hi welcome back to philosophy 101 Morals
and Society I am Chris Ann Moore and we're coming to you from Honolulu
Community College, today we're going to do program 11 Aristotles virtue ethics.
Now before I begin speaking about Aristotle I want to make a few comments
on the film that you just saw by now you should have watched Warrior Marks and
actually handed in your assignment based on that film, now it's extremely
important to know that in watching a film like Warrior Marks we take ethics
out of this intellectual ivory tower academic discipline and bring it down to
real life this should show dramatically and even in a devastating way that
ethics is not an intellectual exercise ethics is about how we treat people, how
we treat other beings, and that treatment colors our world, colors our lives, and
colors our character this is not something removed into an academic ivory
tower this is something very real, very immediate and extremely important and
now with Warrior Marks were beginning to we are beginning the ethical
deliberation portion of this course which is an essential component of this
course as I've said before you are going to learn philosophical ethical theories,
and you will be developing your own moral theory as you agree and disagree
and come to understand these theories and then you will be applying that
theory to contemporary ethical controversies, now with Warrior Marks we
have begun that process the first really third of the show the first ten episodes
of this course have been devoted really to giving you a foundation to begin
ethical deliberation, you've learned from the beginning what is philosophy, what is
wisdom, what is morality, what is ethics why are they important, then we began to
look at what are the best possible answers and what answers are considered
inadequate by philosophers for dealing with questions of morality and ethics
and then we began to look at the history of ethics and look at those philosophers
who try to develop an objective standard of the good and
then those who believe that morality is indeed relative a matter of opinion or
culture or power, and so in looking at these theories
you should have found some of the vocabulary and the understanding that
you need to begin to formulate your own answers, and in looking at Warrior Marks
you should realize that that's immediate and personal and importance and yes
controversial, so we will be continuing our ethical deliberation most of that
will be done on the web that's how you and I can talk to each other and that's
how you can talk to your fellow students and that's how we can begin to search
for the best possible answers to ethical controversies. So to continue the process
of learning ethical theory today we're going to return to talking about
Aristotle who we've talked about a little bit at the end of the last program, Aristotle of course was Plato's student Plato's most brilliant student, he came
to Plato's Academy at eighteen according to most stories and he remained there
for twenty years, first as a student and then as a teacher, but ultimately
Aristotle would disagree with some of Plato's fundamental concepts
specifically Aristotle would disagree with Plato's theory of forms
now this isn't surprising the philosophical tradition is based on
argumentation, you don't have to agree with your teacher it's not a tradition
being handed down, you are allowed to argue with your teacher in fact you're
expected because you're expected to develop arguments, that is why in this
show I don't tell you what you should think ethically or what your answers to
moral dilemmas and ethical problems would be that actually would be
unethical, what I help you to do is develop arguments to find your own
answers to these ethical controversies and moral dilemmas. So Aristotle disagreed
with Plato, he didn't think it was necessary to think of forms in some
transcendental world to understand an objective good to understand it the
things in this world as merely a shadow reflection of these
perfect forms that are eternal and unchanging in a transcendental world.
