The Ethics of Aristotle Part 28

cannot have place, though, had it been held out from the first, men would have been for making the experiment at once, without the trouble of self-discipline.

P 6, l. 22. Or, as some think, "many theories have been founded on them."

P. 8, l. 1. The list ran thus--

[Greek: to peras to apeiron | to euthu to perisson to artion | to phos to en to plethos | to tetragonon to dexion to aristeron | to aeremoun to arren to thelu | to agathon ]

P 8, l. 2. Plato's sister's son.

P 9, l. 9. This is the capital defect in Aristotle's eyes, who being eminently practical, could not like a theory which not only did not necessarily lead to action, but had a tendency to discourage it by enabling unreal men to talk finely. If true, the theory is merely a way of stating facts, and leads to no action.

P. 10, l. 34. _i.e._ the identification of Happiness with the Chief Good.

P. 11, l. 11. _i.e._ without the capability of addition.

P. 11, l. 14. And then Happiness would at once be shown not to be the Chief Good. It is a contradiction in terms to speak of adding to the Chief Good. See Book X. chap. 11. [Greek: delon os oud allo ouden tagathon an eiae o meta tenos ton kath' auto agathon airetoteron ginetai.]

P. 12, l. 9. _i.e._ as working or as quiescent.

P. 13, 1. 14. This principle is more fully stated, with ill.u.s.trations, in the Topics, I. chap. ix.

P. 13, l. 19. Either that of the bodily senses, or that of the moral senses. "Fire burns," is an instance of the former, "Treason is odious,"

of the latter.

P. 14, l. 27. I have thought it worthwhile to vary the interpretation of this word, because though "habitus" may be equivalent to all the senses of [Greek: exis], "habit" is not, at least according to our colloquial usage we commonly denote by "habit" a state formed by habituation.

P. 14, l. 35. Another and perhaps more obvious method of rendering this pa.s.sage is to apply [Greek: kalon kagathon] to things, and let them depend grammatically on [Greek: epaeboli]. It is to be remembered, however, that [Greek: kalos kagathos] bore a special and well-known meaning also the comparison is in the text more complete, and the point of the pa.s.sage seems more completely brought out.

P. 15 l. 16. "Goodness always implies the love of itself, an affection to goodness." (Bishop Butler, Sermon xiii ) Aristotle describes pleasure in the Tenth Book of this Treatise as the result of any faculty of perception meeting with the corresponding object, vicious pleasure being as truly pleasure as the most refined and exalted. If Goodness then implies the love of itself, the percipient will always have its object present, and pleasure continually result.

P. 15, l. 32. In spite of theory, we know as a matter of fact that external circ.u.mstances are necessary to complete the idea of Happiness not that Happiness is capable of addition, but that when we a.s.sert it to be identical with virtuous action we must understand that it is to have a fair field; in fact, the other side of [Greek: bios teleios].

P. 16, l. 18. It is remarkable how Aristotle here again shelves what he considers an unpractical question. If Happiness were really a direct gift from Heaven, independently of human conduct, all motive to self-discipline and moral improvement would vanish He shows therefore that it is no depreciation of the value of Happiness to suppose it to come partly at least from ourselves, and he then goes on with other reasons why we should think with him.

P. 16, l. 26. This term is important, what has been maimed was once perfect; he does not contemplate as possible the case of a man being born incapable of virtue, and so of happiness.

P. 17, l. 3. But why give materials and instruments, if there is no work to do?

P. 18, l. 6. The supposed pair of ancestors.

P. 18, l. 12. Solon says, "Call no man happy till he is dead." He must mean either, The man when dead _is_ happy (a), or, The man when dead _may be said to have been happy_ (b). If the former, does he mean positive happiness (a)? or only freedom from unhappiness ([Greek: B])?

_We_ cannot allow (a), Men's opinions disallow ([Greek: B]), We revert now to the consideration of (b).

P. 18, l. 36. The difficulty was raised by the clashing of a notion commonly held, and a fact universally experienced. Most people conceive that Happiness should be abiding, every one knows that fortune is changeable. It is the notion which supports the definition, because we have therein based Happiness on the most abiding cause.

P. 20, l. 12. The term seems to be employed advisedly. The Choragus, of course, dressed his actors _for their parts;_ not according to their fancies or his own.

Hooker has (E. P. v. ixxvi. 5) a pa.s.sage which seems to be an admirable paraphrase on this.

"Again, that the measure of our outward prosperity be taken by proportion with that which every man's estate in this present life requireth. External abilities are instruments of action. It contenteth wise artificers to have their instruments proportionable to their work, rather fit for use than huge and goodly to please the eye. Seeing then the actions of a servant do not need that which may be necessary for men of calling and place in the world, neither men of inferior condition many things which greater personages can hardly want; surely they are blessed in worldly respects who have wherewith to perform what their station and place asketh, though they have no more."

P. 20, l. 18. Always bearing in mind that man "never continueth in one stay."

P. 20, l. 11. The meaning is this: personal fortunes, we have said, must be in certain weight and number to affect our own happiness, this will be true, of course, of those which are reflected on us from our friends: and these are the only ones to which the dead are supposed to be liable? add then the difference of sensibility which it is fair to presume, and there is a very small residuum of joy or sorrow.

P. 21, l. 18. This is meant for an exhaustive division of goods, which are either so _in esse_ or _in posse_.

If _in esse_, they are either above praise, or subjects of praise. Those _in posse_, here called faculties, are good only when rightly used. Thus Rhetoric is a faculty which may be used to promote justice or abused to support villainy. Money in like way.

