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Daryl Bambic

The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle - 0 views

  • Now we call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else, and that which is never desirable for the sake of something else more final than the things that are desirable both in themselves and for the sake of that other thing, and therefore we call final without qualification that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.
Daryl Bambic

For the Love of Money - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • as the McDonald’s C.E.O., Don Thompson, did in 2012, while his company then published a brochure for its work force on how to survive on their low wages
  • tax loophole that gave him a lower tax rate than his secretary.
  • walking away from my one chance to be really important.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • my wealth addiction
  • I am much happier. I feel as if I’m making a real contribution.
  • Wall Street is a toxic culture that encourages the grandiosity of people who are desperately trying to feel powerful.
  • rationalization of addicts.
  • the superrich are our cultural gods.
  • “enough”
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Aristotle spoke about the 'golden mean' and how virtue is finding this mean.  Sam Polk learned about Aristotle's virtuous life in the end.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      What do you think Aristotle would have said to Sam Polk?  Think about the 'golden mean' and living the virtuous life.
  • he felt trapped and empty, but couldn’t summon the courage to leave.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      What thoughts and feelings do you have reading this?  Are you empathetic toward Sam Polk and those in his situation?  
Daryl Bambic

Aristotle and the Good Life - 0 views

  • But it doesn’t follow that since his ideas on some things were silly, his ideas on all things were silly
  • reason a central place in human life
  • Money is clearly only a means to an end, therefore it can’t be the main good
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • But what really determines the quality of our lives is not our circumstances themselves but what we make of them
  • Success (or honour) can’t be the main good either, since (a) it’s too dependent on other people and the whims of fortune,
  • Pleasure is certainly not the main good,
  • lives that are fit only for cattle
  • He recognises three types of relationships: the useful, the pleasant and the ones based on mutual admiration.
  • main good for a human being is reason, since it is the characteristic human capacity, the one we don’t share with other animals.
  • theoretical (concerning the contemplation of unchangeable truths)
  • ractical
  • intellectual virtues
  • virtues of character
  • Excess and deficiency
  • unction argument
  • erything in the universe had a purpose
  • essential nature of a thing or creature: just like the purpose of an acorn was to develop into an oak tree, that of human beings was to develop their unique human capacities, the most important of which was the ability to reason
  • in true Aristotelian spirit, is a mean between ‘anything goes’ and a totally prescriptiv
Daryl Bambic

Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - 0 views

  • what is the relationship between mental properties and physical properties?
  • consciousness
  • Materialist views say that, despite appearances to the contrary, mental states are just physical states.
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • Behaviourism
  • unctionalism,
  • mind-brain identity theory
  • omputational theory of mind
  • nature of mind and consciousness
  • ndirectly modify behaviour
  • ealist views say that physical states are really mental.
  • empirical
  • product of our collective experience
  • Dualist views
  • the mental and the physical are both real and neither can be assimilated to the other.
  • ato's Phae
  • rue substances are not physical bodies, which are ephemeral, but the eternal Forms
  • bodies are imperfect copies
  • Plato's dualism is not, therefore, simply a doctrine in the philosophy of mind, but an integral part of his whole metaphysics.
  • Aristotle did not believe in Platonic Forms, existing independently of their instances. Aristotelian forms (the capital ‘F’ has disappeared with their standing as autonomous entities) are the natures and properties of things and exist embodied in those things.
  • Aristotle t
  • particular soul exists as the organizing principle in a particular parcel of matter.
  • Descartes
  • mechanist about the properties of matter.
  • The main uncertainty that faced Descartes
  • but how two things so different as thought and extension could interact at all.
Daryl Bambic

The Great Conversation: Aristotle's Useful Definition of Virtue | Associate's Mind - 0 views

  • One is a deficiency; the other is an excess.
  • enerosity is the mean between the vices of miserliness and profligacy.
  • the midpoint between cowardice and foolhardiness is courage.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Friendliness
  • Righteous indignation
  • to ac
  • to be
  • purposefully chooses the right path.
  • virtuously for its own sake,
  • certainty and firmness.
  • difficult task and is a long-term life goal
  • ecomes easier with practic
  • natural pleasure that comes with and from virtue
  • To be virtuous, be in the habit of choosing the mean
Megan Levine

