We read portions of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics in Ethics 101, and I felt this way about everything we went through. Yes, demonstrating admirable traits will lead to a virtuous life. That’s almost true by definition. Oh, but you still might not achieve a happy life even if you’re a good person? Well, that’s because you also need to be lucky! Oh, and generosity is apparently 2 different virtues for some reason.
I’m sure he had other works, but reading his “insights” made me wonder how this could be the guy everyone wouldn’t shut up about. We also studied the stoics, epicurians, nihilism and existentialism, Kantian ethics, consequentialism, the role of divinity, and probably other topics I can’t remember. Literally all of them were much more interesting than Aristotle’s eudaimonia ramblings, so I was quite annoyed that he took up almost half the class and made everything else rushed.
I feel the same way about Seinfeld or Shakespeare. They’re boring because people haven’t shut up about them and everything is made out of derivative works inspired by them. Seinfeld invented the modern sitcom format and editing (they weren’t the first they were the first to be massively popular doing all of it together)
Aristotle also believed that women were defective men, that some people are naturally destined to be slaves, and rejected atomic theory.
I feel like you can change this absolutely imbecilic image to “the hole left by everyone just accepted Aristotle’s idea that you can just think everything from first principles and don’t have to do any experimentation” and it’d actually be somewhat accurate.
We read portions of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics in Ethics 101, and I felt this way about everything we went through. Yes, demonstrating admirable traits will lead to a virtuous life. That’s almost true by definition. Oh, but you still might not achieve a happy life even if you’re a good person? Well, that’s because you also need to be lucky! Oh, and generosity is apparently 2 different virtues for some reason.
I’m sure he had other works, but reading his “insights” made me wonder how this could be the guy everyone wouldn’t shut up about. We also studied the stoics, epicurians, nihilism and existentialism, Kantian ethics, consequentialism, the role of divinity, and probably other topics I can’t remember. Literally all of them were much more interesting than Aristotle’s eudaimonia ramblings, so I was quite annoyed that he took up almost half the class and made everything else rushed.
I feel the same way about Seinfeld or Shakespeare. They’re boring because people haven’t shut up about them and everything is made out of derivative works inspired by them. Seinfeld invented the modern sitcom format and editing (they weren’t the first they were the first to be massively popular doing all of it together)
Aristotle also believed that women were defective men, that some people are naturally destined to be slaves, and rejected atomic theory.
I feel like you can change this absolutely imbecilic image to “the hole left by everyone just accepted Aristotle’s idea that you can just think everything from first principles and don’t have to do any experimentation” and it’d actually be somewhat accurate.
okay. the renaissance seems to begin right around the time a dude in turkey invented a steam engine to rotate kebab.
coincidence? who cares. kebab.