Aristotle, Conflicting Lifestyles - 831 Words

Conflicting Lifestyles When comparing the contemplative lifestyle to the moral virtuous lifestyle, one finds the differences to rest on the three types of good: goods of the body, external goods, and goods of the soul. One conflict comes between leading a courageous, brave life and desiring happiness. To explain the aforementioned I feel it necessary to define true courage. It seems true courage revolves around death. Not every kind of death is considered noble, for example death from drowning or death from disease. Aristotle feels the noblest death is death in battle because man is faced with the greatest dangers. To die a noble death, one must be in a situation where he can die at any moment, yet still is fearless (bk 3,†¦show more content†¦By pointing out the different problems with the different lifestyles of the moral virtuous life, I attempt to support Aristotles conclusion that the contemplative life is superior to the moral, virtuous life. The reason is that when one leads a moral virtuous life, one is dependent on either goods of the body, or external goods. When one leads a contemplative life, one only needs goods of the soul. Reason being, that when one lives only to learn and understand things, outside forces are irrelevant. Granted, even when living the contemplative life, one needs a certain degree of bodily good; namely decent health, but one does not need abundance. One needs no external goods in the way of praise or money, because the contemplative life consists of self-assurance and self-reliance. There would be no high-minded men if there were no one there to praise them. There would be no truly courageous men if there were no wars. High-minded men need honor, courageous men need both internal and external goods, yet the purely contemplative man needs little or none of the aforementioned, therefore explaining how the contemplative life transcends issues that the moral, virtuous life cannotShow MoreRelated Roman and Greek Philosophys Influen ce on Todays Western Culture780 Words   |  4 Pagesmeans ?meaning of the universe?. Rome at its beginning was basically agricultural and martial culture. As a result, the earliest Romans stressed effortlessness, strength, and toughness, which are all requirements of both the agricultural and martial lifestyles. As an academic discipline, Western political philosophy has its origins in ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracyRead MoreThe Difference Between Emotion and Reason1517 Words   |  7 PagesEmotion is an internal decision. 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