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.