Read Aristotle

I just finished The Nicomachean Ethics (Penguin Classics). Although it felt like a real slog at times, it was certainly worth reading. It is interesting to see how much of how we think today goes back to Aristotle.

Aristotle’s writings about continence, virtue, vice, and incontinence help illuminate St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans, especially chapter 7.

One piece of the Ethics seems to be missing the most from common discourse in our society, and that is “virtue.” A number of years ago William Bennett penned The Book of Virtues (which I have not read …) but other than that, “virtue” seems a concept left behind in the 19th century.

But the Ethics emphasizes the concept of virtue as necessary for a healthy society. By virtue, Aristotle means making a habit of choosing and taking pleasure in excellence, in the mean between deficits and excesses.

I’m going to begin to rewrite some of my goals with this in mind, devoting the balance of 2008 to gaining a few virtues of my own.

Read his complete works, several of them several times. My favorite so far is his Physics, because it is the most challenging. You may have expected this of his Metaphysics, but it is in fact far less difficult to understand than the Physics.

I just listened to the first two lectures in the Teaching Company’s course on The Ethics of Aristotle. Now it’s time to play catch-up and read the first “book.”

Started reading his Metaphysics