[PsyOp]

More ammunition for anti-liberal counter-battery fire.

[PsyOp]

Incoming!

[conserve-it]

"More ammunition for anti-liberal counter-battery fire."

Thanks for the enjoyable visit with Aristotle. Maybe you could e mail the section on poverty to President Bush, as he seems utterly incapable of rational discourse on this issue

[beckett]

Nutritious (if a bit too lengthy) lunchtime fare. Thanks.

[martin gibson]

Huge Western Culture / Dead White Male bump!!

Thank you so much for this wonderful posting!

[humbletheFiend]

Wonderful thread. I'm going to make it my first bookmark.

Thanks for providing us with this.

[diotima]

My favorite: "the law's proscription of what is decent is never burdensome" -EN X.9.1080a23-24

[Fish out of Water]

bttt

[Greeklawyer]

bump

[TopQuark]

All that is conquered in war is termed the property of the conquerors. - Aristotle, Politics. c.334-23 BC. As Mr. Steyn pointed out today in a supurb piece (but without a reference to the Aristotle) this maxim is applied universally except for... the Jews.

As he pointed out, for instance, (to wit) "all the migrations of peoples and the changes of the borders in Europe are permanent, but Israel has to sue for the land it won a result of foolish wars started by the Arab countries against it."

Of the great many quotes you kindly supplied, PsyOp, this reverberated with Steyn's piece I just read.

[Dajjal]

bttt

[cornelis]

Many of these citations come from his "Ethics," presumably his Nicomachean Ethics. (I looked for a heading for ethics. There is one for virtue.) Here are the opening lines from the Nicomachean Ethics

Every art and every investigation, and likewise every practical pursuit or undertaking, seems to aim at some good: it has been well said that the Good is that at which all things aim.

George McKenna, a teacher at CUNY, recently commented on this passage:

It sounds abstract, even tautological, but Aristotle fleshes it out with examples: the aim of the medical art is health; that of shipbuilding, a vessel; economics, wealth. Then there are some that are connected in a kind of chain: for example, bridle-making exists for the sake of riding; and riding, at least in the cavalry, is part of military strategy; strategy aims at victory, and victory is for the sake of peace. What Aristotle is talking about here is a hierarchy of ends. What are we doing this for? Why are we studying this? What do we hope to accomplish? Education has to have context, connections. It has to have coherence.

Later Mckenna questions the affirmative action policies practiced in the United States. Why the check-offs? Caucasian? Aleut? Why are we doing this? For diversity?

Diverse talents? Diverse points of view? Diverse cultures? Not necessarily. Diverse what, then? Diverse skin colors and geners. Why do we want that? Is ther some connection to wider or deeper knowledge of constitutional law, or skill in teaching it, or ability to relate to our students? Maybe, but we don't know that, and the College hasn't the slightest interest in fiding out. It just wants biological diversity

Aristotle, I think, would be puzzled. If every action and every art aims at some good, and there are hierarchies of goods, where is the good of purely physical diversity? At what higher good is it aimed? Or is it simply a kind of fetish, as if a society decided that it valued bridle-making for its own sake . . .