Which Philosopher Is Right About Being Right? | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post

Which Philosopher Is Right About Being Right?

Aristotle, Nietzsche, and the question of what is right.

242
Which Philosopher Is Right About Being Right?
Pixabay

Something I've had a lot of trouble reconciling are two ideas that, up until recent times, I thought were contradictory. These ideas are Nietzsche's 'time as a flat circle' and Aristotle's 'virtue lies between deficiency and excess.'

To understand the virtue we'll eventually bear witness to, we must understand both of these ideas.

Nietzsche presents the idea that for us to be happy and fulfilled, we must conduct ourselves in a manner that we'd be happy to live in day-to-day, even if days were to be repeated. The point from this is to abstract a constant positive behavior or action, which 'flattens' the time we experience as it is punctuated by our failures and hardships. A consistent aim towards the positive, the virtuous, the good, places a stabilizing consistency within our experience.

In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics the idea that virtue lies between the deficiency of a thing and excess of a thing is presented. Aristotle's definition of virtue includes the notion that it is reason within our judgment that discerns for us whether we should or should not do a thing. Take courage, for example. If you are constantly defending yourself, putting up a fight, and on the look out for a fight, you are being rash. However, if you are constantly hiding yourself away from controversy and letting others take advantage of you, you are being a coward. The dilemma is that rashness and cowardliness can be different decisions to the same environment.

I'll give an example. In class, my friend brought up the story of whether it was courageous or not for a former navy seal to jump into a flowing river with a waterfall at the end of it to save a girl who'd fallen in. It turns out this was a true story, and what had happened was that they both died in the end. You could either agree or disagree, this was courageous or not.

One might say it is courageous to jump in and save her, and one might say it is simply being rash. (Here we delve into Aristotle's notion that to judge correctly, we need to--from time to time--take the extremity that is farthest from a thing--as cowardice is to courage--and go in the opposite direction. From there, we get what most people would discern as the appropriate virtue.)

Jumping into whitewater to save a drowning girl heading towards a waterfall is rash. But of course, it is also courageous. It is a purely rash action that, when perceived through our human eyes and made significant by our imagination's capability to consider the elements of the girl's life, is made courageous.

Rashness is percieved courageously, in that sense.

This brings in exactly how two polar opposites are reconciled and mediated, leading to virtue found between them. Of course, there is reason to believe it is too risky to jump in and save the girl, but there is also reason to believe the payoff is worth it and one should do it. Because we have correct reasoning for both courses of action, but they both are opposite extremes, what I propose is approaching them as neither correct or incorrect but merely as a potential.

For, "cowardliness" and "rashness" have nothing merely incorrect and nothing correct in their nature, but are made good and bad by how they are seen in a specific environment. If there were no girl in the water, jumping in and risking your life for nothing would seem rash.

With the girl in the water, the danger of the situation is not lessened--if anything, it's more intensified!--but we do not solely see rashness anymore. So now rashness has been judged to be correct, not because it itself is correct, but because it was the correct response to a presented situation.

If we are then not to see virtue as lying between two extremes, but simply as the appropriate judgment of when an extreme is necessary, people's common conception of virtue is changed.

Most people take Aristotle to mean that we should attempt to mix our extremes and find a consistent platform for morality. We shouldn't agree with everyone, and we shouldn't disagree with everyone. One might say this, but to act morally, you cannot approach everyone with a neutral approach! You cannot approach Moussilini and think to not agree and not to disagree.

You, likewise, cannot approach Martin Luther King Jr. with the same mentality. You, in some sense, judge the correct times to be in deficiency and excess of agreement. Even though both are extremes, there is nothing wrong or right about extremes until they are actually manifested. The reason is because, arguably, nothing is completely real until it is manifested.

So herein lies how we reconcile Aristotle's notion of us making constant judgments with reason and Nietzsche's assertion of a kind of consistency that brings about happiness and virtue: to constantly strive to make correct judgments aimed at producing the virtue they will yield. We can do this consistently, even if the specific judgments we make will be polar opposites from time to time.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Relationships

10 Facts All People In A Large Family Can Confirm During The Holiday Season

The holiday season can be the best and most stressful time of the year, especially when more people are involved.

167
kids jumping

The holidays are full of lights, sweets, sweaters, and your favorite movies. There's nothing quite like this period from the beginning of December through January. Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. The fun of it all.

I don't know about you but with my large Italian family something is always going on during this season. It can be the most wonderful time of the year while also being the most hectic. These are a few things you know if your family is anything like mine during this time.

Keep Reading...Show less
10 things that happen the second Thanksgiving is over
reference.com

To those who celebrate, you just spent an entire day cooking an elaborate meal with all of your favorite foods. You probably ate your body weight in pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. What happens now? Oh yea, Christmas. It’s time to take out all of the decorations and Christmas themed things that have been sitting in the attic since last year; it’s time to make a reappearance. So, here are 10 things that happen the second Thanksgiving is over.

Keep Reading...Show less
Adulting

18 Things I Want To Do Now That I'm 18

I'm technically an adult, so I'm legally required to live a little, right?

3695
Happy Birthday Cake

For the entirety of my high school career, I was always seen as the goody-two-shoes. I never got in trouble with a teacher, I kept stellar grades, and when I wasn't doing extracurricular activities, I was at home studying. Even when I did go out, it was usually with a bunch of fellow band geeks. The night would end before 11:00 PM and the only controversial activity would be a fight based on who unfairly won a round of Apples-to-Apples when someone else clearly had a better card (I promise I'm not still holding a grudge).

Now that I'm officially an adult, I want to pursue some new things. I want to experience life in a way that I never allowed myself to do prior to entering college. These are the years that I'm supposed to embark on a journey of self-discovery, so what better way to do that than to create a bucket list?

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

10 Life Lessons from Christmas Classics

The holiday classics that shaped my life

2257
10 Life Lessons from Christmas Classics
Flickr

The holiday season is full of stress, debt, and forced conversation. While we rush through the month of December, it's important to take a step back and enjoy the moments before they're gone. Most families love to watch Christmas movies, but these beloved films provide more than entertainment. Here are 10 life lessons that I've learned from the holiday classics we watch every year.

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

15 Mind-Bending Riddles

Hopefully they will make you laugh.

201593
 Ilistrated image of the planet and images of questions
StableDiffusion

I've been super busy lately with school work, studying, etc. Besides the fact that I do nothing but AP chemistry and AP economics, I constantly think of stupid questions that are almost impossible to answer. So, maybe you could answer them for me, and if not then we can both wonder what the answers to these 15 questions could be.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments