After reading Book 7, reviewing the mini-lecture, and getting an understanding of Vice/ Virtue and the stages or levels in between, use WORDS or DRAW to explain the function of reason in the pursuit of happiness.
Why would reasoning matter when passion and pleasure are so dominant in happy times?
Wont thinking too much be a buzz-kill for ones self or others?
Here below is the “Scale of Evil,” as I call it and as one former student drew it:
Notice the “Reason versus Passion” pole (the green line) running down the ‘scale.’
Also notice the “Pain versus Pleasure” pole (the blue line) running up and down the ‘scale.’
Why are ‘pain’ and ‘reason’ more closely allied on this scale?
Why are ‘pleasure’ and ‘passion’ more closely allied on this scale?
Does it ‘make sense’ to “PAIN” one’s self? Or does it seem like a “better” life if one seeks “PLEASURE” for one’s self?
What other ‘levels’ of Evil or wrong-choosing can you insert here in this incomplete scale?
What page numbers and passages from Aristotle coincide with your decision to place, for example, “intemperance” LOWER THAN (or ‘worse than’) “incontinence”? What do these words mean? Why should we notice which ‘level’ is worse and which level is ‘higher’ — especially if both are leaning more towards ‘vice’ than they are toward ‘virtue’? Isn’t all “wrong” just wrong? Why or why not?
How do our laws work, and how do families work when it comes to “weighing” or “judging” wrongs? How do our laws work, and how do families work when it comes to “rewarding” good behavior or right choices?
Scale of Evil in Aristotle is about weakness,
