“in general pleasure and pain may be felt both too much and too little, and in both cases not well; but to feel them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way, is what is both intermediate and best, and this is characteristic of virtue.”
Practicing virtue seems difficult with all of these parameters. In order to become virtuous, a person must learn to feel pleasure when practicing virtue and pain when he or she chooses not to practice virtue. Not only is the virtuous act itself important to Aristotle, but also the virtuous motive. This brings to mind the old saying, “Character is who you are when no one is watching.” Although it is cliché, I think it rings true in the context of virtue. Nobody can see your character. Similarly, nobody can every truly know your motives. There is no reward for having virtuous motives besides the intrinsic reward of being virtuous for the sake of virtue.
In Book 2 of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that one has become virtuous once he or she practices virtue in the same way as a virtuous person enough times that he or she finds pleasure in being virtuous because it is good to be virtuous. It is a learned skill that takes practice. But doing virtuous things in the same manner as virtuous people is an important aspect of the practice. Reading this section reminded me of my old harp teacher. She would always tell me I needed to practice more, but she would also remind me that “practice makes perfect” is not a true adage; she would always say “perfect practice makes perfect” and then make me drill whatever section I was struggling with until it was perfect. Aristotle’s method of learning virtue strongly parallels my experience with learning to play the harp. It was very hard at first. I would often feel like I had hit a wall, but I had to keep practicing. I did not enjoy practicing as a child, and it was a chore for me. Slowly, I developed my skill and became proficient. Now as an adult, I actually enjoy playing the harp for the sake of making music. I rarely play in public (because few people know I can play and also because I may be proficient, but I’m not excellent), but I practice frequently because it relaxes me, I enjoy the music, and it helps me take a break from studying by using my brain in a different way. Aristotle finds virtue in the arts, and I definitely find good in having a creative outlet.
Aristotle also talks about finding the mean in Book 2. Each virtue exists on a sliding scale of deficiency, mean, and excess. When I read Ethics last semester with Dr. Zori, his favorite example of virtue was magnificence. A deficiency of magnificence is stinginess. An excess is gaudiness. Dr. Zori’s grand plan to achieve the virtue of magnificence is as follows:
Step 1 – fix the toilet in the men’s room in Morrison that has been broken since Dr. Zori was hired here.
Step 2 – Tell whoever is in charge of naming buildings at Baylor about his generous contribution.
Step 3 – Install a plaque with his name on it in the stall.
Step 4 – Be magnificent.
Not to fix the toilet would be stingy, but to claim the whole bathroom with the Zori plaque would by gaudy and extravagant. Honoring himself in the repaired stall only is to exist in the mean and to have achieved the virtue of magnificence.
I’m so excited that we’re finally reading Aristotle. I really like his ideas on moderation and virtues rather than forms. In Book I of the Ethics, he discusses the idea that different activities and items work toward different types or degrees of good, rather than the Good, such as bread vs. good bread or dancer vs. good dancer. Certain goods seem to be larger or of a higher degree than others, i.e. good friendship vs. good handwriting. They are both good in their own ways, but good friendship is of a higher order than good handwriting. One thing that delineates the different types of good is the difference between intrinsic good, instrumental good, and intrinsic-instrumental good. Intrinsic good is something that is good in and of itself, such as good friendship. Instrumental good is something that leads to a good end, though it may not necessarily be good or pleasant in and of itself, such as exercise. Intrinsic-instrumental goods are both good and pleasant in and of themselves, and also lead to good ends, such as getting a college education.
Socrates is one of those characters who is entertaining in the story, but who you would hate to know in real life. At the end of the party, he bests the guest of honor, and effectively declares himself the best speaker in Athens. He also makes himself out to be the picture of perfect love based on Diotima’s story and proves that philosophy trumps tragedy.
In the end of the story, Socrates cannot be swayed by physical desire and believes that he would be getting the short end of the deal if he were to exchange wisdom for sex with Alcibiades. He is also never effected by alcohol, and spends his time alone thinking philosophical thoughts. He is entirely motivated by his love for wisdom, and cannot be distracted from pursuing it. While this is not a bad thing in itself, it results in Socrates becoming proud, arrogant, and rude, and spending his time convincing people to argue with him so that he can prove them wrong. Overall, Socrates seems like a smart guy, but I wouldn’t want to go to his parties.
