A Closer look.

"Mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good."
-Aristotle

It's started.

I was told, before coming to Shimer, that it would take everything I've ever believed in and turn it upside down. I'm telling you now that I never knew what upside down felt like until a week ago when the semester started. I thought I did.

In Soc, we are reading Aristotle's Politics and Plato's Republic. Both books ask similar questions. Some of the biggest being, "What is human nature? Are humans inherently good?", "What is good and bad?", and, "What does it mean to live a just life?"

Thinking about how these questions apply to me makes me feel ridiculously venerable. I'm not one who usually feels uncomfortable sharing my thoughts with others, but for some reason this time, I can hardly admit them to myself. And it's not like I've never thought about these questions before, you know? Maybe it's because the experience of getting older has opened my eyes to the importance of knowing the answers to these questions but I am certainly looking at them in a new light. For example:

If human nature is "every man doing what he is supposed do [in life]," what is my nature? Who am I supposed to be?

If part of a person's nature is to be a leader or a slave, by nature, what am I? Aristotle says, "... He who can foresee with his mind with his mind is by nature intended to be lord and master, and he who can work with his body is a subject, and by nature, a slave..." What if I don't fit in either of those categories?

I don't think that these two are speaking the ultimate truth, but playing fill in the blanks never hurts. It's nice to see things from a different perspective sometimes. I think these questions are pretty universal though, in a sense.

What do you think?

In closing, here's some things I've found to be interesting lately:

"Let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn with passion."
1 Corinthians 7:9:

"At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet."
Plato

"I shall assume that your silence gives consent."
Plato

"Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion."
Pythagorus