Penance

When we owe a debt to someone that is far beyond our means such as to a parent, the only thing we have to pay them back with is honor. There may be someone we owe our lives to and the only way to repay them is to honor them. In any event, whatever the degree of debt, we should always do what we can to repay. This is honorable. If the son or daughter is disrespectful to his parent, it is disgraceful but at the same time a parent is in his rights to disown one who acts disgraceful. These principles are applied to our religions when people feel we owe a debt to God and he has a right to disown us. Religions are based on reconciling the issue. But of course we know that a loving parent doesn't abandon his children and neither would a loving God. But the reality is that it is in our nature to want the benefits of a relationship while being hesitant to give back what we should. Aristotle points this out as the conclusion to Book eight.

In Book nine we look at a number of different scenarios. It is pointed out how straying from the right principles causes inner conflicts. This inner conflict is manifested in friendships since a friendship is an extension of ourselves. We don't need to find origins to recognize how being unprincipled hurts our lives and those around us. Psychology uses the past; religion uses sin; and atheists use evolution to find the origin of this conflict. In this study all that is asked is that we recognize the behavior so we can deal with ourselves and others with understanding. Rather than penance it is assumed that giving people an "aha" will point them in the right direction to figure out why they are anxious and causing anxiety in others. Friendship or conflict, peace or anxiety; these are the opposing forces in ethics.

If two people from different backgrounds want the same thing, we have to find a way to make the transactions just. We already established that it can't be based on where a person is in life and that there should be equal access for everyone for the same goods. The goods or services set the price and not a person's station or influence. Equality is what gives us a free market and keeps us friendly toward each other. To tax or charge in an unequal manner breeds resentment. The next chapter answers questions about it so we can be objective toward each other when we have dealings. There are a number of areas addressed in book nine. There are ten books total and we have acquired knowledge in how to reason things out for different scenarios so lets check a few of them out.