Understanding Skills, Virtues, and Wholes
Aristotle’s View of Virtue
Virtues are tools necessary for achieving happiness (the ultimate end or goal).
Analogy: Virtues can be viewed as the tools necessary to navigate to the harbor of happiness.
Knife Analogy:
Goal (Telos): A knife should cut effectively.
Excellence (Arête): Sharpness defines the knife's virtue.
Essence: Involves the structural aspects that allow effective cutting (handle, blade, materials).
Virtues as Means:
Definition: Typically viewed as a mean between extremes; the ‘golden mean’ represents a balanced virtue.
Example: A knight displaying courage is the mean between cowardice (excess) and recklessness (deficiency).
Aristotle’s View of ‘Ends’
Instrumental vs. Intrinsic Values:
Instrumental Value: Represents means to an end, e.g., stethoscopes used by doctors have value based on their purpose in medical examinations. These are ends that are simply means to another.
Intrinsic Value: Exists as a valuable end in itself, for example, friendships enjoyed simply for their own sake. These are ends that are not means to another.
Some entities possess dual values: loved for both their intrinsic qualities and what they impart (e.g., loving a spouse).
Continuum of Values:
Exercise Analogy: Begins with instrumental value (pursued for health/beauty) but may evolve into intrinsic love for the activity itself.
St. Augustine's Learning of Greek: Initially learned to avoid punishment (instrumental value) but became intrinsically rewarding as proficiency grew.
Aristotle’s View of Happiness
Happiness is known as Eudaimonia.
Definition: Eudaimonia comprises the various goods leading to happiness.
Example: A set of virtues acting in concert to bring about happiness.
Structure of Happiness:
Thanos Analogy: Thanos required the infinity stones to perform the snap, symbolizing his idea of happiness. This signifies happiness as a comprehensive state achieved through various components.
Distinction: This form of happiness is neither mere sensation (e.g., enjoying chocolate) nor simple emotional fulfillment (joy of graduating), but a more profound and complete state.
Aristotle’s View of Skill
Skills comprise three integral parts:
Choice
Associated with libertarian free will.
Acts as a rudder, allowing one to direct their actions and make decisions (e.g., choosing to tell the truth or not).
Repetition Over Time
Known as habitus, this reflects the repetitive nature of choices, which leads to the formation of habits.
Analogy: Persistently flowing water can carve a path through solid rock.
Natural Goal (Telos)
Represents the inherent purpose or end of an action.
Example: In the pool analogy, the billiard ball represents the goal of getting it into the pocket.
The telos must be natural, as exemplified by a stone's natural tendency to fall to earth, juxtaposed with efforts to make it float.
Examples of Skill Development:
Running Analogy: A runner chooses to run regularly (libertarian free will). This choice repeated over time shapes a habit (habitus) and leads towards the natural goal of becoming a skilled runner.
Nicomachean Ethics: Skills or ‘arts’ are acquired through repeated choices in performing them, e.g., harp playing and house building.
Aristotle’s View of Wholes
Fundamental distinctions between wholes and their parts:
Example Comparison: An apple as a whole versus an apple slice as a part; a sphere as a whole and its individual slices as parts.
Important Characteristics: The whole retains properties (spherical) while slices do not. A whole is dependent on its parts for the preservation of identity. If a part is lost and the essence of a whole is maintained, the remaining parts still form a whole.
Natural vs. Composite Wholes:
Natural Wholes: Maintain independent existence despite loss of parts (e.g., trees or humans).
Composite Entities: Lack deep unity and are characterized by their dependence on parts for existence (e.g., a robot or a scarf). Losing a component threatens their existence (e.g., if a robot loses a vitality source).
Analogies Illustrating This Concept: Comparison with a living being losing a limb versus a robot losing a key part: humans can continue to exist whereas robots may fail.
Plato’s View of the Forms
The concept of imperfection leads to ideals (Forms): In witnessing the imperfect, one can conceptualize the perfect (ideal forms).
Example: A perfect square as a mathematical abstraction does not appear in nature yet exists as an ideal form in our minds. Conversely, societal concepts like the perfect family exist in our imagination even if they are unattainable.
Arguments for the Forms (as covered in class via Phaedrus 99d-102a):
Argument from Dimensional Settings and Absolutes: Dimensional settings imply absolutes; descending qualities need a peak standard to delineate. For instance, to say something is ‘more beautiful’ implies a concept of ‘perfect beauty’ or an absolute standard against which degrees are measured.
Argument from Degrees and Property Existence: Properties of goodness, truth, and beauty are defined through their degree rather than absolutes. The existence of lesser degrees depends upon the acknowledgment of higher absolutes in their respective domains. Without the absolute Form of Goodness, for example, we couldn't conceive of something being 'partially good'.