Wisdom and Pleasure: Overview of Ethical Thought in Lucretius and Aristotle Essay Sample
Philosophic minds in antiquity seem to follow a general tendency in favor of self-discipline and coolness as opposed to excess. and arguably Aristotle and Lucretius. despite their many differences. do non detach themselves from this current of idea ; pulling on this. it is possible to sketch briefly what important elements their several moralss have in common. Although De Rerum Natura appears to be a didactic verse form covering chiefly with the Epicurean atomistic theory and other proto-scientific probes of world. Lucretius clearly and repeatedly calls our attending to the ethical character of this work ; in fact its ultimate purpose is to supply the readers with an illuminating and emancipating doctrine of life. a tool of emancipation from ignorance. able to chase away the irrational frights of Gods and decease that oppress work forces and impede us from achieving the summum bonum. i. e. earthly felicity. While Lucretius refers to pleasure as “dux vitae. Defense Intelligence Agency voluptas” ( “divine pleasance. the usher of life” DRN 2. 172 ) and undoubtedly topographic points pleasance at the Centre of the Epicurean ideal of a blest life. it is mistaken to construe this as an encouragement of unrestrained hedonism that breaks with the aforesaid tradition.
True. Lucretius’s construct of voluptas shows a important consistence with it: harmonizing to Epicurean instructions. wise work forces make non subject blindly to any animalistic urge but apply their vera ratio ( ground. mind ) to take merely those pleasances that do non upset their interior balance – as the author’s onslaught against mindless animal passions and the foolishness of aspirations to power and wealth demonstrate. Further developing a differentiation that Aristotle had made in his Nicomachean Ethics. he calls these pleasances ‘katastematic’ ( ensuing in a settled province of tranquility ) ; by carry throughing our natural demands they grant us a “vita placida et pacata” . a peaceable and untroubled being. grounded in ataraxia ( “leave your bosom unpossessed and free from care” DRN 2. 46 ) and aponia. i. e. deficiency of hurting. Thus it is by agencies of wisdom entirely that felicity can be achieved. and this is exactly why Lucretius’s account of natural philosophies goes to great lengths. since by constructing on a deep cognition of the universe we can reconstruct equilibrium and repose to organic structure and head.
Furthermore. it is of import to observe Lucretius’s focal point on a mercenary and material position of the universe and on the possibility to achieve the ultimate end of life in this universe instead than in the hereafter ( unlike Christian minds or Plato ) thanks to our mind and the simple things that nature supplies – “few things wholly are necessary for the bodily nature” ( DRN 2. 20-21 ) . Whereas Plato can be described as ‘the philosopher of the transcendental’ . Aristotle shifts his focal point to worldly things and values. As defined in the books I and X of the Nicomachean Ethics. felicity in a nutshell is within our range on this Earth. it is strongly associated with wisdom. cognition and contemplation and it is accompanied by pleasance ( “philosophic wisdom [ … ] offer [ s ] pleasures fantastic for their pureness and steadiness” X. 7. 1177a-25 ) ; hence it is non excessively dissimilar from Lucretius’s vision.
Aristotle famously argued that “all human existences by nature desire knowledge” ( Metaphysics I. 980a21 ) . thereby what differentiates us from animate beings is both our ability to move on the footing of apprehension and our inclination to see pleasance in rational activities. We can take katharsis as an challenging case of cognitive pleasance. In the Poetics he states that calamity “effect [ s ] through commiseration and fear the purification ( catharsis ) of such emotions” ( 1449b-24 ) ; play may be regarded as a sort of “ethical” genre since it provides us with a deeper penetration on human affairs. accordingly leting katharsis to run on two degrees. viz. alleviating us from intense negative emotions and reconstructing us to our natural balance. As Halliwell claims ( 1989. 255-56 ) . our response to calamity is a complex 1. that integrates emotion. knowledge and pleasance – owing to Aristotle’s impression that recovering our healthy. balanced province is in itself enjoyable ( Heath 1996. forty ) . In decision. it is so sensible to place voluptas. natural harmoniousness and enlightened ground as the nucleus of both thinkers’ moralss ; moreover it follows that their rejection of dissipation on one manus and distant suppression of the senses on the other can be justly considered “classical” in its reasonable moderateness.
Bibliography
* Aristotle ( 1996 ) . Poetics. trans. with presentation. by Malcom Heath ( London: Penguin Books ) . * Aristotle ( 2010 ) . Nicomachean Ethics. erectile dysfunction. Silvia Masaracchio [ e-book ]