Aristotle instead thought that we could detain true knowledge through
examination of this world It was as if Plato was in, I'm sorry,
Aristotle was in Plato's cave as we all are according to Plato and yes
chained and looking at the wall and mistaking the shadows for real and
mistaking the voices as coming from the wall of a cave trapped in illusion and
believing what you're told but Aristotle when he broke those chains and turned
around and saw the cave, instead of seeking a way out as Plato had, instead
of seeking going to a whole other realm of being Aristotle thought the cave
was fascinating, Aristotle thought exploration of the cave, of this world of
nature and human beings in this world was vital and worthwhile and could lead
to true knowledge you see, Aristotle determined that form rather than being
in that transcendental realm were in things themselves how can we
think about this, well where is the form of a cat sure they're all different
particular cats calico cats and tabbies and alley cats and but where is the form
of a cat, well Aristotle would say it's in the cat, or where is the form of a
tree, Aristotle would say it is in the tree we can discover the form of tree by
examining all particular trees and then it will become apparent what that form
is, as a matter of fact Aristotle thought that by examining the particulars of
this world we could gain information about this
world in fact Aristotle thought that we could
understand anything by understanding its four causes. Now everything in the world
has four causes. The first of these cause is the material cause. Now the material
cause is simply what is it made of For instance, this podium
is made of wood the material cause of this podium is wood. Me, what am I made of
well I made a flesh, protoplasm my material cause is protoplasm or flesh so
everything is made of something. In addition to a material cause everything
has a formal cause and this is what Aristotle is talking about really in
terms of form he's talking about the essence of something, what it is
the tree-ness of tree the cat-ness of cat the dogness of dog the human being -ness of
Chris ann that is its form now the third cause, is the efficient
cause or the proximate cause now this is how we use cause today really and what
Aristotle is saying is everything is brought into being by something, it is
triggered is caused to occur so when you talk about an efficient cause you simply
say what brought this thing into being the podium, the carpenter that made it
Chris ann her parents a tree sun and rain and ground everything is caused or
brought into being. Now the fourth cause is the most important cause for our
purposes for Ethics and that is the final cause, and for Aristotle everything
that exists has a purpose, everything that exists in nature and human beings
has a purpose so let's look over Aristotle's four causes. A material cause,
simply the matter it is made. Formal cause its essence or form. The efficient
cause what triggers its existence. And the final cause its ultimate purpose for
being, and as I said the most important for our purposes is this final purpose
because for Aristotle everything in nature exists for a purpose, not only
does it exist for a purpose that it will strive to fulfill that final purpose. For
example what is the purpose of an acorn which is
the seed for an oaktree, naturally the final purpose for an acorn is to grow
into an oak. What is the final purpose for a kitten, well the final purpose for
a kitten is to grow into a cat indeed we would seems obvious we would think it
very strange if an acorn grew into a palm tree or a kitty grew up to be a cow
and yet what seems obvious is why why does the acorn grow into an oak tree
why does the kitty not grow into a cow so Aristotle proceeds that there is a
purpose for everything in nature everything in nature will strive to
fulfill that final purpose and so the kitty-ness the cat-ness of the kitty the
oak tree and the acorn where would that be, and how would we understand the
final purpose you see, this idea of thinking of everything in terms of their
final purpose is called teleological thinking teleological thinking thinking
of things in terms of their final purpose. This is a type of thinking that
really Aristotle introduced and has been extremely important and influential ever
since, and it's still very important in modern times we are less likely to think
of every scientific thing in terms of its final purpose however we still think
of our lives in terms of final purpose people look for the meaning and purpose
of their life or for instance when a tragedy happens, often people say why
it's as if if we could understand the purpose for that tragedy we could then
understand it. So Aristotle's vision of the world was everything existing to
fill a final purpose not only that but that striving to fulfill that final
purpose, you see Aristotle envisioned that within everything is an inner urge to
the fulfill ones final purpose Aristotle called this entelechy. Entelechy is that
inner urge to fulfill our final purpose. Now where is the final purpose of anything
where is the oak tree in the acorn where is the cat in the kitten, well
Aristotle who had no concept of course of DNA would say that naturally the oak
tree must be inside the acorn, the cat must be inside somehow the kitten, for
instance things must come into being with what we might think of as a
computer program which drives or drives it to fulfill its final purpose, and so
naturally the kitty will grow to be the cat and the acorn will grow to be the
oak tree, but of course not every acorn becomes an oak, not every kitten
becomes a cat. Let's look at the acorn the acorn might fall on hard ground
the acorn might suffer season of drought or perhaps the acorn would
begin to sprout, find ground, begin to grow and then crushed, stepped on, run
over so not everything is going to fulfill its final purpose why well for
the things in nature it takes environment in order for something to
fulfill its final purpose actually Aristotle would say it would have to be
lucky, it would have to have the luck of a good environment. Aristotle is
different from many philosophers in this way and that he actually brings in this
idea of luck, now as acorns and kitties and everything else in nature has a
final purpose so do human beings, so Aristotle went about trying to say what is
the final purpose for human beings Aristotle would say you must look at what
human beings aim for, what do human beings strive for, the Acorn strives to
be an oak tree what do human beings strive for, naturally and he's
thought that reason and observation revealed human beings strive to be happy,
that in fact that is the final purpose of human beings, but Aristotle didn't use the word happiness in the way that we might use it today often
when we use the word happy we're talking about pleasure or a slight thrill and
Aristotle was not meaning that at all when he was talking about happiness, he
was really talking about a fulfilled joyful human life, a life in which you
are alive, a life in which you are awake a life in which you are joyful and that
