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To: Dumb_Ox
Here is something from the Nicomachean Ethics Book 10.7 1177b (from the Crisp translation)
Such a life is superior to one that is simply human, because someone lives thus [in complete happiness], not in so far as he is a human being, but in so far as there is some divine element within him. And the activity of this divine element is as much superior to that in accordance with the other kind of virtue as the element is superior to the compound. If the intellect, then, is something divine compared with the human being, the life in accordance with it will also be divine compared with human life. But we ought not to listen to those who exhort us, because we are human, to think of human things, or because we are mortal, think of mortal things. We ought rather to take on immortality as much as possible and do all that we can to live in accordance with the highest element within us; for even if its bulk is small, in its power and value it far exceeds everything.

806 posted on 05/12/2003 7:46:32 AM PDT by cornelis
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To: cornelis
Thank you. My first and only reading of the Nicomachean Ethics was quite cursory; I'll be more thorough the next time.
807 posted on 05/12/2003 12:49:20 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox
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