00:00:01
So today I'm going to give you
your money's worth in the
00:00:05
sense that some of you might
be taking this class to see
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whether you would want to take
another philosophy class at
00:00:11
some point in the future.
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And though a lot of what we've
been doing in this class is
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typical of what one would do in
a philosophy class, one of
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the things of which we haven't
done that much is close
00:00:24
reading of extended passages
from texts.
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And so what I want to do today
is to read through as a
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group--which means I talk
and you listen, so it's
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not really a group.
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But read through with you all
out there smiling back at me,
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one section of Aristotle's
Ethics, in particular Book two
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Chapter four, to try to situate
for you the two
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responses that we read for today
that both exemplify the
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theme of the course.
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So roughly the first quarter
to third of lecture will be
00:01:04
going through this passage
from Aristotle.
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I'll put the text up for you and
I'll talk you through it.
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And then what I want to do is to
bring out to you how it is
00:01:14
that the two articles we read
for today pick up on very
00:01:18
specific and very precise
portions of the
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Aristotelian text.
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So as I said, we're going
to be looking closely at
00:01:26
something in the book that
we've been reading from
00:01:28
Aristotle, The Nicomachean
Ethics.
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In particular, we have heard
many times recitation of
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Aristotle's claim that virtues
of character are acquired
00:01:42
through habituation.
00:01:43
That just as one becomes a
player of the harp by playing
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the harp, so too one becomes
just by acting as the just one
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does, brave by acting like
the brave one does.
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But Aristotle himself realizes
that this cannot be the full
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story and he begins his
discussion in Book two Chapter
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four something that we've read
twice already in this
00:02:08
class--once a few weeks ago
and reread for Tuesday.
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Aristotle remarks that someone
might be puzzled by what we
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mean by saying that we become
just by doing just actions and
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temperate by doing temperate
actions.
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For one might suppose that if
we do just or temperate
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actions we are thereby,
just or temperate.
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Aristotle wants to correct a
possible misconception of what
00:02:38
it is that he's claiming.
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In particular, he wants to point
out that although it is
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a necessary condition on being
just and temperate that one do
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just and temperate
actions, it's not
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a sufficient condition.
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That is, although it's a
requirement to be just and
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temperate that you have to act
in the way that the just or
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temperate person does, it's
not enough to do that.
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