state is called eudamonia, so let's look at that term again eudamonia to be
fully awake, alive, joyful. Eudamonia is the final purpose of human beings, and
if you think about it we do strive to be happy, as a matter of fact every action that we
take as human beings has a goal, a purpose, for instance if I said to you
why are you watching this telecourse. I know you love me but really why are you
watching the telecourse, you would say because I want to get a graduate degree
but if I said to you why do you want to get a degree you might say because I
want a better job, why do you want a better job well I want to make more
money, why do you want more money well then you might say because it will make
me happy, but it would be very very silly for me to say to you well why do you
want to be happy, you see happiness is a final purpose. This course, the degree, the
better job, the money, those things you want because they'll bring something
else, but happiness you want for happiness. There's nothing you're gonna
use happiness for happiness is an end in itself
happiness is a final purpose eudamonia is a final purpose, and actually that
happiness is the final purpose of all human action no matter what it is human
action aims at fulfillment, human action aims at happiness. Let's take another
example, for instance imagine a student came to me and said I'm working two jobs
and if I said why are you working two jobs well I want to buy this hot new car
what if I said why do you want a hot cuz I'm gonna look so fine in my hot new
car, so why do you want to look so fine in your hot new car because I could pick
up good-looking chicks. Well why would you want to pick up good-looking chicks,
cause it make me happy I wouldn't say why do you want to be
happy, happiness is the final purpose of the action, as a matter of fact it is the
final purpose of all human action that self fulfillment that we define as
happiness our eudamonia not just pleasure eudamonia so what I want you
to do is I want you to think of some time in your life when you were joyful
when you were fulfilled when you felt alive and awake and engaged and you're
like yes this is it, think of at a time like that it might have been a moment, an
hour, a day, a week, a summer, and when you get an idea when you remember this time
I want you to ask yourself what was it about that time that made it wonderful.
What was it about that moment that you said yes this is life, this is the best
possible life in this moment. Well I've asked this question to hundreds of
students and I've heard many different stories, I've heard stories of weddings
and graduations and winning football games and catching the first wave or
wrestling matches or chess champions or birthing your first baby. So the
particulars of these students are all very different and I am very lucky and
then I teach a very diverse student population my students are all ages they
come from all different cultures different parts of the country, different
religions, are very different from one another
and so the stories the things they find fulfilling are slightly different but
interestingly enough the form of those experiences are the same. Whether the
stories about the wedding or the birth or the big wave or the football game the
things that make that moment joyful the things that make it
alive and awake are accomplishment accomplishment over obstacles, getting
that graduate high school graduation certificate and walking across that
stage that was an accomplishment over obstacles you made it, giving birth to
that baby going through incredible pain to achieve
a miracle really, but and again and again as I hear these stories their stories of
accomplishment, of success, of pride in oneself a feeling good about oneself a
feeling powerful in the world not over others but over the obstacles that keep
you from being your best self. These stories also contain love receiving the
love of loved ones for the vast majority of these stories that walking across the
stage of that high school graduation is wonderful, more wonderful because out
there in the audience are people go go oh that's my child. Being loved by those
you love is part of joy, pride and accomplishment and love is part of what
makes up joy, and these stories never contain I was sick, I was really worried
about money, I was really feeling ashamed and bad about myself, it was really
failing at the things that I was trying to do. So if we look at what makes
human beings joyful, although the particulars may be different, the form of
those experiences are the same the form includes pride, the form includes love,
the form includes accomplishment, the form includes actually financial
stability and health. The form is the same for all human beings and since all
human beings strive for fulfillment and happiness and those things that make
human beings fulfilled and happy are the same for all human beings, well then
Aristotle would conclude that the good for human beings is universal and objective it doesn't change from person to person. You see Aristotle based on the
final purpose of human beings created a moral theory saying what is the good, the
good is that which all things aim for the final purpose inherent in
their nature the good for the acorn is to become an oak tree, the good for
the kitty is to fulfill itself as a cat and the good for human beings is to
achieve the fulfilled joyful human life so, we have this definition of the good
we now know what the good for human beings is and we now know that is an objective and
universal definition, so Aristotle's ethics are based on how the fulfillment
of human life, the achievement of human purpose defined as eudamonia. Now a
lot of people have looked at Aristotle's philosophy as a self actualization, a
self realization philosophy and actually indeed it is because that is the good to
be self actualized, self realized. However in modern times often when people are
talking about self actualization or self realization they're talking about their
own individual purpose, people nowadays search for what is my purpose not as
what is the purpose of all human beings and indeed a lot of those who search for
that purpose think I can be whatever I want to be. Have you thought that
yourself that you can be whatever you want to be, if you're just willing to do
the work. Well Aristotle would find that notion absolutely ridiculous. Aristotle
other would say that you cannot be whatever you want to be. you can no more
choose your final purpose than a kitty can choose to be a cow or an acorn can
choose to be a palm you can choose only to fulfill or not that final purpose
which is inherent in your soul. Now was Aristotle correct, I guess you'll have to
decide it does seem of course that we cannot be anything that we want to be
that should be obvious, it would be ridiculous for instance if I had decided
I wanted to be a professional football player
wouldn't that be silly, regardless the fact of whether they let women be
professional football players or not I would be squished, I would die on the
first tryout put me on the front line I don't have the body, I don't have the
ability, I don't have what it takes to be a professional football player.