P. 22, l. 4. Eudoxus, a philosopher holding the doctrine afterwards adopted by Epicurus respecting pleasure, but (as Aristotle testifies in the Tenth Book) of irreproachable character.

P. 22, l. 13. See the Rhetoric, Book I. chap ix.

P. 24, l. 23. The unseen is at least as real as the seen.

P. 24, l. 29. The terms are borrowed from the Seventh Book and are here used in their strict philosophical meaning. The [Greek: enkrates] is he who has bad or unruly appet.i.tes, but whose reason is strong enough to keep them under. The [Greek: akrates] is he whose appet.i.tes constantly prevail over his reason and previous good resolutions.

By the law of habits the former is constantly approximating to a state in which the appet.i.tes are wholly quelled. This state is called [Greek: sophrosyne], and the man in it [Greek: sophron]. By the same law the remonstrances of reason in the latter grow fainter and fainter till they are silenced for ever. This state is called [Greek: akolasia], and the man in it [Greek: akolastos].

P. 25, l. 2. This is untranslateable. As the Greek phrase, [Greek: echein logon tinos], really denotes subst.i.tuting that person's [Greek: logos] for one's own, so the Irrational nature in a man of self-control or perfected self-mastery subst.i.tutes the orders of Reason for its own impulses. The other phrase means the actual possession of mathematical truths as part of the mental furniture, _i.e._ knowing them.

P 25, l. 16. [Greek: xin] may be taken as opposed to [Greek: energeian], and the meaning will be, to show a difference between Moral and Intellectual Excellences, that men are commended for merely having the latter, but only for exerting and using the former.

P. 26, l. 2. Which we call simply virtue.

P. 26, l. 4. For nature must of course supply the capacity.

P. 26, l. 18. Or "as a simple result of nature."

P. 28, l. 12. This is done in the Sixth Book.

P. 28, l. 21. It is, in truth, in the application of rules to particular details of practice that our moral Responsibility chiefly lies no rule can be so framed, that evasion shall be impossible. See Bishop Butler's Sermon on the character of Balaam, and that on Self-Deceit. P. 29, l.

32. The words [Greek: akolastos] and [Greek: deilos] are not used here in their strict significations to denote confirmed states of vice the [Greek: enkrates] necessarily feels pain, because he must always be thwarting pa.s.sions which are a real part of his nature, though this pain will grow less and less as he nears the point of [Greek: sophrosyne] or perfected Self-Mastery, which being attained the pain will then, and then only, cease entirely. So a certain degree of fear is necessary to the _formation_ of true courage. All that is meant here is, that no habit of courage or self-mastery can be said to be matured, until pain altogether vanishes.

P. 30, l. 18. Virtue consists in the due regulation of _all_ the parts of our nature our pa.s.sions are a real part of that nature, and as such have their proper office, it is an error then to aim at their extirpation. It is true that in a perfect moral state emotion will be rare, but then this will have been gained by regular process, being the legitimate result of the law that "pa.s.sive impressions weaken as active habits are strengthened, by repet.i.tion." If musical instruments are making discord, I may silence or I may bring them into harmony in either case I get rid of discord, but in the latter I have the positive enjoyment of music. The Stoics would have the pa.s.sions rooted out, Aristotle would have them cultivated to use an apt figure (whose I know not), They would pluck the blossom off at once, he would leave it to fall in due course when the fruit was formed. Of them we might truly say, _Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant_. See on this point Bishop Butler's fifth Sermon, and sect. 11. of the chapter on Moral Discipline in the first part of his a.n.a.logy.

P. 32, l. 16. I have adopted this word from our old writers, because our word _act_ is so commonly interchanged with _action_. [Greek: Praxis]

(action) properly denotes the whole process from the conception to the performance. [Greek: Pragma] (fact) only the result. The latter may be right when the former is wrong if, for example, a murderer was killed by his accomplices. Again, the [Greek: praxis] may be _good_ though the [Greek: pragma] be wrong, as if a man under erroneous impressions does what would have been right if his impressions had been true (subject of course to the question how far he is guiltless of his original error), but in this case we could not call the [Greek: praxis] _right_. No repet.i.tion of [Greek: pragmata] goes to form a habit. See Bishop Butler on the Theory of Habits m the chapter on Moral Discipline, quoted above, sect. 11. "And in like manner as habits belonging to the body," etc.

P. 32, l. 32. Being about to give a strict logical definition of Virtue, Aristotle ascertains first what is its genus [Greek: ti estin].

P. 33, l. 15. That is, not for _merely having_ them, because we did not make ourselves.

See Bishop Butler's account of our nature as containing "particular propensions," in sect. iv. of the chapter on Moral discipline, and in the Preface to the Sermons. P. 34, l. 14. This refers to the division of quant.i.ty ([Greek: poson]) in the Categories. Those Quant.i.ties are called by Aristotle Continuous whose parts have position relatively to one another, as a line, surface, or solid, those discrete, whose parts have no such relation, as numbers themselves, or any string of words grammatically unconnected.

P. 34, l. 27. Numbers are in arithmetical proportion (more usually called progression), when they increase or decrease by a common difference thus, 2, 6, 10 are so, because 2 + 4 = 6, 6 + 4= 10, or _vice versa_, 10 - 4 = 6, 6 - 4 = 2.

P. 36, l. 3. The two are necessary, because since the reason itself may be perverted, a man must have recourse to an external standard; we may suppose his [Greek: logos] originally to have been a sufficient guide, but when he has injured his moral perceptions in any degree, he must go out of himself for direction.