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godreamThis little scene spawned in my cluttered mind while I was trying to write that paper on whether or not I agree with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics earlier tonight.
It is late afternoon, circa 350 BC (yes, I'm too lazy to find a real date) and Aristotle is sitting in his tablinium -- no, wait, that's Roman. Okay, whatever the Greek equivalent of study or office is. He's there. He's got pages of notes arrayed around him and he's finishing up the final arguments of the Ethics, but he's got writer's block.
Aristotle: Hm. I've been talking about human interaction and things like wit and friendliness and mildness as the virtues that will help people live the Best Life. But I want a twist ending.
Close up on paper: "Hence complete happiness will be its activity in accord with the proper virtue; and we have said that this activity is _______________."1 Aristotle has begun doodling obscene pictures in the margins when there is a tentative knock at the door.
Random Slave: I've brought your wine, master...
He hands Aristotle a glass.
Aristotle: Good. Hey, wait! Give me a verb ending in -ing!
Random Slave: (with long-suffering look at his master, surrounded in books) Um, studying?
Aristotle: Excellent!
Aristotle fills in the blank and starts writing again, justifying this new and completely random addition to the work.
And there you have it. Why Book X of the EN doesn't fit with the rest of the book, and the origin of Mad Libs. Ta-da! I'll just bless whatever turn of history saved me from trying to justify or argue against a classic work of history that turns its 360 degress from social interaction to, say, gardening. Or square dancing. (As we have said, the life in accordance with virtue must be complete; and we have said that the craft of square dancing embodies coordinated action between people as well as athletic activity. Hence complete happiness can be achieved only through the best type of square dancing, in accord with the virtue concerned with square dancing, which is the mean between waltzing and polka...)
I guess I should probably go finish writing that paper now. Just had to get this out somewhere so it doesn't show up in the final draft I have to hand in to my teacher tomorrow -- I can just see the big red question mark in the margin now.
1 -- As ripped straight out of my copy of Nicomachean Ethics. If you're morbidly curious, it's the second edition Terence Irwin translation, (c) 1999, and most assuredly not mine.
It is late afternoon, circa 350 BC (yes, I'm too lazy to find a real date) and Aristotle is sitting in his tablinium -- no, wait, that's Roman. Okay, whatever the Greek equivalent of study or office is. He's there. He's got pages of notes arrayed around him and he's finishing up the final arguments of the Ethics, but he's got writer's block.
Aristotle: Hm. I've been talking about human interaction and things like wit and friendliness and mildness as the virtues that will help people live the Best Life. But I want a twist ending.
Close up on paper: "Hence complete happiness will be its activity in accord with the proper virtue; and we have said that this activity is _______________."1 Aristotle has begun doodling obscene pictures in the margins when there is a tentative knock at the door.
Random Slave: I've brought your wine, master...
He hands Aristotle a glass.
Aristotle: Good. Hey, wait! Give me a verb ending in -ing!
Random Slave: (with long-suffering look at his master, surrounded in books) Um, studying?
Aristotle: Excellent!
Aristotle fills in the blank and starts writing again, justifying this new and completely random addition to the work.
And there you have it. Why Book X of the EN doesn't fit with the rest of the book, and the origin of Mad Libs. Ta-da! I'll just bless whatever turn of history saved me from trying to justify or argue against a classic work of history that turns its 360 degress from social interaction to, say, gardening. Or square dancing. (As we have said, the life in accordance with virtue must be complete; and we have said that the craft of square dancing embodies coordinated action between people as well as athletic activity. Hence complete happiness can be achieved only through the best type of square dancing, in accord with the virtue concerned with square dancing, which is the mean between waltzing and polka...)
I guess I should probably go finish writing that paper now. Just had to get this out somewhere so it doesn't show up in the final draft I have to hand in to my teacher tomorrow -- I can just see the big red question mark in the margin now.
1 -- As ripped straight out of my copy of Nicomachean Ethics. If you're morbidly curious, it's the second edition Terence Irwin translation, (c) 1999, and most assuredly not mine.