I could no more choose to be a prima ballerina, I don't have what it takes to
be a prima ballerina in order to be that you have to have
certain talents and abilities you have to have a certain body type first of all
you have to be tiny and double-jointed so no I can't be anything that I want
to be, there are limitations in my nature now one might say that within those limitations there's a vast amount of choice, and it's also clear that human beings can't all have the same particular final
purpose because that too would be ridiculous, if our particular final
purpose was the same. For example, imagine if you will, that everybody decided that
their purpose was to help Mother Teresa's organization in India, that
would be ridiculous right, of course it would it wouldn't work. First of all who
would fly the planes to get people to India. Who would grow the food so that
you could feed the people in India, who would fix the place, who how would you
have shoes it would be silly of everyone we need all sorts of things to be done
so the particular purpose cannot be the same, and it would be ridiculous imagine
if Albert Einstein stopped doing physics and went to help the poor in missionary
work. The world would lose by that Einstein was a brilliant physicist we
needed his physics, just as it would be silly for Itzhak Perlman, the violinist
who if you can hear him will touch transcendence for you, for Itzhak
Perlman not to play the violin but to do something else would seem ridiculous a
loss in fact to the rest of humanity. So whether there is an individual final
purpose Aristotle leaves unclear. There those there are limitations that we have
and there are specific talents and abilities that we have, and there are
certainly a need for a diversity of purposes in human life, but Aristotle
would say the form of the purpose not the particular kind of purpose, the form of
the purpose would be the same. Not clear whether within my soul is the specific
final purpose. Socrates of course believe there was Socrates believed he his
soul urged him to teach philosophy to the Athenians. Plato believed that in a
just state each persons function would be determined by the nature of their
soul, but Aristotle was concerned about creating an objective moral theory that
would be true for all human beings based on what is good for all human beings the
fulfilled human life, eudamonia so just like everything in nature human
beings strive to fulfill their purpose and just like everything in nature
Aristotle would say that you need the luck of an environment. That just like
everything in nature that human beings will not all fulfill their final purpose
not all human beings will achieve eudamonia because the luck of an
environment is necessary that human beings can also be crushed, that human
beings can also be prevented from fulfillment by accidental occurrences in
the environment, or where they ended up to be growing. You can get crushed,
but although human beings are like that like animals and nature in that we need
the luck of environment unlike nature and animals that is not enough. In nature
everything will naturally strive to fulfill that final purpose, human beings
however are unlike other things and Aristotle would say the thing that makes us
unlike everything else in nature is that we reason. We think and because we think we
have to make choices and human beings actually can become very confused about
what actually leads to the fulfill human life, human beings can actually make very
poor choices so a human being can decide that lots of
alcohol makes me happy, I can get the fulfill of human life through crime. Drugs
they feel joyful to me, human beings can make poor choices. They can get confused
about what the fulfillment human life is so therefore not only the human beings
need the luck of environment they also need a virtuous character. They need to
be able to make those choices that lead to fulfillment so what is character.
