Political Science 2237E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Intellectual Virtue, Eudaimonia
8 Mar 2018
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Aristotle says good life is not pleasure. People who pursue appetitive over everything else is a slave to appetitive. Good life is interacting with other people. Being able to be virtuous intellectually and morally while living in modest comfort. Highest and best study: contemplation - theoretical (gods and nature) Humans who have reason should use it to contemplate. Can never have enough - contemplation is inexhaustible. Those who contemplate do not need many things. We get to choose how we are going to act - turn choices into habits. Making appropriate choices is sign of maturity. Avoid excess and deficiency - virtue is a mean. No simple rule - action will be dictated by situation in which you are in. We need polity because it allows us to meet our external goods, companionship. Political involvement is crucial for good life - fits with rational nature.