America and the 'Fun' Generation - NYTimes.com - 1 views

  • And now a count can declare the victors: “achievement” and “fun.”
  • term “excellence”
  • dropped out of favor, also elevenfold. As “fun” gained influence, mentions of “pleasure” fell by a factor of four.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • In the history of language, words rise and fall. We make and remake them; they make and remake us.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Language is the philosopher's primary tool.  What do you think that the rising influence of 'fun' means for how we think about pleasure?
    • Natasha Campbell
       
      I think that overtime, we become influenced by certain attributes, or things throughout the day which makes us perceive certain things as entertaining... With new technology, and the way our world changes, we could view different things as pleasure in contrast of what people thought of as appealing way back when.
  • turning in American culture, and one that has influenced the world. It is a turning away from an arguably aristocratic idea of the intrinsic worth of things: from pleasure, with its sense of an internal condition of mind, to fun, so closely affiliated with outward activities; from excellence, an inner trait whose attainment is its own reward, to achievement, which comes through slogging and recognition.
  • Merriam-Webster defines “pleasure” as “a state of gratification
  • fun is “what provides amusement or enjoyment;
  • excellence” as “the quality of being excellent,” which in turn means “very good of its kind: eminently good.” “Achievement,” meanwhile, is “a result gained by effort.”
  • “Pleasure” carries a hint of the sublime; it speaks of a state of mind that comes organically, that need not be artificially induced.
  • un,” though almost synonymous with “pleasure” for contemporary speakers, often involves artificial inducement
  • If “pleasure” comes from being and from talking through ideas, “fun” comes from doing and, often, switching off the brain.
  • Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one.”
  • “Excellence” evokes Aristotle with its overtones of virtue. Anyone can achieve
  • but how many can truly be excellent?
  • “Achievement” is a word more likely to come from American leaders today, and, like “fun,” it is outward in nature. It comes in doing specific things. It is more about checking boxes than fulfilling inner potentialities.
  • The achievement culture permeates life today
  • n American culture of instantaneous celebrity teaches young people that fame is an end in itself rather than an incidental symptom of excellence in craft.
  • But with that change has come another: what would seem to be a growing intolerance for merely being, and an anguished insistence on doing, doing, doing.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      What are the differences between pleasure and achievement according to the author?   Do you agree with him?
    • Natasha Campbell
       
      Achievement is simply something we check off on our to-do list. It's not something we take great value in. As in pleasure, it's something that we treasure because it's something we don't get too often, because we're too busy being blinded by the 'fun' aspects of life. I agree with the author because I believe that many people today believe that they find pleasure in doing absolutely nothing, and to shut off their brains completely. I believe that discovering new things and letting your mind wander just enough is pleasurable. 
    • Megan Levine
       
      Today, pleasure is something that is very rare to find, since it is overshadowed by "fun". However, achievement is simply something that can be checked off a list, and is very easy to accomplish. Anyone can achieve something; they just may have a harder time being excellent at something. We take great value in pleasure, but not in achievements. I agree with the author because I believe that our generation is so caught up in technology, and entertainment, that we sometimes forget to seek for pleasure in our lives. I also agree that shutting off our brains does not give us pleasure; it just shuts away all the problems that will resurface. It's okay to have fun, but finding pleasure is something that is much more valuable, in my opinion. 
Daryl Bambic

The Psychology and Philosophy of Wonder | Outre monde - 1 views

  • By drawing us out of ourselves, wonder does make us feel small and insignificant, but it also gives us right perspective by reconnecting us with something much greater and vaster and higher and better than our daily struggles. Wonder is the ultimate homecoming, returning us to the world that we came from and were in danger of losing.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      Does this sound like the world of Forms?
  • Socratic wonder is not so much wonder in the sense of awe, but, as hinted by Aristotle, wonder in the sense of puzzlement or perplexity: wonder that arises from contradictions in thought and language, and gives rise to a desire to resolve or at least understand these contradictions.
  • Socrates himself only turned to philosophy after being puzzled by the Delphic Oracle, which, though he believed himself to be ignorant, pronounced him to be the wisest of all men.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • “I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know.”
  • Wonder is a universal experience, found also in children and perhaps even in higher-order primates and other animals
  • of wonder share a concern for what is in some sense beyond us, or beyond our grasp.
  • and the end of wonder is wisdom, which is the state of perpetual wonder.
    • Daryl Bambic
       
      The most lovely definition of wisdom I have seen: a perpetual state of wonder.
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