Well character is really the sum of one's habits. Habit is something that you
do automatically, habits are developed by the actions that you take those actions
that you take consistently become a part of your character, and so you begin to
take those actions automatically. For example exercise, if you start an
exercise program it's excruciating well it is for me, but most people it's very
hard to start an exercise program but if you exercise every day regularly
eventually it becomes part of who you are then if you don't exercise you kind
of miss it you kind of feel off if you don't exercise you want to, it's who you
are it is your character. Same thing with
smoking, first couple of cigarettes taste terrible
but some people manage to push through that and keep smoking anyway, but if you
smoke and you smoke eventually it becomes part of who you are it's a habit,
and then you smoke automatically you're lighting up and you don't even know
you're lighting up, it is a habit so obviously there are good habits and
there are bad habits and these habits lead to good virtuous characters and to
poor character. So the question then becomes what is a virtuous character and
Aristotle of course would answer that a virtuous of virtuous character develops
those habits that will lead to a fulfilled human life so in order to fulfill our final purpose
we need the luck of an environment and we need a virtuous character we need to
have those habits that lead to a fulfilled human life it seems very
practical very down-to-earth almost grandmotherly think about it it's very
apparent in a lot of aspects of your life I'm sure
for example the beginning of every semester in the classroom every single
seat is filled in my class. Now every one of those people is in that seat because
they want to fulfill some part of their final purpose, because they conceive it
as being part of what will be the fulfilled human life for them that's why
they're there but come midterms some of those seats will be empty every semester,
now why now certainly not philosophy isn't for everybody
oh yes it is it can't be that, but really why are some of those seats empty well
sometimes it's environment, even though students are seeking to fulfill their
final purpose the environment can present obstacles I teach at a
community college my students have to go over tremendous obstacles in order to be
in that classroom there are children to raise, and parents to take care of, and
jobs to be done and sometimes things happen children get sick, parents get
sick, jobs demand things of you, you get sick. So sometimes the environment can
just become too much. Now that's only some of the students, for some other
students it's a lack of character and for these students they simply have not
developed the character, the habits, to be successful as a student yet, I'm sure
they'll develop them but they haven't developed them yet, they walk in at the
beginning of that 16 weeks and they have no idea what it really means to be in a
college classroom for 16 weeks doing the work it takes to deserve a college
degree, and so those students disappear. Now I never know whether its
environment or character for most students but I know most of the time it
is one or the other they all want fulfilled human lives, they all want
as much joy and happiness as possible but sometimes the environment gets in
your way sometimes your own character, our
inability develop those habits necessary for a fulfilled human life get in
the way, so for those students who come to me and say you know I'm going to come
back to school when things get easy, I always say woo that means you're not
going to be coming back to school because things are never easy, life is
never easy the environment is always presenting some kind of
obstacles and sometimes they can overwhelm, but with the right character a
lot of those obstacles can be overcome but you have to have the habits, you have
to have the virtues that help you to overcome those obstacles. So of course
that leads us to the question well what's a virtuous character then, what
exactly how would you define those habits, how you define those decisions
that make up a virtuous character and Aristotle would say well those
characteristics are habits that lead to fulfillment a final purpose and actually
that's about as specific as he gets because Aristotle actually says that
each person's purpose is very different each person not, but each person's
particular circumstances are different everybody's purpose is the same but each
person's circumstances and the obstacles they will confront, and the decisions they
will have to make are going to be different and so you can't give a
formula for everyone on how to develop virtuous habits. But however we can get
an idea of what Aristotle considered a virtuous person by looking at those virtues that he discussed so let's go to
fulfill their final purpose, human beings require the luck of the right
environment and a virtuous character. Now let's look at some of the virtues that
Aristotle talked about in his writings Aristotle was concerned with justice,
courage, friendliness, wit, generosity and pride. These are just some of the virtues
that Aristotle talked about, now it might seem odd that Aristotle lists wit or
being funny as a virtue, but it was apparent to Aristotle that a part of
the the fulfilled human life was having friends, now who do you want to hang out
with the people that make you laugh right I know who I invite to my parties
the people who make me laugh, so Aristotle thought if you were funny you
