Ethics, Aristotle [classic literature books TXT] 📗

premise “This is sweet,” this again suggests the self-indulgent maxim or principle (‘[Greek:–-]), “All that is sweet is to be tasted,” and so, by strict logical sequence, proves “This glass is to be tasted.”

The solution then of the ph�nomenon of [Greek:–-] is this that [Greek:–-], by its direct action on the animal nature, swamps the suggestions of Right Reason.

On the high ground of Universals, [Greek:–-] i.e. [Greek:–-] easily defeats [Greek:–-]. The [Greek:–-], an hour before he is in temptation, would never deliberately prefer the maxim “All that is sweet is to be tasted” to “All excess is to be avoided.” The [Greek:–-] would.

Horace has a good comment upon this (II Sat 2):

Qu� virtus et quanta, bom, sit vivere parvo Discite, non inter lances mensasque nitentes Verum hic impransi mecum disquirite

Compare also Proverbs XXIII. 31. “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,” etc. P. 160, l. 2. [Greek: oron]. Aristotle’s own account of this word (Prior Analyt ii. 1) is [Greek: eis on dialuetai hae protasis], but both in the account of [Greek: nous] and here it seems that the proposition itself is really indicated by it.

P. 161, l. 16. The Greek would give “avoids excessive pain,” but this is not true, for the excess of pain would be ground for excuse the warrant for translating as in the text, is the passage occurring just below [Greek: diokei tas uperbolas kai pheugei metrias lupas].

P. 162, l. 11. Compare Bishop Butler on Particular Propensions, Analogy, Part I chap v sect. iv.

P. 162, l. 35. That is, they are to the right states as Vice to Virtue.

P. 165, l. 4 Consult in connection with this Chapter the Chapter on [Greek: orgae] in the Rhetoric, II. 2, and Bishop Butler’s Sermon on Resentment.

P. 166, l. 7. The reasoning here being somewhat obscure from the concisement of expression, the following exposition of it is subjoined.

Actions of Lust are wrong actions done with pleasure, Wrong actions done with pleasure are more justly objects of wrath,

[Footnote: [Greek: hubpis] is introduced as the single instance from which this premiss is proved inductively. See the account of it in the Chapter of the Rhetoric referred to in the preceding note.]

Such as are more justly objects of wrath are more unjust, Actions of Lust are more unjust

P. 168, l. 3. [Greek: ton dae lechthenton]. Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the proper meaning of these words. The emendation which substitutes [Greek: akrataes] for [Greek: akolastos] removes all difficulty, as the clause would then naturally refer to [Greek: ton mae proairoumenon] but Zell adheres to the reading in the text of Bekker, because the authority of MSS and old editions is all on this side.

I understand [Greek: mallon] as meant to modify the word [Greek: malakias], which properly denotes that phase of [Greek: akrasia] (not [Greek: akolasia]) which is caused by pain.

The [Greek: akolastos] deliberately pursues pleasure and declines pain if there is to be a distinct name for the latter phase, it comes under [Greek: malakia] more nearly than any other term, though perhaps not quite properly.

Or the words may be understood as referring to the class of wrong acts caused by avoidance of pain, whether deliberate or otherwise, and then of course the names of [Greek: malakia] and [Greek: akolasia] may be fitly given respectively.

P. 169, l. 29. “If we went into a hospital where all were sick or dying, we should think those least ill who were insensible to pain; a physician who knew the whole, would behold them with despair. And there is a mortification of the soul as well as of the body, in which the first symptoms of returning hope are pain and anguish” Sewell, Sermons to Young Men (Sermon xii.)

P. 170, 1. 6. Before the time of trial comes the man deliberately makes his Moral Choice to act rightly, but, at the moment of acting, the powerful strain of desire makes him contravene this choice his Will does not act in accordance with the affirmation or negation of his Reason. His actions are therefore of the mixed kind. See Book III. chap. i, and note on page 128.

P. 171, 1. 17. Let a man be punctual on principle to any one engagement in the day, and he must, as a matter of course, keep all his others in their due places relatively to this one; and so will often wear an appearance of being needlessly punctilious in trifles.

P. 172, 1. 21. Because he is destitute of these minor springs of action, which are intended to supply the defects of the higher principle.

See Bishop Butler’s first Sermon on Compassion, and the conclusion of note on p. 129.

P. 179, 1. 4. Abandoning Bekker’s punctuation and reading [Greek: mae agathon], yields a better sense.

“Why will he want it on the supposition that it is not good? He can live even with Pain because,” etc.

P. 179, 1. 25. [Greek: pheugei] may be taken perhaps as equivalent to [Greek: pheugouoi] and so balance [Greek: chairouoi]. But compare Chapter VIII (Bekker).

