My dad is a horticulturalist who specializes in palm trees, so all my life I've grown up surrounded by palm trees. Palm trees are weird in the sense that they have different requirements than other trees to grow and maintain health. Its not really surprising my dad's relationship with trees has made him an Aristotelian. Even though he has never read any of Aristotle's works, he often identifies with the mean of virtue Aristotle is famous for. Many times my dad will just say something like, "life is just a balance, from finances to nutrition, its just a balance." I cannot tell you how annoyingly often he says stuff like this, but he is right. Just as trees have different needs with the amount of water, sunlight, temperature, and sustenance in accordance to their size and species so that they may become healthy and strong, humans also have different needs for becoming virtuous in accordance to their moral identity and their intellect. Because of different people's innate nature, or their experiences, we approach the balance of virtue from different sides and distances on the teeter todder. In order to become virtuous different people need to practice it in different manners.
Aristotle's idea of happiness has been my favorite part of the reading thus far. He says happiness is the chief end of all things. It is the chief good, and we always choose it for itself, and never for the sake of other things. I've been trying to think of an action that has been done, without the ultimate goal of happiness in mind, and I couldn't. Everything that has ever been done has been done in an attempt to become happy or at least happier. I am not even sure if complete happiness even for a short amount of time has even been attained, at least in this life. Its rather odd that Aristotle calls happiness complete and self sufficient. On one hand complete happiness is the goal of everything, but on the other hand it seems like nobody is completely happy. Why are we set on trying to attain something that appears impossible to obtain? And with that...
Zip it up and zip it out
I really like the palm tree example. I think science is a good means of understanding Aristotle. Not surprisingly, he did a lot with science himself. I also think his definition of virtue is quite inspiring.
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