were going to have a better life Aristotle actually thought too if you were
beautiful you would have a better life he was very practical not an idealist
like Plato and Socrates he came right out and said hey the beautiful are
happier than the ugly, and you may disagree or agree with him. So justice,
pride, courage, how do you develop these well Aristotle would say you would have
to take the right action, to the right person, to the right degree at the right
time the right action to the right person, to the right degree, at the right
time. This is very open-ended, how do you achieve that well Aristotle would say
you need good teaching, you need a good environment and you need experience it's
by practice, and Aristotle he gives us sort of a diagram by which we want to
make these choices because our style suggests really that the right action to
the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, is usually not always but
usually a mean between two extremes that each virtue is actually in the middle of
two extremes. For instance courage, courage is in the middle. This is
Aristotle's famous theory of the golden mean the right action, to the right time,
at the right person, is in the middle courage
now there's such a thing as having too little courage and that's called Cowardice
but there's also something having too much courage which is called fool
hardiness when you're too brave you put yourself in danger and you put the
people around you in danger if you are in the field as a soldier you don't want
to be surrounded by overly foolhardy people because they put you in danger
courage is the mean, it is the middle between those two extremes. Let's look at
another one, friendliness now friendliness is a is a mean is there
such a thing as being too friendly, yes of course there is we call it being
needy. It's like the little girl in the school ground who buys candy with all
her lunch money so she can buy friends that's neediness. You've heard the
expression nice guys finish last, what they really mean is needy guys finish
last, lady guys and girls finish last there's being too friendly on the other
hand, there's not being friendly enough you know those people that are so standoffish
it's like, not friendly enough friendliness is in between, in the middle,
between neediness and standoffishness and Aristotle would say that most of
the virtues are in the between when we discover that in between through
teaching and through experience, it's the only way to get wise experience, aiming
for the middle missing picking yourself up and aiming for it again. Now of course
Aristotle would say that there are some things which are not in the middle
there's no mean for lying, there's no mean for adultery, there's no mean for
murder, some things are just wrong but basically this is an ethic of developing
a virtuous character so if you have the luck of a right environment you can
fulfill your purpose, and in that Aristotle really presents us with a very
full theory the definition of the good that which
all things aim for the final purpose inherent in their nature. What is the
good for human beings well reason an observation reveal the good for human
beings is eudamonia. What is the method through practice and experience to pick
those actions which will develop into habits that will create a virtuous
character so if you have the luck of environment you will fulfill that final
purpose. So I've settled thus outlined an objective moral theory an objective
ethic and it will become extremely important in the future particularly
Aristotle's teleological thinking is thinking in terms of final purpose, and
as we move into other moral theories this will form the basis of some of
those theories. Now there is one last aspect to Aristotle's moral theory that
he adds on in his work on ethics he says the ultimate fulfillment for
human beings is contemplation of the good, is the life of the philosopher
spend in contemplation of the good now Aristotle would say that that is
fulfill ultimately fulfilling to human beings because it uses that which is
ultimately human our reason, and directs it towards the final purpose of
everything which Aristotle envisioned as an unmoved mover which will be later
interpreted as God but is more akin to Plato's form of the good. So one begins
to wonder when reading Aristotle on this if Aristotle didn't perhaps actually
make it out of the cave, because what Aristotle talks about the contemplation of
the good, he talks about it as an ultimate joy, he talks about it as the
true happiness because it is self sufficient it is the one fulfillment
that human beings don't need others for and so he begins on another theory that
starts to like Plato's but then soon Aristotle
pulls back, because Aristotle actually like Plato did not believe everybody was
meant to be a philosopher did not believe that everybody could spend their
life in contemplation of the good and Aristotle practical man that he was
actually said oh yeah and you know that life as a philosopher you have to have
some money to do it. So really in his ethics Aristotle was developing a very
practical, very down-to-earth ethic on how to live the good life
how to live the good and fulfilled human life. Now it may not surprise you to find
out that or it may surprise you actually to find out that Aristotle was not
made the head of the Academy when Plato died. Aristotle was by no doubt Plato's
most brilliant student, you see Aristotle was not Athenian and there's no
