Fate?

We are in book 3 section four of Aristotle’s ethics. I’m doing somewhat of a running commentary: Everyone has desires and things they wish would happen. We come to decisions on worthy goals and chase after them. What is it that we are after? Some things we wish for turn out bad and so we can’t say that all desires are based on obvious good outcomes. Some things look good but aren't good in reality and some things turn out better than we expect. Individuals have different desires and what is good for one person may not be good for another. At times desires are set on contrary things. If things turn out bad, can we say that there was a certain good that they missed because they were drawn away by their own desires? Is a good person the only one who can see good and true things while bad people are blind to good and are approaching life in a random manner? It also seems like people who are healthy crave healthy things while unhealthy people not so much. Maybe the good person does have a better perspective to see clearly what is good. For the most part, errors in judgment occur to everyone because of pleasure, since it always appears good. 

We have a tendency to justify what is pleasurable and avoiding what is painful. We always call painful things evil. However we arrive at it, goals are what we wish for and the means is what we deliberate on to choose actions to take. Choices that result in action in this way are considered voluntary. Virtue belongs in this realm. It has to do with the means we use to arrive at our goals. The same thing can be said about vice. Anything we have power to take action on, we also have power to take no action. We admire noble acts and despise base acts because we assume they are in people’s power to do.

There are those who claim misery and happiness are all about destiny or fate. But these assumptions can leave a person helpless. Religions add to this by attributing things in life to spirits or plans. Some use the term Karma or various different terms. These assumptions can cause a person to avoid using the reasoning faculties that God gave them while avoiding the corrective actions needed for improvements. We can always use our natural creativity and construct a good life or we can resign ourselves to misery.  Now there are always uncertainties and conditions we cannot control, but that doesn't mean we are helpless. So when we talk about virtues we have to assume that they are under our control. Virtues are those things that make use of our talents with those we enjoy and bring us the most happiness. We will take a further look at actions, reactions, virtue and vice next time. 

Such is Life

We celebrated the fact that we always have choices. The more there is freedom, the more options we have. Now freedom doesn't mean the ability to do whatever we please. A marksman with plenty of ammo is free to practice to get better, but he doesn't take the ammo and shoot it randomly into the air. That would be a waste; in the same way freedom used randomly is wasted. Choice has to do with deliberation and choosing among options to achieve our goals. The more freedom we have the more options are available. We can have a dream, make a goal, deliberate about the means, choose the best options and take deliberate action to accomplish each objective. But the flip side of choice is that we can also choose to take actions that make our lives miserable. It can be said that wickedness is the opposite of happiness. In the context of this study, evil consists of things such as disgrace, poverty, disease, friendlessness and death. We will go over them in detail later but the point is that this isn't a study about “spiritual” issues. Things that are evil are those that sabotage our potential, our choices and ability to act.

The irrational part of our soul is a study in itself and psychologists have conflicting views on how to deal with it. When we are talking about getting along with others and enjoying life, it has to be assumed that the irrational part is working properly: That it is being used creatively and for the random fun things we enjoy about each other.  A person is of sound mind when these things are functioning normally. Of course if someone isn't like minded he would consider these expressions goofiness, but such is life. Certain artists like certain kinds of art etc. What we are entering into next is a study about choices and how to deal with ourselves and our associates when choices are made. Why do we make them in the first place? There are ramifications for the actions that accompany these choices; they can bring us misery or happiness. 

Hope for the Best

I took a course once that included a study on self talk. People who are unhappy tend to ruminate. Their minds get in a cycle of seeing disasters in everything rather than good outcomes. The same thing is true when it comes to our study. (I edited the end of the last post so it makes better sense.) We tell ourselves to gather our wits or to get it together. That means to stop and think about what is possible and focus on them rather than worrying about millions of bad outcomes. It doesn't mean to abandon dreams. We have read about how certain things are voluntary and involuntary and the factors involved in making choices. An important point in the last post is that no matter how hard we plan things out and how good our choices, there are always things outside our control that can change the outcome. Some people end up with things simply because the things outside their control lined up. How hard a person worked at it isn't the major factor in accomplishment, although hard work helps. All outcomes have an element of uncertainties coming together. That is why we shouldn't worry. The best we can do is the best we can do. We move on without guilt, adjust for mistakes and hope for the best. Choice is the foundation for  freedom and when we seem to run out of options,we can always create new, fresh ones. The mall of ideas is a fun place to shop..

Is it Just Fantasy?

Deliberation, meditation or fantasy? Fantasy deals with a mixture of possibilities and impossibilities both sane and insane people go there and there doesn't have to be a particular goal in mind. We meditate on what we hope to be possible; this involves more of an element of choice but not entirely. Deliberation occurs when we have settled on objectives and attempt to figure out how to accomplish them. Deliberation isn't a choice about the goal but how to go about achieving one that has already been made. The raw materials we use are experiences. Deliberation involves real things we feel we can effect to get to a goal.

Deliberation is about things in our power that we can do. We are at the mercy of everything else. Nature, need, chance and reason are things we can’t affect but are givens. So we deliberate on things our own efforts can change. There is little deliberation about things such as the alphabet and much more in the instance of writing a novel. Using deliberation, we push what we want the outcome to be but it doesn't always turn out how we want it since there are so many things we cannot affect that are involved. Sometimes we ask others to help us on important things because we might lack certain experiences and make the wrong choices along the way to our goal.

Deliberation is about the means after a choice has been made about the goal. A doctor doesn't deliberate on whether or not he wants to heal. An orator doesn't decide if he wants to persuade. A lawgiver doesn't deliberate on whether or not to make law. The goal is always assumed but they deliberate on how do go about it. They will look at available options and choose the one that is the easiest and the best. This process goes on until the goal is reached as the last thing in their order of thinking. All deliberation is investigation and there always is an object first and then the details to arrive at that conclusion or accomplish the goal. If something is impossible, we move on to something else. We will try to do what is realistic and avoid what we are convinced cannot be done. Things that are possible are also those things we can enlist the help of others. 

Sometimes we need equipment or some other way of bringing about our goal. Since all things attributed to a man involve actions, deliberation would be the things he initiates within himself. Actions are for something better than themselves. Deliberation is about how we go about getting to that better thing, but the means are not cut and dried. Everyone has their own way of going at things. Some people have perceptions as to how long something should be cooked for instance. Every person has to settle on the details of how they prefer things to be done to get to the goal; otherwise deliberation would go on infinitely.