• Home

World news and information

Fast and best information on planet

1. Stan Faryna December 24, 2009 at 11:03 am

   What is the good life? What is courage and how do we become courageous? Aristotle provides rational answers and insights to these questions and many more that we often ask ourselves- clear answers which are relevant to us today.

   Stan Faryna
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. Jeffrey Van Wagoner December 24, 2009 at 12:09 pm

   I have been listening to several audio books on my commute and have been going through several of the classics. I was somewhat apprehensive listening to Aristotle since I thought it may be too complicated to listen to without needing to continually rewind and go over parts that were hard to understand. Fortunately this was not the case. The unabridged translation was very clear, and the reader, Nadia May, made it very easy to understand.

   As in other writings of Aristotle, the Nichomachean Ethics show what a master he is at organizing somewhat difficult subjects into simple categories. I learned a lot and thought about ethics in new ways. I highly recommend this audio book, though I will also get a hard copy for a reference.
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. Mr. Avery A. Epperly December 24, 2009 at 1:18 pm

   The Ethics is a semnial work in philosophy. Erwin does a good job with translation and with notes in the back. This review is intended not to describe the book, but to recommend it over any other book on the market today.

   Avery
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Theodore Andre December 24, 2009 at 2:03 pm

   Terence Irwin is to be thanked and congratulated for translating a difficult work by Aristotle and for providing over one hundred pages of notes that helps the student to understand and appreciate Aristotle’s classic work on Ethics.

   Irwin’s notes are thorough and allow a person to study the Ethics without a professor. Most of us, however, need a teacher when it is time to read Aristotle. And a teacher who uses Irwin’s translation will be greatly appreciated by students. I become convinced of this each semester since my college Ethics class is centered on Aristotle’s Ethics and Irwin makes my job much, much easier.

   Here’s what I’ve learned. Why does Aristotle think that the life of pleasure is not the best life?

   Pleasure is not the highest good for Aristotle because:
   
   1. Happiness is continuous and pleasure is not (1177 a 20);
   
   2. Pleasure is good and allows us to get back to the hard work of virtue (1175 a 20);
   
   3. The philosopher should learn how to make the hard work of virtue pleaurable (1176 a 1);
   
   4. Pleaure is a limited action of the body but happiness is the unlimited action of the mind (1177 b
   
   25);
   
   5. Pleasure is a tool for happiness, just as money, power, fame, beauty and priviledge (1099 b 1);
   
   6. And happy people know that the best pleasure is found in friendship (1155 a 5).

   Next, whether the life of pleasure might be excellent? Yes, since
   
   1. The happy and excellent person can usually figure out the genuine cause of pleasure (1174 a 15);
   
   2. Pleasure is natural and necessary for life (1172 b 10);
   
   3. But there’s more to life than amusing oneself all day (1176 b 35). What is there more to life? Making pleasure inferior to friendship, since friends will encourage us to do the hard work of virtue.
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. Katherine M. Ernsting December 24, 2009 at 2:13 pm

   I write this to convince anyone who, like me, lived a good chunk of their life without investigating this book, that it’s time to get a copy and carve out a few hours. Civilizations have ordered themselves around concepts like the “Golden Mean,” that every ethical virtue involves finding a balance between excess and deficiency, or that virtue is an end in itself–one that can only be lived and not merely talked about. I personally like the idea that many of the cultures of the world were tutored by the thinking of the man who wrote: “We are not studying in order to know what virtue is, but to become good, for otherwise there would be no profit in it.” (NE 2.2)
   Rating: 5 / 5

Copyright © 2012 World news and information  | Theme world news  | Powered by WordNews

Δ Top