way that if Athens was going to give the head of the Academy to a Macedonian. As
you remember from last episode Aristotle was from Macedonia kingdom north of
Greece, and so after Plato died Aristotle left Athens, he traveled for a
while and studied and eventually he was called back to the court of King Philip
the second in Macedonia he was called back to be the tutor to King Philip's
son, Alexander. Alexander that time was thirteen somewhat wild and chaotic, and
Aristotle would tutor him for three years and organized his mind. Now this
meeting between Aristotle and Alexander is considered one of the most important
meetings in Western history why well Alexander would grow up to be Alexander
the Great, and Alexander the Great would create an empire that stretched from
Greece all the way to the edges of India in fact he would create the greatest
empire in the then known world let's take a look at Alexander's
Empire. As you'll see it stretches all the way from the Greek Peninsula through
Turkey and Arabia all the way over to India, it is massive. Now in this meeting
between Alexander and Aristotle what Aristotle does is he organizes the young
man's mind and he also instills in him a love of Greek philosophy, this will be
extraordinarily important because Alexander really will spread the values
and ideas of Greek philosophy over the entire area that he conquers, one of the reasons we're still talking about the Greeks 2500 years
later is that Alexander Institutes these ideas world wide and in addition
Alexander will become Aristotle's mentor and protector, because after three years
Aristotle returns to Athens and he actually with help of Alexander sets up
his own school the Lyceum. Now there was a friendly competition between Plato's
Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum sort of like Army Navy, Harvard Yale but really
they were very different because of course Plato's Academy was devoted to
the contemplation of mathematics and ideal forms and into transcendence
Aristotle at the Lyceum and his students were interested in exploring the natural
world. As a matter of fact Aristotle tried to synthesize and catalog everything he
could about this world and in this project he was helped enormously by
Alexander. Some say that as Alexander marched and created his empire he
devoted up to a thousand students just to gather samples for Aristotle. These
soldiers would gather plants from all of the conquered territories and they would
bring them back to Aristotle. Aristotle studied them, started the first Botanical
Gardens and began all the classifications of
botany, These soldiers would over the conquered territories would bring back
animals. Aristotle would study them catalog them and began the first zoo,
they would bring back manuscripts Aristotle cataloged them created the
first library, as a matter of fact the sciences of botany and zoology and
library science still use many of the basic terms and the categorizations that
Aristotle began. You see Aristotle synthesized this vast amount of
knowledge. In doing so he would lay one of the major foundations for the
evolution of the Western mind. Plato transcendence, Aristotle this world.
Science the beginning of science and really what we see in Plato and
Aristotle are the two pillars of the evolution of the Western mind that still
exist because there will be that which in us which seeks for escape from this
world, that in us that escapes that seeks transcendence either in attaining heaven
after life or in unchaining enlightenment in this life and then there is that
within the Western mind that seeks to know and conquer this world in science,
and these two are set up by Plato and Aristotle in the Academy in new Lyceum.
There's a painting actually of Plato and Aristotle in Rome, and in that painting
Plato is pointing to the heavens and Aristotle of course is pointing to the earth,
and as we move to the end of the major classical Greek philosophers we can see
how these pillars have remained a part of the psyche and consciousness of the
West as well as basic pillars of Western philosophy. Now Alexander died
in 323 BC, and once Alexander was dead Aristotle no longer had his patron
and protector. Aristotle was soon arrested in Athens on the very same
charges that they had charged Socrates with they arrested Aristotle and
accused him of corrupting the youth of the state, and not worshiping the gods of
the state. Yes exactly what they had accused Socrates of, but as you should
know by now Aristotle is not the idealist that Socrates was and he was
not about to stay around and allow himself to be executed. In fact, Aristotle left Athens declaring very famously I leave Athens lest Athens sin
against philosophy twice. Aristotle left Athens but he died a year later. Anyway
some say of a broken heart but Aristotle's legacy will be as important
as Plato's and they will be two divergent points of view which will be
both held in the Western mind to different degrees throughout the rest of
that history and they have laid the basis for understanding ethical theory.
Now Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, they did not give us a specific method for
determining the good in specific situations others will try to do that
later but what they did do is try to establish
that the good was objective, not a matter of opinion
not relative that it could be known and proven to exist
Plato by looking to transcendental world reincarnation and a priori ideas
Aristotle by the forms of this world and that it was essential to human happiness.
