Importance of Choice

I disagree with Aristotle's idea that a person's desires must be congruent to their reason in order for them to be truly virtuous. He says that desires are formed by habits, which are formed by how your parents raised you. So according to his ethical system, a person's ability to be virtuous is entirely dependent upon their parents.

This denies the possibility of choice, which I reject on the most visceral level. A person's childhood has an undeniable effect on their adult self, but no matter what environmental factors, or parental actions influenced a person's development, there is always, ultimately, a choice involved in every decision they make. This includes the choice to be virtuous. Therefore, while circumstances can alter the level of responsibility for a decision, they can never remove it completely. A person is ultimately responsible for themselves and every decision they make, no matter how terrific of terrible their childhood was.

Edward's ethics

All the talk of Aristotle's philosophy of virtue in class reminded me of Edward Scissor Hands, specifically after Edward was arrested after he broke into a house for Kim's boyfriend, and, questioning his understanding of right and wrong, is asked if he found a wallet and there was no license, what he would do. Edward thinks for a moment, then half heartedly responds "give it to my loved ones?" The wife responds, sadly, that it does seem like what you should do, but its not. Kim, whom he had knowingly committed the wrongful act for due to love, jumped in and defended him, saying that who is to say that it wouldn't be right, and that is what she herself would have done. Edward committs an act he knows to be wrong, which Aristotle says is impossible, because love drove him to do so. Those close to him can not decipher if he can grasp the understanding of what is virtuous because they do not have the whole story, and also have come to expect cetain answers to the questions they give him, which he is unable to provide to their satisfaction. It is evident that what is good and what is bad is not something that can ever have a uniform definition and is more complex than just black and white.

Februrary 7, 2011 Class Synopsis

Monday’s class began with an opening subject of virtue. We determined that virtue is a kind of knowledge. We tied this into Plato and Aristotle. Once this was set, questions began to flow. An ever-present subject was the comparison of Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle was a student of Aristotle’s for twenty years at the Academy. Therefore, Aristotle follows platonic ethics. Plato felt that ethics is based on metaphysics. Plato’s metaphysic was that the soul is immortal. He believed in a two-world theory of material versus immaterial. An example by Dr Layne of this theory was that what allows the desk to be a desk is its “deskness”. The essence and purpose of its creation is what makes it a desk, not only its physical make-up. This idea is very important in ethics, the idea that something exists along with the desk. In saying this, we began conversation on idealism. This is the idea that without seeing or experiencing something, we can still know what it is. An example is that, as an idealist, without seeing justice, once can know what justice is. The same concept applies to virtue. Once virtue was mentioned, Dr Layne prompted us to think idealism when we think Plato. To Aristotle, virtue is the fulfilling of one’s function. Then points were made that one can act against knowledge as well as be unhappy under duress.

At the conclusion of these ideas, Dr. Layne moved on into the PowerPoint presentation. The topics covered in the presentation were the life of Aristotle, universals, and physics/metaphysics. Brief points of Aristotle’s life are that he was born in 384 BC and died 322 BC. He was a student of Plato and teacher to Alexander the Great. He was a prolific writer and interested in the imperial investigations. After going abroad to teach Alexander for thirteen years, he is dissatisfied with the state of the Academy. Thus, Aristotle creates the Lyceum, the school in opposition to the Academy of Xenocrates. This was controversial since he was a resident alien so the school was in a public gymnasium. Soon after, Plato dies and things become dogmatic and the Academy is no longer an open-minded eclectic school.

Next came universals. Universals exist only in things, never apart from things. Unlike Plato, we must stud particular phenomena to discover the essence/form residing in them. A common example used by Dr Layne is deskness. The universal of desks is that all desks are similar in that there is the same universal, deskness in each desk.

Seeing that class time was running short, Dr Layne then moved to physics/metaphysics. When asked what metaphysics was, someone answered it was structure. An example given was all is water, meaning all is one. This is a metaphysical statement. A main idea of physics and metaphysics is substance, being a combination of matter (potential) and form (actual). Also discussed at this point was potency connected to rock, human being, acorn, actuality connected kinesis, movement: proper work leading to fulfillment of potency, and entelechia being toward an end/completeness. Lastly, we talked about four causes: material (linked to potency}, formal (linked to entelechia), efficient (cause), and final. Class ended with conversation comparing Aristotle and Plato.