My favorite speech in the first half of the Symposium was Aristophanes’. He has a very unique take on love. Aristophanes told a story about where love comes from. He said that long ago, humans had four legs, four arms, two heads, and one soul. They were male, female, and androgynous. The males came from the sun, the females came from the Earth, and the androgynous ones came from the moon. One day, the gods were angry with the humans, so they split them in two, causing them to take on the form we now think of as human. The gods threatened to split them in half again and make them hop around on one foot if the humans angered them again. Since the original eight-limbed humans had one soul, the four-limbed humans only got half a soul in the split, and now we spend our lives seeking our other halves, or soul mates. Since some original humans were male and some female, both halves of the soul resided in people of the same gender. The humans who were originally androgynous split into one man and one woman.
I don’t believe in the concept of soul mates, but I can identify with Aristophanes’ story. He makes the search for love out to be an all-consuming quest that overshadows all of life’s other obligations because love is the only means to happiness. Sometimes in college it feels like there is a lot of pressure to find that special someone, especially with Baylor’s “ring by spring” mentality. This can be a challenge as a heterosexual female in a place with a 3:1 female:male ratio. It is also challenging because the dating culture at Baylor is basically impossible to figure out. People don’t want to date someone they wouldn’t marry, so you’re supposed to somehow magically know if you would marry someone without ever having gone out. Since dating in this context is such a big commitment, people are reluctant to label their romantic relationships, which leads to confusion and hurt feelings; however, once the relationship is labeled, the two partners are deeply committed for the long term and if they break up, it is a tragedy. If you are one of the lucky girls who gets asked on a real live actual date by a guy (because girls can’t ask guys and homosexuality doesn’t exist on this campus), then you have to really consider whether or not you want to say yes because if things don’t work out then you can never talk to him again — although it might not matter because your friendship is pretty much over if you say no too.
For the people attempting to navigate this confusing social construct, it is easy to see how the search for love can become all-consuming. Personally, I don’t believe that there is one specific person out there that each of us is destined to be with romantically because I believe that God created us with free will. Dating at Baylor is difficult and confusing, and sometimes it seems as though the student body shares Aristophanes’ take on love.
Although the Greek apologia translates more accurately as “defense” rather than “apology,” I like to use the word “apology” because it makes Plato’s Socrates so much more sassy. The sentiment of the Apology is actually strikingly similar to Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, except Socrates is one of the Plastics (the mean clique) rather than the tragic hero. The basic gist of Mean Girls is that a new girl, Cady (Lindsey Lohan), moves from South Africa and homeschooling to an American high school. She makes friends with some of the less popular “art freaks,” but is soon sucked into the life of a Plastic, where there is a dress code (“on Wednesdays, we wear pink”), required participation in the winter talent show (Jingle Bell Rock, anybody?), and the Burn Book. The Burn Book is the Mean Girls’ version of philosophical dialogue. They cut out pictures of all the other girls in the school and write mean comments and gossip about them. The Queen Bee, Regina George, gets upset with Cady, so she devises a plan to get Cady in trouble. Regina puts her own photograph in the book with the caption “This girl is a fugly slut. Don’t trust her.” She shows the book to the principal to frame Cady and get her in trouble with school administration and then places hundreds of copies of all the pages around the school where their peers find them. All of the girls in the school start fighting each other, and the faculty makes them gather in the gym to work out their problems. The scene that follows shows all of the girls’ “apologies” to one another.
Gretchen Weiners’ apology was the one that came to mind when I read Socrates’. She’s the one who said, “I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help that I’m popular.” I remembered this scene because Gretchen is not really apologizing for anything. She helped make the Burn Book, and she is not sorry that the other girls did not like her ideas because she believes they are true. Obviously, this “apology” went over about as well as Socrates’, because all but one girl refused to catch Gretchen, giving her a painful landing on her friend Karen.
The Mean Girls view themselves as the gadflies of the high school; without them, there would be no social hierarchy, no cool table at lunch, and no one to police everyone else’s fashion faux pas – basically, the school would descend into anarchical chaos.
Although nobody had to drink hemlock, the Mean Girls had to disband their clique and learn to channel their emotions into activities like lacrosse. They became more or less social pariahs compared to the status they held as the Plastics, but they got their message across to the public, even though it was not well-received.
In conclusion, Plato is still relevant and Mean Girls is an excellent movie that everyone should watch.
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