That knowing the good and doing the good was essential to fulfilling you in life
and achieving human happiness and that's why it is a fundamental part of the
pursuit of happiness now next we're going to look at the
civilization then known civilization after the deaths of Aristotle and
Alexander. This time is called the Hellenistic world. Hellens is Greek and is
Greece is the name for Greece in Roman the time after Alexander's death till
the rise of the next great Empire which will take 200 years will be called the
Hellenistic world why because it will be essentially Greek in character, but there
will be many other philosophies and religions in addition to the Greek
philosophies. This is why we call it the Hellenistic world view,
as I said Hellens is the name for Greece for Romans and Hellenistic means
adopting Greek views and culture in part because as I said as Alexander's troops
marched across the vast territories which were, the then-known
civilization they spread Greek cultures Greek philosophy and Greek ideas but
they also as they were returning brought back ideas from the Middle East and the
ideas from Asia, and so these new ideas also began to take hold, there were new
philosophies and there were new religions
so although the predominant character was Greek, there were a number of
philosophies and religions as a matter of fact the Hellenistic world it would
be only a slight exaggeration to say there's quite a lot like San Francisco
in the 1960s but on a worldwide scale and literally there was almost well not
literally, figuratively but there was it was as if there was a guru on every
corner. Now Alexander when he died hadn't named
an heir he was quite a eccentric by the time of his death Alexander, and he
basically said you fight it out to his generals and that is what his generals
did, they fought it out as a matter of fact Alexander plunged the world into
almost continuous warfare for a couple of hundred years afterwards as first his
own generals and then their descendants fought for the control of the
territories as a matter of fact only one general didn't want to get involved
Ptolemy. Ptolemy said I'll take Egypt and that is indeed what he did he was
given Egypt and actually Egypt became one of the most stable countries for the
next 200 years as a matter of fact Egypt would become a center of learning the
cities particularly the city of Alexandria in Egypt which was founded of
course by Alexander. In Alexandria there'd be a great library built and
texts gathered from all over the known world were brought to the library at
Alexandria have said it one time there were about a million texts in the
library at Alexandria. It also attracted scholars and philosophers and priests
and gurus from all over the world and Alexandria became this intellectual
center of learning, it was vibrant and it was alive and there were debates
and there were controversies and people were searching for the best of all
possible lives and this really was happening throughout the Hellenistic
world because there were so many philosophies and so many religions and it
was really a time of uncertainty this kind of amazing mixture of very
uncertain times because of the warfare Alexander had thrown the world into, but
also of intellectual ferment and artistic creativity and scientific
discovery and so we won't look at all the philosophies of the Hellenistic
world there really be very little reason to do so because very few of these
philosophies had lasting impact they were numerous, of course you know Plato's
philosophy and Aristotle's philosophy which we already covered we're still extremely influential, but out of these
philosophies grew branches of other philosophies and we're going to look
briefly just at three of those philosophies. Now the first philosophy is
Epicurean Hedonism that we're going to look at just briefly we'll find with all
these three philosophies that we look at since these are such turbulent times
philosophy is really interested in how do I achieve peace and personal
happiness so all these philosophies are in a sense
about the achievement of peace and personal happiness. The Epicureans, which
is the first philosophy believed that life was about the pursuit of pleasure
and the avoidance of pain this idea that pleasure is good and pain is bad is
called hedonism. Pleasure is good, pain is bad
now in Epicurean Hedonism they simply suggested that the best of all possible
lives was to pursue the most pleasure possible and to avoid pain as much as
one possibly could and therefore that they counsel that the best possible life
would be one that was simple because of course extreme pleasures cause extreme
pain. So they counsel the simple life of intellectual pursuits, simple foods,
friendship, the counsel that one should not worry about the gods that only
brought unhappiness and that one should just think of death as a non experience
because that only brought unhappiness and so Epicurean Hedonism was really a
philosophy of the pursuit of simple pleasures to put it very briefly.
Epicurean Hedonism is pursue the most pleasure accompanied by the least pain, a
simple life. The cynics another very popular philosophy the cynic said
society is hypocritical and makes human soft. The cynic sought to eliminate all
desire so that they could remove themselves from society they actually
thought that the best of all possible lives was the most famous cynic was Diogenes who lived on the beach and actually said that when he saw a child
drink water from his hands he threw away his cup he sought to have as few desires
as possible and live separate from society as he critiqued the hypocrisy of
society. So that's all we're gonna have time for is to look at those two
Epicurean Hedonism and Cynicism and in the next episode we'll look a little bit
more at the Hellenistic world view and how that led to the rise of the next
great ethical philosophy which will have enormous influence which is of course
Christianity. Until then look at your student learning outcomes, read your web
chapters, and hand in your assignments and I'll see you next time bye bye
