First Five • What is “Groupthink?” • How long did Plato study under Socrates? • Which of Plato’s dialogues discusses “The Prisoners and the Cave?”
Dec 18, 2015
First Five
• What is “Groupthink?”
• How long did Plato study under Socrates?
• Which of Plato’s dialogues discusses “The Prisoners and the Cave?”
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
• Most famous student of Plato– Spent 20 years at the academy
• Teacher of Alexander the Great– At Macedonia
• Returns to Greece to open his own school
Harmony
• Think of a guitar
• If the string is too loose, it won’t play
• Too tight, and the string will snap
• Perfect tension creates harmony
• The balance between vice and virtue– Vice: Bad habits (drinking, gambling, etc.)– Virtue: Moral excellence (goodness)
Ethics
• Aristotle writes about ethics
• Ethics: Discipline that focuses on rightness or wrongness of certain actions
• Aristotle believes in moderation– No excesses
Happiness • All human activities aim for a good
• Every good is meant to achieve happiness
• Happiness is tied to virtue
• Moral goodness is the highest happiness
• Has to be practiced over and over– Creature of habit
• We are not born good or bad– We become one or the other through our
actions
The Good Life
• The good life involves smart choices
• But people are also passionate (emotional)
• Surrendering to desire: Foolish
• Denying desires: Foolish
The Golden Mean
• Choose the middle way
• Mean=Average
• Golden Mean: The perfect blend of passion and virtue
• Too much confidence: Brash (arrogant)
• Not enough confidence: Cowardly
• Golden Mean: Brave
The Natural World
• Aristotle cares about our place in the world
• Most of his study is actually science– Classifying plants and animals
• Credited as the founder of Biology and Psychology
Assignment• In two paragraphs:
– Discuss a time in your life when doing the right thing made you feel good about yourself. Discuss a time when doing the wrong thing made you feel terrible.
• In three paragraphs– What do you consider “Happiness?”– Do you think of yourself as a “Happy” person?– How was the idea of “Happiness” taught to you as a
child (in the home, at school, in church, etc.)?