Found some interesting ideas that Aristotle had. For one Aristotle believed in something called the Golden Mean. Which meant that to have happiness a person had to stay between two extremes. In other words moderation. I also have found out that to Aristotle this happiness was the same word for excellence that the Greeks used. Namely, Arete. Aristotle believed that since rationality distinguished man from animals, that rationality must be the highest excellence or arete. We all know where this line of thought has put us today. But I thought it was interesting to note Aristotle's reasons for this way of thinking.
And another thing that I would like to point out is that really the idea of this excellence or quality in the intellect being the highest good might have orginated with Socrates. Socrates did say "Virtue is knowledge." And the virtue to the Greeks was also the same word that they used for excellence.
It is my opinion that the Greeks loved knowledge so much that it polluted them from understanding the fundamental relationship-that knowledge is good, but good only if kept in it's right place.
Regards,
Jason Nelson
MOQ Homepage - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:52 BST