PHIL 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Political Psychology
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
History of Ancient Philosophy
11.16 Lecture Notes
- Structure of the NM
- Extended argument about happiness and the good life
- Thee is ol oe fial ed that e do’t get happiess fo the sake of athig else –
happiness
- Then, gives an argument for what happiness is, which is dependent on his metaphysical
theories
o To figure out what happiness is, we need to know the function of man
o The good and the well (happiness is living well), reside in the function
o We have to make use of the function to figure out what is good
o The function of man involves whatever is unique to man (sort of a Platonic idea
of a function) – a’t e the life of utitio ad goth, a’t e the life of
perception, so it must be the rational life, the life of contemplation
o Straightforwad oseuee of the etaphsial ies he’s alead set out
o Happiness = activity of the soul in conformity with excellence
▪ Conforming = habituating
▪ Synonym for excellence = virtues
▪ We have the power to conform our actions to these virtues
- Doctrine of the mean: mean between two extremes (excess and deficiency)
o State of excellence is continuous and divisible
o Takes virtue to be like an art, which produces something, in which the most
excellent knowledge will do what is called for the situation
o The best ship is that is precisely fitted for its purpose – it’s ot ude fitted o
given extra equipment
o Intermediate is relative to us – which is where context comes into play
- Deficiency, mean, excess
o Ex: cowardice, bravery, recklessness
o Ex: insensibility, temperance, indulgence
o Ex: numbness, proper anger, irascibility
o The mean is virtuous
o Conformity of the soul with these mean virtues
o We have the power to choose how we are to react to certain situations
- Like anyone who has developed a complex activity to some level of excellence, we will
take pleasure in exercising these virtues
- The virtuous person who has properly developed his moral character will take pleasure
in exercising the mean virtue
- Virtuous person is not contending with internal pressures of acting otherwise – the
virtuous choice is very easy because they are not tempted by the extremes
- But it’s atual to hae passio; itues ae states i the soul hih ae “TANCE“ that
relate to the emotions
o We a’t stop ouseles fo feeling anger, what we should practice is reacting
in the proper way
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