Monthly Archives: March 2024

Family

March 28, 2024 – 5:32 am

In the Nicomachean Ethics, this third of eight readings on friendship (φιλία) is the first of three on the connection with the just (τὸ δίκαιον). A lot of the reading might be summarized in a table:

Polity | Analogue | Perversion | Analogues
kingdom | fatherhood | tyranny |
|		 Persian fatherhood
slave-owning
aristocracy | marriage | oligarchy |
|		 man does all
woman rules
timocracy | brotherhood | democracy |
|		 no master
weak master

We are reading chapters ix–xi of Book VIII. The table is based on chapter x and is elaborated on in chapter xi. Chapter ix introduces the idea that friendship and justice go together in communities, and all communities are formed within political communities, or polities, which they somehow reflect.

Animals around an overflowing dumpster
Animal friends in the neighborhood
Cat, hen, and rooster, all attracted to a trash bin by the road
Tarabya, Sunday, March 24, 2024

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By David Pierce | Posted in Aristotle, Sex and Gender | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Sourdough Einkorn Bread

March 20, 2024 – 6:49 pm

This is about the bread that I baked on Sunday, March 17, 2024. It’s in the photo below. You can see that the rising was a bit uneven; otherwise, I don’t know how the bread can be any better than I am able to make it now. That is why I am writing things up.

Two baked loaves, sitting on top of their pans
Two loaves, just out of the oven. Ingredients: whole einkorn flour, sourdough starter, water, rolled oats, and salt. Pans greased with coconut oil

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By David Pierce | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments (2)

Equality

March 19, 2024 – 4:53 pm

Amity is equality, as Rackham translates it:

ΦΙΛΟΤΗΣ ΙΣΟΤΗΣ.

That’s what they say, anyway (§ v.5). Aristotle only refines it (§ viii.5):

ἡ δ᾽ ἰσότης καὶ ὁμοιότης φιλότης.
equality and similarity is amity.

Of eight readings on amity, or friendship, or love, or philia, we are in our second, comprising chapters v–viii of Book VIII of the Nicomachean Ethics.

Sun through mist above, reflection in water below, boats in between
Tarabya Marina
Sunday, March 10, 2024

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By David Pierce | Posted in Aristotle, Maugham, Midgley | Tagged , | Comments (6)

Affiliation

March 12, 2024 – 1:44 pm

Friendship is natural to most animals, especially human beings, and that’s why we praise the philanthropist. You will see, if you travel, that all of us are family and even friends.

Something like that is what Aristotle says, in this first of eight readings on friendship. I have trouble imagining where the Philosopher is going to go with his subject; or perhaps I am troubled to imagine what may be in store.

Blurry white disk in a gray sky above black, bird-shaped dots in the highest branches of the foremost of a line of bare trees; several human silouettes below
Crows in a tree
in the morning mist by the Bosphorus
Kireçburnu, Sarıyer, İstanbul
Sunday, March 10, 2024

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By David Pierce | Posted in Aristotle, Maugham | Tagged , , , , | Comments (5)

Sweetness

March 3, 2024 – 12:22 pm

Our subject is pleasure as such. The Greek word is ἡδονή, which is both

  • the source of hedonism and
  • the cousin of sweetness.

The shared Indo-European root of the adjectives ἡδύς and sweet is *su̯ād-, and its existence is a symbol for a lot of what Aristotle has to say, here in the final chapters, xi–xiv, of Book VII of the Nicomachean Ethics.

Birds over a marina, above them clouds lit by a rising sun
Somebody was feeding the gulls
Thursday morning, February 1, 2024
Tarabya

Things taste good because they are good. At least sweet things can be good, if used properly; but this qualification causes a lot of difficulty.

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By David Pierce | Posted in Aristotle, Pirsig | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)