to discuss happiness. We talked about how happiness is the endness and is intertwined with virtue and potential. When we have achieved our full potential, we are happy. Happiness is the flourishing of something and not just a psychological effect. Virtue is what sets people apart from animals. Harmony is also tied to virtue. If your desirous soul can be trained and rationalized with, you can be in harmony and be virtuous. If your rational feelings are over-riding your desires and not agreeing, then you are not virtuous. We talked about happiness and virtue the entire class.

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