Today's soundtrack is Sons of Apollo: Psychotic Symphony, the brilliant prog album by the supergroup that includes my drum idol, Mike Portnoy (Flying Colors, ex-Dream Theater). The album itself is thoroughly enjoyable; it has awesome 80s prog elements and many headbang-worthy moments.
I've had a very productive afternoon: due to an appointment tomorrow that prevents me from attending my math class, I got all the work for tomorrow's class done today, which feels great. Now, I'm going to read the 12th chapter of the first book of Aristotle's Ethics.
Aristotle wonders whether happiness should be "praised or [...] valued" (p. 49). To determine this, we must look at why something deserves to be praised. We praise someone who strives to rise above the status quo. We praise traits that are excellent relative to the norm. But we value the things that are innately good. The things that are most excellent are the things that we do not think to praise, because they are themselves truly good. For this reason, we do not praise happiness, but value it, as "everything we do is done with a view to it, and we regard it as fundamental that the first principle and cause of the things called good should be something above price and divine" (p. 50).