P. 183, 1. 6. “Owe no man anything, but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law.” Romans XIII. 8.

P. 183, I. 20. [Greek: kerameis]. The Proverb in full is a line from Hesiod, [Greek: kahi keramehus keramei koteei kai tektoni tekton].

P. 184, I. 33. In this sense, therefore, is it sung of Mrs. Gilpin that she

“two stone bottles found, To hold the liquor that she loved, And keep it safe and sound.”

P. 187, 1. 24. Cardwell’s reading, [Greek: tautae gar omoioi, kai ta loipa] is here adopted, as yielding a better sense than Bekker’s.

P. 192, 1. 34. The Great man will have a right to look for more Friendship than he bestows, but the Good man can feel Friendship only for, and in proportion to, the goodness of the other.

P. 195, 1. 12. See note on page 68, 1. 8.

P. 202, 1. 28. See I. Topics, Chap. v. on the various senses of [Greek: tauton].

P. 203, 1. 35. “For the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.” P. 206, 1. 10. Which one would be assuming he was, if one declined to recognise the obligation to requite the favour or kindness.

P. 217, 1. 10. “Neither the Son of man, that He should repent.” Numbers xxiii. 19.

“In a few instances the Second Intention, or Philosophical employment of a Term, is more extensive than the First Intention, or popular use.” Whately, Logic, iii. 10.

P. 218, 1. 17. “I have sometimes considered in what troublesome case is that Chamberlain in an Inn who being but one is to give attendance to many guests. For suppose them all in one chamber, yet, if one shall command him to come to the window, and the other to the table, and another to the bed, and another to the chimney, and another to come upstairs, and another to go downstairs, and all in the same instant, how would he be distracted to please them all? And yet such is the sad condition of nay soul by nature, not only a servant but a slave unto sin. Pride calls me to the window, gluttony to the table, wantonness to the bed, laziness to the chimney, ambition commands me to go upstairs, and covetousness to come down. Vices, I see, are as well contrary to themselves as to Virtue.” (Fuller’s Good Thoughts in Bad Times. Mix’t Contemplations, viii.)

P. 235, 1. 14. See note, p. 43.

P. 235, 1. 24. See Book II. chap. ix.

P. 237, 1. 3. See Book I. chap. v. ad finem.

P. 238, 1. 2. The notion alluded to is that of the [greek: idea]: that there is no real substantial good except the [greek: auto agathon], and therefore whatever is so called is so named in right of its participation in that.

P. 238, 1. 9. See note on page 136, 1. 15.

P. 238, 1. 24. Movement is, according to Aristotle, of six kinds: [sidenote:Categories, chap xi.]From not being to being … . Generation From being to not being … . Destruction From being to being more … . Increase From being to being less … . Diminution From being here to being there . . Change of Place From being in this way to being in that Alteration

P. 238, 1 31. A may go to sleep quicker than B, but cannot do more sleep in a given time.

P. 239, 1. 3. Compare Book III. chap. vi. [Greek: osper kai epi ton somaton, k. t. l.]

P. 241, 1. 6. Which is of course a [Greek: genesis].

P. 241, 1. 9. That is, subordinate Movements are complete before the whole Movement is. P. 242, 1. 7. Pleasure is so instantaneous a sensation, that it cannot be conceived divisible or incomplete; the longest continued Pleasure is only a succession of single sparks, so rapid as to give the appearance of a stream, of light.

P. 245, 1. 18. A man is as effectually hindered from taking a walk by the [Greek: allotria haedouae] of reading a novel, as by the [Greek: oikeia lupae] of gout in the feet.

P. 249, 1. 12. I have thus rendered [Greek: spoudae (ouk agnoon to hamartanomenon)]; but, though the English term does not represent the depth of the Greek one, it is some approximation to the truth to connect an earnest serious purpose with Happiness.

P. 250, 1. 12. Bishop Butler, contra (Sermon XV.).

“Knowledge is not our proper Happiness. Whoever will in the least attend to the thing will see that it is the gaining, not the having, of it, which is the entertainment of the mind.” The two statements may however be reconciled. Aristotle may be well understood only to mean, that the pursuit of knowledge will be the pleasanter, the freer it is from the minor hindrances which attend on learning.

Footnote P. 250, 1. 30. The clause immediately following indicates that Aristotle felt this statement to be at first sight startling, Happiness having been all the way through connected with [Greek: energeia], but the statement illustrates and confirms what was said in note on page 6,

1. 15.

 

P. 251, 1. 7. That is to say, he aims at producing not merely a happy aggregate, but an aggregate of happy individuals. Compare what is said of Legislators in the last chapter of Book I and the first of Book II.

P. 252, 1. 22. See note, page 146, 1. 17.