Thanks for the summer of Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics had long been on my list of 'must reads', but until your read along, I had never marshalled the discipline to work through it. I am reading a lengthy summary right now in preparation for your Zoom call at 8 PM by the way.
I wanted to mention that you are not the only one to feel disappointment with the current state of universities and their relationships to students and faculty. A feeling of anguish is widespread, and it has to do with academic administrators, whose numbers have exploded relative to the real producers, who are the students and faculty. Their objective is to divert funding to cover costs that are not the core mission of the university, and they can make you miserable if you do not obey using your own hard-won resources. In my opinion, the mushrooming involvement of federal government in educational policy is the root cause. I taught for 40 years and I learned the hard way that the quality of courses is not high on the list of most administrators, who are really interested in obeying federal rules and regulations.
But the value of the philosophical way of life remains. If you have a copy, Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo explains it beautifully. In Chapters XV-XVII, two innocent inmates of a prison, Edmond Dantes and Abbe Faria, meet using a tunnel between two cell walls. The Abbe explains that Dantes does not understand his imprisonment and disappearance from the world of the living, even in the face of innocence, because he is thinking about the problem in the wrong way.
He says, "Hence the maxim: if you wish to find the guilty party, first discover whose interests the crime serves! Whose interests might be served by your disappearance?" From there the two of them reason out who was responsible. In terms that Cicero would use, the question is, 'cui bono?'.
These read along posts have been insightful extras. Thank you for your efforts each week. I think others may believe that since they were not reading the book there is nothing for them, which is incorrect. Your posts stand on their own and any reflective, reasoned thinker will benefit. I suspect if you reposted them independent of the read along, they would get similar viewing as your other posts.
I agree. Also, Wikipedia has a lengthy article on the Nicomachean Ethics and it even compares it to the other treatise on Eudemian Ethics. I have this stuff sitting on my shelf and I am terrible about reading it after I buy it.
I'll echo what James said above: Nichomachean Ethics has been on my "need to read/re-read" list for some time, and without the reading group, it probably would have stayed on that list.
Dear Jared,
Thanks for the summer of Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics had long been on my list of 'must reads', but until your read along, I had never marshalled the discipline to work through it. I am reading a lengthy summary right now in preparation for your Zoom call at 8 PM by the way.
I wanted to mention that you are not the only one to feel disappointment with the current state of universities and their relationships to students and faculty. A feeling of anguish is widespread, and it has to do with academic administrators, whose numbers have exploded relative to the real producers, who are the students and faculty. Their objective is to divert funding to cover costs that are not the core mission of the university, and they can make you miserable if you do not obey using your own hard-won resources. In my opinion, the mushrooming involvement of federal government in educational policy is the root cause. I taught for 40 years and I learned the hard way that the quality of courses is not high on the list of most administrators, who are really interested in obeying federal rules and regulations.
But the value of the philosophical way of life remains. If you have a copy, Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo explains it beautifully. In Chapters XV-XVII, two innocent inmates of a prison, Edmond Dantes and Abbe Faria, meet using a tunnel between two cell walls. The Abbe explains that Dantes does not understand his imprisonment and disappearance from the world of the living, even in the face of innocence, because he is thinking about the problem in the wrong way.
He says, "Hence the maxim: if you wish to find the guilty party, first discover whose interests the crime serves! Whose interests might be served by your disappearance?" From there the two of them reason out who was responsible. In terms that Cicero would use, the question is, 'cui bono?'.
Thanks again.
These read along posts have been insightful extras. Thank you for your efforts each week. I think others may believe that since they were not reading the book there is nothing for them, which is incorrect. Your posts stand on their own and any reflective, reasoned thinker will benefit. I suspect if you reposted them independent of the read along, they would get similar viewing as your other posts.
I agree. Also, Wikipedia has a lengthy article on the Nicomachean Ethics and it even compares it to the other treatise on Eudemian Ethics. I have this stuff sitting on my shelf and I am terrible about reading it after I buy it.
Thank you for the read along, Jared. I have purchased my copy of Mrs. Dalloway, told my partner about the incoming readalong, and eagerly waiting. :)
I'll echo what James said above: Nichomachean Ethics has been on my "need to read/re-read" list for some time, and without the reading group, it probably would have stayed on that list.