Today's soundtrack is Christmas With the Mills Family, a Spotify playlist that includes my favourite Christmas songs.
This evening, I'm reading the second chapter of the second book of Aristotle's Ethics. It was over a month ago that I read the second book's first chapter; I've been very busy since then learning about quadratic functions. But enough about that! I finally get to do some reading, and I intend to make the most of it.
Though some philosophy is wholly intellectual, Aristotle's search for the good is more than that: it is practical! We want to know what me must do to be good. We know that our actions must be oriented to the good, for "it is our actions that determine our dispositions" (p. 57).
The intentions of a person's actions are important when determining their goodness. We must consider what options were available to a person in each circumstance before calling their choices "good" or "bad," for the study of goodness is not one that is scientifically quantifiable!
Our actions must be based in finding a healthy middle ground: neither too little action nor too much of any one character trait can be good. Aristotle points out that having too much fear makes man "a coward" (p. 58), but notes that the man who has too little fear "marches up to every danger [and is] foolhardy" (p. 58).
One's character, as one's body, must be exercised, lest the muscles atrophy. Having moral strength will allow one to weather life's storms. The more we practice anything, the easier it will become. Aristotle says that "[i]t is by refraining from pleasures that we become temperate, and it is when we have become temperate that we are most able to abstain from pleasures" (p. 59). Likewise, confronting frightful situations with levity is what allows us to become brave, "and it is when we have become brave that we shall be most able to face an alarming situation" (p. 59).